Wicked games, bullying, anti social behaviour sounds so much nicer than hate crime. If the victims were black or gay we would recognise it for what it is racism and homophobia. If caught the perpetrators could expect to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The thugs who laughed whilst filming the assault ,stamping on their victims face so hard as to leave a print of their trainers could expect to go to prison. We would not expect Police Officers to tell those reporting the assault that such abuse is just a fact of life, we would not expect Housing Officers to move the victim rather than the assailants and in court we would not expect the victims own testimony to be ignored. That is unless they had a learning disability.
Disability hate crime is frequently dismissed as bullying or anti social behaviour and when it does go to court it is three times more likely to fail. Why?