What happened: On 12.02.2020, around 9:00 p.m., on a public transport bus, line no. 5, an unidentified individual, angered by the noise on the bus confronted the Roma children who were singing and talking loudly. Some of the children stopped immediately, but the perpetrator continued insulting and humiliating them on an ethnic basis and colour of skin with the words: “You are disgrace for the country, there’s no escaping you.” After this, he physically assaulted the child dressed in a red jacket who had been singing previously, striking him in the eye and several times on the head. Apart from physically assaulting the child, the perpetrator endangered his safety, his life and bodily integrity by threatening to take him to an unknown place. Additionally, the perpetrator forced the children to clean the garbage from the bus, and when the bus was drawing near the bus stop “T.C. Biser”, he grabbed the child he had been abusing, told him to get off the bus and then pulled him out by force. He dragged the child on the concrete road, hitting his head from the ATM on the bus stop in the process. At that moment, several unidentified boys run toward the perpetrator, after which he escaped the scene.
Brief description of the incident with bias indicators: In this incident the bias motive is ethnic origin, with the bias indicators being:
- Ethnic origin – the victim and the attacker belonged to a different ethnic community;
- Pattern of previous incidents – previous incidents have occurred on public transportation;
- Hate speech – the perpetrator humiliated the victims on the basis of ethnicity and colour of skin with the words: “you are disgrace for the country, there’s no escaping you.”
Impact on the victims and the community: These types of incidents call into question the general safety in the country.
