Sometimes bad things happen around the same time and while it's tempting to draw links, they're really just a collection of terrible coincidences.

Maybe what we're seeing in Hamilton right now is just that — terrible, random coincidences.

But you'd be forgiven for thinking there's more to recent events than coincidence. Some dark clouds are gathering over Hamilton. A storm is brewing.

A 14-year-old boy, Devan Bracci-Selvey, stabbed to death outside Sir Winston Churchill high school in broad daylight — worse yet, witnessed by his mother. A tragic story is unfolding and it's one we see too often. Bullied in life, now loved and honoured by strangers in death, when it's too late.

Anti-Semitic messages scrawled in chalk on the walkways outside of Beth Jacob Synagogue. An elderly woman pushing a walker blocked from crossing a laneway by angry, masked protesters yelling "Nazi scum" at her as fights broke out. A man attacked while holding a sign reading "Hamilton celebrates inclusion."

Sporadic clashes outside city hall between warring groups of protesters. A Pride march in June at Gage Park that turned violent when anti-gay religious demonstrators scuffled with LGBTQ-supporting counterprotesters, leaving the LGBTQ community distrustful of Hamilton police.

Two people harassed by a knife-wielding group of youths on a sidewalk outside Lime Ridge Mall. A man stabbed at a west end coffee house, one of his assailants brandishing a gun.

People, rightfully, are disturbed and discouraged by what they're seeing.

What's going on here? Where is all this hate and anger coming from?

"I'm very worried about the state of the city," said Kojo Damptey, interim head of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI).

"It's not a rough patch," Damptey said. "This is the beginning of things to come.

"I think it's a sign of something that's going to be more entrenched."

Damptey himself has been the target of hate recently. A week ago, he received threatening emails that also referred to his native Ghana as a "sh--hole overpopulated nation."

Given that HCCI's mission is to create a welcoming and inclusive city, clearly there's still a big chasm to be bridged when the head of the organization is being targeted with hateful messages.

"We need more ways to bring people together, to talk, to understand what's going on and to have different perspectives," he said.

For Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who attended Sir Winston Churchill, the death of Bracci-Selvey hit "close to home."

"It's incomprehensible," said Eisenberger. "Where is that level of anxiety, anxiousness, hatred, that willingness to harm someone coming from?

"There is a palpable sense worldwide of anger, populism, dissatisfaction in many quarters around opportunities, employment, precarious income, housing conditions," the mayor added.

"I think all of that leads to a significant amount of anxiety."

Rabbi Hillel Lavery-Yisraeli of Beth Jacob Synagogue agrees that Hamilton can't be seen in isolation.

"There's a spirit of hatred and a spirit of allowing it and looking the other way that's happening in Hamilton and around the world," Lavery-Yisraeli told The Spectator after finding anti-Semitic graffiti outside the synagogue last weekend.

The most obvious explanation for the hateful climate we're seeing is the link between anonymity and the internet. Anyone with a connection and a keyboard can spew hatred anonymously, instantly, and, for the most part, without fear of reprisals.

There's also the social media ecosystem which allows like-minded people to find each other and reinforce their views.

A more complex explanation, and one that's harder to prove, is the city's growing inequality. Based on the last census, there are three inner-city Hamilton neighbourhoods with poverty rates greater than 40 per cent and five suburban neighbourhoods with poverty rates less than two per cent.

"When we talk about making cities better, there's no discussion about bringing communities together to discuss differences and similarities and connections," said Damptey. "It's more about economic development, it's more about shiny new buildings, bringing in new money.

"All of these things exacerbate gaps between communities," he said. "What are we doing to mitigate those changes?"

And yet, there's hope.

In the days after the anti-Semitic messages appeared at Beth Jacob, members of the nearby Mother Goose Co-operative Preschool and Lyonsgate Montessori School showed up and decorated the sidewalks around the synagogue with messages of love, rainbows and peace.

"We appreciate all the messages of support we're getting," Lavery-Yisraeli told The Spectator, "but even one hater is too many haters.

"I know the city is so full of good people and such love, but we still have a long way to go."

sbuist@thespec.com

905-526-3226

sbuist@thespec.com

905-526-3226