Graffiti at a Manchester synagogue - 700 anti-Semitic crimes were reportedIn 2009 a total of 52,028 crimes were recorded in which the offence was motivated by prejudice. Victims were targeted because of race, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability or transgender issues. Chief Constable Stephen Otter of police chiefs' body Acpo said: "By publishing this data...we hope to encourage victims and witnesses to come forward."
The vast majority were targeted because of their race - 43,426 (up from 39,300), and the others were classified as sexual orientation - 4,805; religion/faith - 2,083; disability - 1,402 and transgender - 312. An Acpo spokesman said 703 crimes were anti-Semitic.
Mr Otter, Acpo's lead for equality, diversity and human rights, said: "Hate crimes cause a great deal of harm among victims and communities. Publication of the data underlines the commitment of the police service to tackle hate crime, build confidence and encourage victims to come forward so that under-reporting is reduced."
Although data was not collated nationally before 2009, Acpo says it believes there has been a rise in all five types of hate crime.
Professor John Grieve CBE, independent chair of the government's Hate Crime Advisory Group, welcomed the data and said: "It represents a significant step forward in our understanding of the nature and extent of hate crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland."
Prof Grieve, a former deputy assistant commissioner with the Metropolitan Police who set up a racial and violent crime task force at Scotland Yard, said: "The UK is amongst world leaders in the way that it responds to hate crime, but there is still much work to do. One of the greatest challenges is to reduce the under-reporting of hate crime. We welcome the government's commitment to increase reporting and we will be examining this data in the forthcoming months and years to better understand the extent of crime and to challenge where performance does not meet the high standards that the public rightly demands of the criminal justice agencies."
BBC
4 comments:
I've just listened to this excellent programme about Muslim grooming gangs. This is what is needed. Proper debate and self analysis by the Muslim community. This Nihal needs applauded for this. He is doing more to quell people like Griffin than most people by facing up the problem.And of course more importantly to stop this grooming occurring.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00w5c8m/Nihal_25_11_2010
Battle of Barking - More4 10pm tonight.
Here's a 'making of' film here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/video/2010/nov/30/documentary-documentary
Is the elderly guy ranting at Hodge at the very beginning veteran BNP activist Alf Waite? I remember the same guy doing an vicious anti-Semitic rant on camera in the mid-90's in a similar film on the Isle of Dogs.
The director Laura Fairrie seems to have sucked up to the BNP to get access.
BNP battle in Barking is not over, warns film-maker
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent
30.11.10 Evening Standard
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23902380-bnp-battle-in-barking-is-not-over-warns-film-maker.do
A film-maker who documented the BNP's battle for power in Barking and Dagenham today warned it was trounced but not vanquished in May's election.
Speaking before More4 broadcasts her film, The Battle for Barking, tonight, Laura Fairrie said she hoped politicians would learn from it.
Many who had supported BNP leader Nick Griffin's fight to oust sitting Labour MP Margaret Hodge did so because they felt they had not been looked after, particularly on issues such as housing, she said.
And despite Mrs Hodge's “massive victory”, a win echoed in the council chamber where the BNP lost all its 12 seats, the film-maker warned: “The BNP are out leafleting and doorknocking again and there's still that sense of unhappiness. I don't think the problems have gone away.”
Fairrie, 37, from west London, said: “Obviously when you're making a film about the BNP the expectation is that they are evil monsters. But there was a large group of people who just needed somewhere they could belong.”
Thank you LU for posting my earlier comment regarding Radio broadcast of Asian grooming gangs. I agree with a lot of what you do and am pleased that you are promoting debate. To just lambaste Griffin all the time without debate 'I believe' is exactly what he wants..
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