London homophobic crime up 13.5%
July 16th, 2009
More than a thousand homophobic hate crimes were reported to the police in London in 2008 - 2009, an increase of 13.5% from the previous year.
From June 2008 to June 2009 1,123 homophobic incidents were reported to the Metropolitan Police Authority, compared to 989 registered incidents in June 2007 - 2008.
Reports of all types of hate crime increased in the same time period in London, with racist hate crime increasing by 6.5% from 9,053 to 9,645.
Domestic violence reports increased by 4.1% from 51,408 to 53,531.
“These figures show that hate crimes are not something that you can just ignore,” said David Allison, spokesperson for gay rights group OutRage!. “It suggests there is something wrong with society that people can’t tolerate each other.
“However, one has to bear in mind that a proportion of the increase is down to a greater willingness of gay people to report these crimes.
“Previously, because they did not trust the police to investigate them, they thought there was no point.”
It’s good gay people feel that they can report crimes with the belief they will be investigated now :)
Lesbian in Glasgow ∼ July 19th, 2009 9:05 am