https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/crime-info/types-crime/hate-crime
Hate crime
Hate crime is the term used by criminal justice agencies like the police or the Crown Prosecution Service to describe an incident or crime against someone based on a part of their identity.
There are five categories of ‘identity’ when a person is targeted because of a hostility or prejudice towards their:
- disability
- race or ethnicity
- religion or belief (which includes non-belief)
- sexual orientation
- gender identity.
Hate crime can be any criminal or non-criminal act such as graffiti, vandalism to a property, name calling, assault or online abuse using social media.
Experiencing hate crime can be a particularly frightening experience as you have been targeted because of who you are, or who or what your attacker thinks you are. Unlike non-identity related offences, the attack is very personal and specifically targeted, which means it’s less likely to be a random attack.
Hate incidents can feel like crimes to people who suffer them and often escalate to crimes or tension in a community. You can report such incidents, but the police can only prosecute when the law is broken. However, the police can work with other organisations to prevent the situation escalating.
If a hate crime case goes to court and an offender is found guilty, their sentence could be increased by up to 50% to punish them specifically in relation to the hatred element.
The Guardian
The Sun's Kelvin MacKenzie is trying to smear Muslims, says C4 News presenter
Former editor’s criticism of Fatima Manji, who wore a hijab while reporting on the Nice truck attack, has now prompted 1,400 complaints
Tuesday 19 July 2016 16.09 BST Last modified on Tuesday 19 July 2016 22.00 BST
The Channel 4 News presenter who was criticised by Kelvin MacKenzie for wearing a hijab while reporting on the Nice truck attack has hit back at the former Sun editor for attempting to “intimidate Muslims out of public life”.
Fatima Manji said MacKenzie, whose column has now prompted 1,400 complaints to the press regulator, had attempted to smear 1.6 billion Muslims in suggesting they are inherently violent.
“He has attempted to smear half of them further by suggesting they are helpless slaves,” she said. “And he has attempted to smear me by suggesting I would sympathise with a terrorist.”
Manji was writing in the Liverpool Echo on Tuesday a day after MacKenzie’s column appeared in the Sun, headlined: “Why did C4 have a presenter in a hijab to front coverage of Muslim terror attack?”
MacKenzie said he could hardly believe his eyes when Manji appeared onscreen during the Channel 4 News programme on Friday. “Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim?” he wrote.
The Sun column had provoked 1,400 complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) by the end of Tuesday. The complaints related predominantly to the accuracy of the article, discrimination and harassment.
Manji’s response was headlined “The Truth – why Kelvin MacKenzie’s smears won’t stop me from doing my job”, a reference to the Sun front page about the Hillsborough tragedy which prompted a boycott of the paper in Liverpool.
The Channel 4 News presenter wrote: “It would be easy to dismiss Kelvin MacKenzie as an embarrassing, and serially embarrassed, relic of a bygone era in British journalism.
“But it’s dangerous to regard Mr MacKenzie and those who echo his Islamophobic sentiments as mere pantomime villains.
“Their soapbox allows them to spread their ill-informed, irresponsible and malevolent invective to millions of readers. Racist and Islamophobic rhetoric has real consequences – lives have been lost and shattered in our own country.
“Mr MacKenzie’s article was but one wild screed in a long-running and widespread campaign to intimidate Muslims out of public life.
“Young men and women of all backgrounds regularly ask me for advice on how to forge a career in journalism. Mr MacKenzie’s monologue will frighten many of them into believing that they will be on the end of tabloid attacks merely for daring to do their jobs.”
Manji quoted several lines of MacKenzie’s column, including: “Was it done to stick one in the eye of the ordinary viewer who looks at the hijab as a sign of the slavery of Muslim women by a male-dominated and clearly violent religion?”
She responded: “Kelvin MacKenzie has attempted to smear 1.6 billion Muslims in suggesting they are inherently violent.
“He has attempted to smear half of them further by suggesting they are helpless slaves. And he has attempted to smear me by suggesting I would sympathise with a terrorist.
“In response to this, I have received kind messages from friends, colleagues, acquaintances and even those I have never met, expressing solidarity and anger at his words.
“I will not be deterred in this mission by the efforts of those who find the presence of Muslims in British cultural life offensive.”
She added: “THE TRUTH? I confess. I pi**ed [sic] on Kelvin MacKenzie’s apparent ambitions to force anyone who looks a little different off our screens, and I’ll keep doing it.”
It was Channel 4 News who first approached the Liverpool paper, part of the Trinity Mirror group, with the idea of printing a first person column by Manji.
Susan Lee, the Liverpool Echo’s print editor, said: “We were thrilled that she chose the Liverpool Echo. She obviously realises that we are a very straight newspaper with no side apart from being on the side of the Hillsborough families.”
Channel 4 News said MacKenzie’s comments were “offensive” and “completely unacceptable” while the National Union of Journalists was critical of the Sun and its former editor.
“To suggest that a journalist is incapable of reporting on a terrorist outrage because of the colour of her skin, her religion or the clothes that she wears says all you need to know about the contemptible views of Kelvin MacKenzie,” said the NUJ’s general secretary Michelle Stanistreet.
The Sun has so far declined to comment.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/11/police-blame-worst-rise-in-recorded-hate-on-eu-referendum
The Guardian
Police blame worst rise in recorded hate crime on EU referendum
Reported incidents increased by 42% in the week before and week after the UK’s vote to leave the EU on 23 June
Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent
Monday 11 July 2016 07.00 BST
Police believe the spike in hate crime following the EU referendum was the worst on record.Mark Hamilton, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), said: “I believe the referendum debate has led to an increase in reporting of hate crime. It is very clear in the last couple of weeks that more people have been aware of experiencing such incidents than we have had before.”
Reports to police increased by 42%, to more than 3,000 allegations of hate crime across Britain in the week before and the week after the 23 June vote. “It’s probably the worst spike,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton, who is also assistant chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said an increased likelihood of reporting incidents, as well as an increase in incidents, accounted for the spike.
He said there was a direct link to the vote. “Some people took that as a licence to behave in a racist or other discriminatory way. We can not divorce the country’s reaction to the referendum and the increase in hate crime reporting.”
Offences were mainly harassment and threats of a racist nature, said Hamilton, directed against “visible minorities” as well as people from eastern Europea. He said the number of reports had fallen in recent days and was returning to what police were used to.
There were geographical variations in the spike. Increases were seen in the Metropolitan police area, covering London, home to the largest population of ethnic minorities. Avon and Somerset police, covering Bristol and the west country, and Greater Manchester police recorded higher numbers of reported hate crime, while in one force area the rate dropped marginally.
Police figures released on Friday showed a large rise in reported incidents, averaging more than 200 a day. Police said 3,076 hate crimes and incidents were reported to forces across the UK between 16 and 30 June; one week before and one week after the vote on 23 June.
The 42% rise in incidents being reported to police amounted to an increase of 915 reports compared with the same time last year. The real figures could be higher, with past studies suggesting just one in four hate crimes are reported to police. A total of 289 offences were recorded on 25 June, the first full day after the referendum result was announced.
Historically, police have struggled to convince communities affected by hate crime that they should take such offences seriously. Surveys show the vast majority of hate crime – 85% – is race related.
Police believe just one in four incidents are reported to them. Thus 52,000 hate crimes were recorded by police last year but a national crime survey suggested 225,000 was the real figure.
Hamilton said something about the referendum had triggered the incidents.“I do not believe it suddenly emerged. Some people felt it gave licence to vent views or behaviour,” he said.
“The action of someone who carries out a hate crime is motivated by a desire to intimidate or frighten others. It is trying to exclude the other and having a supremacist view.”
Police have seen spikes in hate crimes following events such as Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which saw a rise in targeting of Jewish people in Britain, and the terrorist murder of Lee Rigby, which led to a rise in Islamophobic attacks.
The government says it is planning further measures to tackle hate crimes.
On 6 July 2016 Reuters covered this story:
THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION NEWS
Archbishop of Canterbury to open home to Syrian refugee family next month
by Joel Silverstein | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:15 GMT
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby pledged last September to take in refugees from Syria following a similar move by the Pope
By Joel Silverstein
LONDON, July 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Church of England's spiritual leader will house a family of Syrian refugees in a cottage at his official London residence, Lambeth Palace, from next month, a local councillor said on Wednesday.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior cleric in the world's 85 million-strong Anglican communion, pledged last September to personally take in refugees from Syria, with the gesture following a similar move by the Pope.
More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria's five-year war, with half of the population forced from their homes leaving 6.6 million displaced inside the country and another 4.8 million fleeing, many seeking refuge in Europe.
Lambeth Council's deputy leader Paul McGlone said the family is due to arrive at Lambeth Palace on the banks of the River Thames next month.
"We have ... worked with the Home Office and Lambeth Palace to support the Archbishop's undertaking to house a family within the grounds of Lambeth Palace," the Lambeth Council press office quoted McGlone as telling fellow councillors.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace declined to confirm details of the family's move but said they were "working with Lambeth Council and the Home Office towards a family moving in soon".
The welcoming of a refugee family onto the Archbishop's estate comes 11 months after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to offer asylum to 20,000 Syrians, a figure openly criticised by Welby.
In an interview for a parliamentary magazine, the House, Welby said the pledge to grant asylum to 20,000 refugees seemed "very slim" when contrasted with Germany's pledge to welcome over a million people fleeing the war.
A spokeswoman for the Refugee Council said the way the government has designed the Syrian resettlement programme meant that refugees will arrive steadily, in small numbers, over about five years.
"It's fantastic that the Archbishop of Canterbury, along with many communities up and down the country, has been so eager to help offer shelter to refugees," said the Refugee Council's advocacy manager Anna Musgrave.
"Of course refugee resettlement doesn't happen overnight ... (it) is a carefully coordinated, planned process that involves lots of different people working closely together to ensure that refugees are looked after appropriately when they arrive."
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith @BeeGoldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Today on the 19th July 2016 The Daily Mail digs the story up again as part of a media management government exercise to present the new Home Secretary in a positive light.
The Guardian
Facebook under fire for 'censoring' Kashmir-related posts and accounts
Photos, videos and accounts deleted after killing of militant by Indian army
‘Why is it that only Muslims get blocked?’ asks user after account blocked
Tuesday 19 July 2016 17.21 BST Last modified on Wednesday 20 July 2016 00.30 BST
Facebook has censored dozens of posts and user accounts after the death of a high-profile Kashmiri separatist militant, who was killed by the Indian army earlier this month.
Academics, journalists and the pages of local newspapers are among those who have had photos, videos and entire accounts deleted by Facebook after they posted about recent events in the disputed territory.
Burhan Wani, a senior member of the Hizbul Mujahideen rebel group was killed by the Indian army on 8 July. About 30 people died in the violent protests that spread across Kashmir in the aftermath of the killing, and an indefinite curfew has been introduced by the Indian government. Wani was considered a terrorist by the Indian authorities, but a freedom fighter by many Kashmiris and Pakistanis.
Mobile phone coverage, landlines and internet services were curbed throughout the region, except in its main city of Srinagar, and police raided newspaper offices, seizing thousands of printed copies.
Authorities lifted a three-day publication ban on newspapers on Tuesday, but editors refuse to resume printing until the government apologised.
Kashmiris say that the information blackout has been exacerbated by censorship on Facebook.
“There are no papers and we only get two TV news channels,” said Zargar Yasir, a Kashmiri blogger and PhD student who said his account was blocked for more than a week, with some posts removed, after he linked to a self-authored blogpost about Wani.
“When there’s no news, usually we turn to social media for information. That way at least we can talk to each other, we can ask our families and friends how they are, if they are OK. But Facebook has taken my account down, so how do I do that now?” said Yasir.
To get round the government’s news ban, reporters have been updating the news websites and posting on social media to keep people informed.
Mubashir Bukhari, a journalist writing for a paper called Kashmir Monitor said: “When I came into work yesterday, I saw that Facebook had removed a video we had posted. The video showed Syed Ali Shah Ghelani, a separatist leader, condemning the death of Burhan Wani. We have never had anything else removed from our Facebook page.”
Without credible information or access to communication channels there is an atmosphere of uncertainty in the Muslim-majority region. “There are so many rumours flying around, people saying ‘Did you hear about this man who died?’ when the man is still alive. Or did you hear about that shooting here? When actually it happened somewhere else,” said Yasir.
Social media companies such as Facebook are under increasing pressure to limit the spread of extremist propaganda – but have also faced criticism that they have gone too far.
Rizwan Sajid, whose account was blocked after he changed his profile picture to an image of Burhan Wani, said Facebook’s actions amounted to Islamophobia. “Why is it that only Muslims get blocked? Facebook is being one-sided by supporting the atrocities committed by the Indian army. Other people can say whatever they want, but if Muslims say something, we get blocked. It is not neutral.”
Huma Dar, a Kashmiri academic in California, found that her profile had been deleted without warning after she posted images of Wani’s funeral last Sunday. “The day that Burhan was killed, I got messages from friends in India saying some of their photos had been deleted. I thought it had something to do with the Indian government. I live a mile and a half away from Facebook’s headquarters in America; I never thought it would happen to me.”
Dar, an academic at UC Berkley and California State who teaches a class about cinema and terrorism, said: “Naturally I post about these things, and I use Facebook as a place to discuss ideas.”
When Dar wrote to Facebook about her account being deleted, she got a response saying that her posts had “violated community standards. The email did not mention which post specifically had led to the deletion of her account but said, “One of our main priorities is the comfort and safety of the people who use Facebook, and we don’t allow credible threats to harm others, support for violent organizations or exceedingly graphic content on Facebook.”
“I am very careful about what I post,” says Dar, who often writes about various issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement or the war in Gaza. “The biggest irony is that I get death threats, I get people saying they’ll come and rape me and my mother. None of those people, even when I complain to Facebook, have ever been censored.”
Dar says she’s outraged by Facebook’s decision. “I use it a lot, I post articles and papers for my students, and I run working groups for my research. Now my students and the people who use those resources can’t access any of that. I have poems that I wrote and I have long messages from friends who have now died – those correspondences are gone forever and they were very precious to me.”
Dibyesh Anand, an academic at the University of Westminster, had his posts removed, and was blocked from using Facebook for 24 hours twice after he posted about Wani’s death. “I’ve had two apology messages from Facebook, saying that the posts were taken down accidentally.”
“This definitely amounts to censorship because it makes people think twice before they post something.”
In a statement, Facebook said: “There is no place on Facebook for content that praises or supports terrorists, terrorists organisations or terrorism. We welcome discussion on these subjects but any terrorist content has to be clearly put in context which condemns these organisations and or their violent activities. Therefore, profiles and content supporting or praising Hizbul Mujahideen and Burhan Wani are removed as soon as they are reported to us. In this instance, some content was removed in error, but this has now been restored.”
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