New figures released this week show that London gay hate crime figures have soared – and Metropolitan Police are actually calling this a “positive sign”.
Since June 2008, London has seen an overall increase of 13.5% in reported homophobic crimes.
A spokesperson from the Met is reported as having said that the figures showed that reporting has increased.
“We see this as a positive sign. People from this community are increasingly reporting crimes to the police, and although we are aware of and concerned about under-reporting, we are taking a range of measures to encourage people to come forward – working with our partners, making sure that victims feel safe, and promoting arrests and prosecution of perpetrators.”
But it remains difficult to say whether these figures show an increase in reporting, or rather an increase in actual gay hate crimes – there are no figures to show homophobic crimes that were previously not reported to police, so there is no benchmark to show that victims have greater confidence in the police.
…and then there is the risk element of reporting homophobic incidents to the police.
Having reported a homophobic crime myself to police in Cornwall, I had a surely police sergeant come out to take a statement. I had ensured I had a witness present, since I personally do not trust the police at all on gay issues. My witness to the statement taking happened to be strongly involved in a local lesbian women’s group. The officer could barely contain his hostility and the atmosphere was extremely tense.
The police sergeant (from Helston, in Cornwall), POINT BLANK refused to take a statement from an adult male gay witness who had observed the entire incident. The complaint for an attempted extortion crime was dropped by police & they refused to interview the other gay witness.
Pretty much what we have come to expect of Cornwall police attitudes towards crimes committed against gay persons.
BUT, that was not the worst, having identified myself to police, a short time later the same police officer targeted & stopped me, by his own admission (again in front of a witness) because as he stated at the time he recognised me as a gay man who had made a complaint & recognised my vehicle.
Despite a complaint having being made against this officer, the complaint has been completely ignored by both Devon & Cornwall Headquarters & the Diversity Unit. There is NO honesty operating within the Cornwall police force when it comes to misconduct & criminality, failure of duty, etc. etc of their own police officers.
We know there is still a huge problem of homophobic hate crimes & the attitudes & practises within the police to hate crime against gay people. This is made worse by the refusal of police to address the homophobes within their own ranks.
Extreme caution should still be exercised by gay persons reporting a homophobic incident & identifying themselves as gay to the police, whilst senior officers like those in Cornwall continue to protect homophobes within their rank.
As to how police consider an increase in homophobic crimes is an ‘improvement’, no doubt the police also consider the four gay suicides in Cornwall last year as a successful conclusion to mental health problems?
Galop, London’s LGBT community safety charity, has been reported as not been so quick to assess the police figures regarding an increase in homophobic crime incidents as an improvement.
“It’s a very difficult thing to judge,” Deborah Gold, Galop’s chief executive is reported as having said. “It probably does show that more people are reporting, because in our own figures, we don’t have evidence of an enormous increase in homophobic crimes.
“But we have also not seen a decrease – and that, in itself, is a concern.”
“Recently, there have been massive legal changes, and you would expect to see, alongside those, a massive decrease in homophobic crime. But that hasn’t happened.”
PinkPasty:- Given my experience of homophobic attitudes & practises of Cornwall police officers, including some of those within the diversity unit...quite frankly, I’m not surprised that there has not been a decline in homophobic hate crimes in the UK.
Posts
