Religious Hate Crime and Britain First

I am pleased to say my MP obtained information on Religious  Hate Crime here is my reply also go to the bottom of this Blog and see a report from Britain First. Once again you do not need to support or like this group but the way they are being treated is like living in a Police State and we will have to wait for the trial to see what constitutes a Religious Hate Crime? Maybe our Police could spend as much time dealing with Religious Hate Crimes from Muslims as they do hounding this organisation. Why were members of the Terrorists group Hamas not arrested when they marched through London?

Thank you for the report. What disturbs me is that the report is based on Islamic hate crimes "religious hate crime recorded as a whole as opposed to Islamophobic hate crime specifically for which statistics are not provided. Home Office Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2016/17 statistical bulletin (p.7)" why are not all religious hate crimes not registered per religion?The question I asked  "can you tell me how many Islamic followers have been prosecuted  under the same Law" was not answered in this report what is the establishment trying to hide?

Martin


 

You asked how many how many hate crimes were reported in 2016/17 and how many were prosecuted.

Hate crime is defined as ‘any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.’ This common definition was agreed in 2007 by the police, Crown Prosecution Service, Prison Service (now the National Offender Management Service) and other agencies that make up the criminal justice system. (See Page 2 of the Home Office Hate Crime , England and Wales 2016/17 statistical bulletin)

The figure of 5,949 that you quoted for England and Wales in 2016/17 relates to religious hate crime recorded as a whole as opposed to Islamophobic hate crime specifically for which statistics are not provided. Home Office Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2016/17 statistical bulletin (p.7)

The Metropolitan police does have a database of monthly hate crimes recorded of an Islamophobic nature from October 2015. You can also search the number of Islamophobic hate crimes reported by London borough. Between April 2016 to March 2017 there were 1,266 Islamophobic hate crimes.

The Press Association following an Freedom of Information (FOI) request to 45 Police Forces in the UK of which 42 responded concerning the number of Islamophobic hate crimes directed at mosques discovered that:

·        Hate crimes targeting mosques and other Muslim places of worship across the UK more than doubled between 2016 and 2017.

·        110 hate crimes directed at mosques between March and July this year, up from just 47 over the same period in 2016

·        25 forces saw a year-on-year increase in hate crimes directed at mosques, with the biggest rise reported by Greater Manchester Police (9 crimes, up from 0) and London’s Metropolitan Police (17 crimes, up from 8).

·        Threats, harassment or other intimidating behaviour more than tripled, from 14 crimes in 2016 to 49 in 2017.

·        Violent crime against individuals more than doubled from 5 recorded crimes against worshippers at mosques in 2016 to 11 crimes in 2017.

·        Crimes recorded as vandalism or criminal damage increased from 12 in 2016 to 15 in 2017.

Due to differences in how police forces record their statistics and given that not all the police forces responded to the requests the figures are likely to be higher.

Tell Mama ( Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) records incidents of Islamophobia as well as providing support to its victims. Tell Mama takes and records reports from victims or witnesses of anti-Muslim incidents and crime as well as incidents of online Islamophobic abuse within and originating from the UK. The organisation also has an agreement with the National Police Chiefs Council allowing the sharing of “sanitised anti-Muslim hate crime data” from police forces in England, Wales  and Northern Ireland which includes partnership agreements with 18 separate UK police forces.

The methodology section of the Tell Mama 2016 Annual Report notes that there will always be a gap between reported incidents of hate crime and the actual number of incidents that occur as victims and witnesses may refrain from reporting incidents for a number of reasons such as a belief that nothing will happen as a result, institutional prejudice and avoiding potentially stressful and humiliating experiences. (p.26) 

The Key findings of the report regarding Islamophobic incidents were:

·        Data on Islamophobic hate crimes and incidents from 18 police forces in the UK recorded a total of 2,840 Islamophobic crimes and incidents from these police forces. The forces with the largest number of Islamophobic crimes or incidents was the Metropolitan Police Service (1,296), Greater Manchester Police (409) and the British Transport Police (230)

·        In 2016 Tell MAMA documented 642 verified anti-Muslim crimes or incidents that are classified as ‘offline’, meaning that they occurred in-person between a victim (or property) and a perpetrator. Tell MAMA has recorded a 47% increase in the number of offline incidents over the previous reporting period (2015: n=437).

·        Abusive Behaviour made up 54% (n=349) of total incidents (verbal and non-verbal abuse), 4% more than in 2015 (50%, n=219).

·        Physical Attacks made up 19% (n=120) of total incidents (including common assault, battery, as well as attempted and grievous bodily harm), 2% more than in 2015 (17%, n=74).

·        Threatening Behaviour made up 8% (n=49) of total incidents (verbal and non-verbal threats of violence), 0.5% more than in 2015 (7.5%, n=34).

·        We documented 340 anti-Muslim crimes or incidents that are classified as ‘online’, meaning they occurred on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, or other Internet-based platforms. Of these, 311 were verified. This is a 15% decrease over the previous reporting period (n=364).

(Please see pp.6 - 8  and pp. 27-47 in the report for more detailed statistics from the report.)

Prosecutions

The Crown prosecution service has data on completed prosecutions by outcome for religiously aggravated offences from 2011-12 to 2016-17. The statistics do not distinguish between the different types of religiously aggravated crimes specifically those that are Islamophobic or anti-Jewish in nature.

The below chart shows the total number of completed prosecutions for religiously aggravated offences from 2010-11 to 2016-17.

Among the key statistics reported by the Crown Prosecution Services regarding religiously aggravated crimes:

·        In 2016–17, there was a slight decrease in police referrals compared to the previous year, from 573 to 508. There was a rise in proportion of cases charged from 78.2% in the previous year to 83.1%, resulting in 422 suspects charged (however this was a fall of 26 suspects from 2015–16).

·        The volume of religious hate crime prosecutions completed fell from 737 in 2015–16 to 593 in 2016–17. This represents a fall of 144 or 19.5%.

·        The volume of convictions fell by 18% from 583 in 2015–16 to 478 in 2016–17, with a steady conviction rate of 80.6% (79.1% in 2015–16).

·         70.3% of successful outcomes were due to guilty pleas and out of all prosecutions contested at trial (excluding mixed pleas), 61.6% were convicted.

·         In 2016–17, the proportion of unsuccessful cases due to acquittal after trial represented 31.3% (36) of all unsuccessful cases, a fall from 34.4% (53) in 2015–16.

(Please see The Crown Prosecution Service Hate Crime Data Report pp.13-14)

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you need anything else.

It would also be really useful if you could comment on how well you feel your question was answered by completing this short feedback form: http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SocialandGeneralStatistics/

This could really help us to improve our service so that we can continue to support you as effectively as possible. Thanks.

Best wishes

Yago Zayed

Social & General Statistics

Research & Information Service, House of Commons Library


 

Today, Deputy Leader Jayda Fransen was due to appear before the Belfast courts for a bail hearing.

A Britain First team assembled for what was supposed to be a routine 20-minute hearing, when a group of detectives swooped and arrested me!


I was held all day in a Belfast police station, interrogated and charged with the same offence that Jayda was charged with a few weeks ago.

Then, once Jayda's bail hearing ended, she herself was arrested and carted off to the police station!

After my interrogation, I was released from the station and was able to meet with supporters and update our social media accounts.

Unfortunately, Jayda is still in custody and will probably be staying in overnight to appear in court in the morning!


The police tried to apply a blanket ban on me regarding social media use, but they backed down when I said I would fight it in court.

With Jayda, however, the police have stated they will put their foot down and force it on her.

She is refusing to sign her bail sheet, which means she will be in court first thing in the morning.

The situation with the police authorities is spiralling out of control!

They are desperate to destroy us before we get too big to manage.

They are throwing everything they can at us before we reach critical mass!


Just take a moment to digest what happened today: The police arrested the leader and deputy leader of a political party and charged them with making speeches!

It's an outrageous assault on free speech and we need to fight back with every drop of blood we can muster.

Surrender is not an option. 

Both Jayda and I need your unswerving support right now to fight the police bullies!

The commissars are hoping you will 'hang us out to dry' but we are British patriots and we will join forces and fight them to the death!