Bring racists to justice

Published: 19 February 2010

• ON Wednesday, ITV’s London Tonight followed up the article in the Tribune about the vicious racist stabbing close to the Emirates Stadium (Road-rage driver stabs pedestrian, February 12). This racist attack reflects just the tip of the iceberg and requires much more from all agencies, including police and Islington Council, to protect victims.

The latest Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) crime statistics show that racist crime in Islington is up by almost 40 per cent, the third highest rise across London. However, great care needs to be taken with regard to how we interpret the data.

In the past 12 months, reported racist crime in Islington was up 37.8 per cent (compared to the MPS average of 4.9 per cent), up from 328 attacks last year to 452 this year, and violent crime was up by 3.3 per cent (compared to the MPS average of 0.6 per cent). Islington had the third highest rise in London for reported race crime, after Richmond (64.1 per cent; or up from 92 attacks last year to 151) and Bexley (41.8 per cent; up from 182 to 258). In neighbouring Hackney, reported racist crime is down by 5.1 per cent and in Barking and Dagenham, with its BNP councillors, racist crime is down from 367 to 362 (-1.4 per cent).

As a Bunhill resident, I was instrumental in developing the London Multi-Agency Race Hate Crime Forum, now administered by the Metropolitan Police Authority. Following extensive research, we found that only five per cent of all race-hate crimes in London were officially reported by victims. This suggests that the actual level of race-hate crimes committed in Islington is closer to 8,000 incidents rather than the 452 reported this year. It follows that the trend for reported race-hate crime needs to go upwards if we are going to get any closer to actual reality. Thus, any reduction in reported race-hate crime is not an improvement but a failure of agencies to do more to overcome the difficulties of reporting.

Research also told us that racists are more likely to be prolific offenders who are regularly involved in anti-social behaviour and other types of crime, graduating to more serious attacks if not prevented and detected earlier.

The detection rate for Islington and the MPS as a whole is woefully low and does little to build public confidence. Racists need to be caught and brought to justice. The police and Islington Council need to do more to build a sense of confidence to enable victims to report and thus drive up detection rates closer to 100 per cent, instead of the current 24 per cent. Working together we could all do more to bring racists to justice much earlier?

CLAUDIA WEBBE
EC1