Police make hate crime even more of a priority
A £1.5MILLION publicity campaign aimed at preventing hate crime was launched by ministers today.
The costly videos and posters, which show police arresting a perpetrator, come at a time when forces are facing heavy criticism for failing to investigate everyday offences such as burglaries and to curb a sharp rise in violent crime.
Last week MPs from the Home Office select committee said the failure to cope meant ‘policing is at risk of becoming irrelevant to most people’.
The new campaign follows a decision by the Government this month to look into establishing new hate crimes – possibly including abuse directed at the elderly, street harassment of women, and even prejudice against men.
Critics have accused ministers and police chiefs of wasting time and money trying to please minority pressure groups by pursuing relatively trivial incidents.
The videos, which will be available online and broadcast across social media, show hate crimes taking place with offenders’ faces replaced by suspect e-fits.
The full film lasts for one minute and is split into two 30-second segments.
Among those targeted are a mixed-race lesbian couple in a pub, a disabled man on a bus who is laughed at because of his wheelchair, and a Muslim woman shouted at over her headscarf. The film’s victims are targeted with abuse, but no violence is shown. It concludes with police arriving to arrest a white middle-aged man while he washes his car.
An accompanying message reads: ‘If you target anyone with verbal, online or physical abuse because of their religion, race, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity – you may be committing a hate crime. It’s not just offensive. It’s an offence.’
Baroness Williams, the Home Office minister for countering extremism, said: ‘Committing a hate crime goes against all the shared values we hold and can have a traumatic impact on victims … this is just one part of the ongoing work of the Government to tackle hate crime to ensure this sickening behaviour is stamped out.’
The Home Office added that the campaign’s aim was to reassure those vulnerable to hate crime that it is being taken seriously.
Police logged a record 94,098 offences in 2017-18 – up 17 per cent in a year, and the equivalent of one crime every fiveand-a-half minutes. More than three- quarters were classed as race hate crimes.