While police chase wolf whistlers, a heroic dad is butchered

BY ALL accounts Ian Tomlin was just an ordinary dad trying to protect his two young children from the dope- smoking drug dealers who peddled their poison outside his flat.

On Wednesday, the 46-year-old had the audacity — and courage — to tell the thugs to leave. They responded by battering and stabbing him to death.

his father Cecil — one of the Windrush generation — had reported the drug dealers to the police before but ‘they did nothing’. he was too frightened to confront them himself as he was ‘scared they’d kill me’. how poignant those words now sound.

Yet this is daily life for folk such as Ian Tomlin on the Battersea council estate in South London where he lived. Yes Battersea, less than four miles from the houses of Parliament.

Ian was a driver for the council and a devoted dad. The news of his death came as home Secretary Sajid Javid announced plans to expand ‘hate crime’ to include acts of misogyny, contempt towards elderly people and even misandry — hatred of men. Met Police Superintendent Waheed Khan confirmed it might even be extended to cover groups such as redheads, goths and punks.

This is madness. Last year police forces — despite being desperately short of resources — investigated no fewer than 94,000 ‘hate crimes’, wasting precious hours on what in many cases amounted to nothing more than grievances. Sergeant Richard Cooke, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, has said forces are expected to record and follow up hate crime reports even when no criminal offence has taken place.

In the meantime, callous, savage crimes of the kind that killed Ian Tomlin go unchecked.

Javid and London Mayor Sadiq Khan — who is responsible for crime and policing in the capital — have played up their ‘humble’ origins as sons of immigrants.

Yet the people who suffer most from prioritising hate crime at the expense of street crime are those of similarly poor ethnic backgrounds.

The cold fact is that killings in this country are at a ten-year high. Ian was the 113th murder victim in London so far this year.

Of course, I’m not saying police should ignore genuine crimes caused by intolerance and prejudice.

But how can it be right that police have to chase up a wolf whistle or an insensitive comment about ginger hair when genuine hate crimes are committed daily by drug gangs and serial criminals with impunity?

And a loving father loses his life as a result.