pinknews July 16, 2009 - 18:33
Figures released today by the Metropolitan Police show a 13.5 per cent rise in homophobic hate crimes reported across London.
Between June 2008 and the end of last month, 1,123 incidents were reported, compared with 989 the previous year.
David Allison, spokesman for gay rights group OutRage!, suggested that the rise could be due to more gay people being willing to report crime to the police.
He told The London Paper: “These figures show that hate crimes are not something that you can just ignore. It suggests there is something wrong with society that people can’t tolerate each other.
“However, one has to bear in mind that a proportion of the increase is down to a greater willingness of gay people to report these crimes. Previously, because they did not trust the police to investigate them, they thought there was no point.”
Last month, acting detective superintendent Gerry Campbell, of the Metropolitan police, who led a recent operation against hate crime, said: "Homophobia cannot be considered a thing of the past, it's on the increase." Read more pinknews
No comments:
Post a Comment