- Conference
- 2014 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 1 October 2013
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes with alarm that there has been a significant drop in the reporting of Hate Crime to the relevant authorities in the last few years. Conference also notes that there has been an escalating attack on Mosques, Muslim shops, Muslim people and their families, yet this is not covered in the legislation as a hate crime or racist crime.
According to recent research carried by a trio of North East Universities there has also been a drop in the confidence level of Black people towards the Police in being able to deal adequately with racist incidents and racist behaviour.
The impact of hate crime on all communities is also on the rise, along with the resurgence of extreme far right groups up and down the country. Extreme far right groups that express openly hostile, racist and offensive speeches that target whole communities and use the Con Dem Coalition’s policies around immigration, race and inequality as their legitimisation.
At present only a handful of Police Forces record Anti Muslim hate crime. Home Office statistics show that in 2011 two Police Forces recorded 1200 Anti Muslim crimes as opposed to 546 Anti Semitic crimes from all forces in the UK. We also know that not all racist crimes are recorded as such and the media appears to sometimes down play such incidents.
Conference asks the National Black Members Committee to:
1)Explore ways that this issue can be highlighted and given more attention
2)Campaign for a more level playing field when it comes to reporting and recording all hate crime
3)Work towards getting Anti Muslim hate crime included on the list of categories, this could be by working with Labour Link, Probation colleagues and Police colleagues and other relevant organisations
4)Ensure that Anti Muslim hate crime is seen on the same basis as racist crimes and religious intolerance is seen as an aggravating factor.