Organisations across east London have joined forces to deal with the rising “menace of hate crime”.
Dubbed the Community Against Hate Crime (CAHC) project, Redbridge Equalities & Community Council (RECC) has teamed up with organisations in Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Waltham Forest and Enfield to “eradicate” the problem thanks to funding from the Mayor of London.
According to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), 1,173 hate crime incidents were reported in Redbridge between June 2014 and June 2017, with 450 of them taking place in the last 12 months of the data set.
David Landau of RECC said hate crime is driven by prejudices against particular groups in society on the grounds of race, faith, disability, sexuality, gender, gender assignment, migrant status, and Gypsies and Travellers status.
The number of hate crimes committed in Havering during the same time period was recorded as 846. Although this data may seem better in comparison to Redbridge, David said that organisations are only “seeing the tip of the iceberg in the borough”.
The CAHC scheme has several aims ranging from setting up a multi-borough crime advise and advocacy service, to establishing a community witness support team and leafleting hotspots.
School, youth clubs and community organisations will also be given presentations about how to report hate crime and what to do if you are targeted or witness it. In Newham, between 2014 and 2017, 1,517 hate crime incidents were reported. Director of Right and Equalities in Newham (REIN), Paul Leslie said the result of the EU referendum has riled up community tensions.
More than 1,000 incidents were flagged up in Barking and Dagenham.
The partnership project also hopes to set up a support group for victims of hate crime, allowing them to help each other and to provide them with a “collective platform” to talk to the appropriate authorities about the problems they are facing.
