Hate crimes in London's Soho on the rise

Homophobic attacks in London's Soho and the gay-friendly borough of Westminster increased last year, according to the Met Police.

New figures released by Scotland Yard revealed that anti-gay hate crime increased by 26 per cent, from 117 to 148 incidents, from April 2010 to April 2011.

Soho is famously regarded as the queer area of the capital.

The figure contradicts the capital's overall hate crime stats, which saw incidents fall by 0.1 per cent and total crime dropping 0.5 per cent across the 32 London boroughs.

The borough of Harrow suffered the biggest increase in assaults, with crimes soaring by 125 per cent. Likewise, Islington saw a significant jump with incidents rising from 82 to 131, a surge of 60 per cent.

The boroughs of Havering, Kingston-upon-Thames and Enfield weren't dissimilar, joining Westminster as some of the worst offenders in the Greater London area.

However, there was good news for some surrounding boroughs. Barnet experienced the biggest drop, down 60 per cent, and also recorded the lowest number of incidents for homophobic crimes last year.

Greenwich and Bromley have also seen some big drops. In Bromley, their figures dropped to 38, down from 78, whilst Greenwich's incidents halved.

Barking and Redbridge also halved the number of attacks in their area.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said they were committed to tackling all forms of hate crime.

“The MPS treats homophobically motivated crime very seriously and regards any form of hate crime as unacceptable.

“We are resolutely committed to tackling all forms and categories of hate crime and welcome victims coming forward so that we can work towards identifying and arresting perpetrators.”

The Met Police was recently voted Best Police Force in the Pink Paper Readers' Awards 2011.


Danny Lee


http://news.pinkpaper.com