Hate Crime Is "Under-reported"

From the BBC:

Hate crime figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been published for the first time.

In 2009 a total of 52,028 crimes were recorded in which the offence was motivated by prejudice.

Victims were targeted because of race, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability or transgender issues.

Chief Constable Stephen Otter of police chiefs' body Acpo said: "By publishing this data... we hope to encourage victims and witnesses to come forward."

Interesting. Perhaps I can be of assistance - everyday I am emailed stories and news tips that don't make the national media, but seem to me to fit quite neatly into the category of "hate crime."

For example:

A LOUT who glassed a man in a Rawtenstall pub and left him with facial injuries has been jailed for 12 months - and banned from the premises for two years.

Burnley Crown Court heard how binge drinker Mohammed Miah, 26, struck victim Ian Parkinson, who he did not know, as he was on the dance floor of the Queen's Arms, with friends, around midnight.

Mr Parkinson suffered lacerations on his eyelid and cheek. He had no permanent damage to the eye itself but was left scarred.

After the unprovoked assault, days before last Christmas, the victim had trouble sleeping. He was very concerned about the scar and was worried about going out in town.

Miah, who has 13 previous convictions, was earlier jailed for two years for affray and was on bail for that offence, committed in the same pub, when he injured Mr Parkinson.

Yes, seems to be a lot of it about. Totally without motive, of course.

Let's try:

On Thursday 2 December between 5.35pm and 5.50pm in High Road, the victim, a 16 year-old boy, was attacked by two black males who punched him and stabbed him several times in the chest.

It is believed that the victim had been trying to run away from the suspects when they attacked him outside Park Vue dental practice, on the opposite side of the road to Wood Green bus garage in High Road, North London.

The incident spilled onto the southbound lane of High Road, causing traffic to swerve.

London Ambulance Service attended and the victim was taken to the North Middlesex Hospital where he was treated for puncture wounds to his chest and discharged the following day.

The suspects are described as being two black males, believed to be aged around 17 years and dressed in dark clothing.

Completely without motive too, I'm sure.

You see, what I think is the problem isn't "hate crime" - a purely subjective and politically motivated term; it's the fact that violent crime simply isn't taken very seriously anymore because it has become so common.

That goes for crime in general; even in the case of their precious "hate crime" all the police really seem to care about is massaging the statistics:

Mr Otter, Acpo's lead for equality, diversity and human rights, said: "Hate crimes cause a great deal of harm among victims and communities.

"Publication of the data underlines the commitment of the police service to tackle hate crime, build confidence and encourage victims to come forward so that under-reporting is reduced."

You see? All that matters is that under-reporting is reduced. Not justice for the victims, not removing the criminals from society and punishing them.

I also find it genuinely frightening that a senior police officer can't see that all crime causes a great deal of harm to victims and communities.

We're talking about real people and real suffering here, not abstract concepts and social experiments.