H&F Hate Crime Strategy 2024-2028 - Foreword

Cllr Harvey, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Community Safety

Foreword by Cllr Harvey, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Community Safety

No Hate in H&F

Hammersmith & Fulham is a place where we are proud of our rich cultural landscape and celebrate our diversity as our strength. It has long been a place where deep friendships stretch across communities.

Recent global events have fuelled a surge in hate crime across the UK, and our borough.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a spike in domestic abuse, modern slavery, and exploitation. A rise in race related crime – particularly against East Asian and Black communities followed.

It also left some more vulnerable to radicalisation as they spent more time isolated and online. Three years on, Antisemitic and Islamophobic offences in London increased by 1,353% and 140%1 respectively as the devastating conflict in the Middle East commenced.

Hate crime has a significant impact on victims. A recent public consultation among H&F residents revealed that more than 70% of respondents, who had previously experienced hate crime, did not report it. Hate crime doesn't just harm individuals. It weakens our borough by dividing our communities, sowing division and creates fear.

That is why we are working with local partners, including community organisations and the Met Police, to ensure everyone in H&F can live safely and without fear.

Together, we have developed a new strategy to prevent and address hate crime, stop perpetrators, and deliver effective support for victims.

Our strategy builds on the foundations laid by our Equalities Plan 2021-25, complements our work with refugees and asylum seekers to ensure they feel welcomed in borough and aligns with our broader strategies for tackling crime and violence against women and girls.

We are grateful to all residents, youth and faith groups, businesses, and charities whose input has helped ensure that our strategy reflects the community, our commitment to doing things with local residents, not to them, and being a compassionate council.

In 2023, we marked hate crime awareness week via a range of events and pop-ups to encourage reporting, offered advice and signposted people to organisations who can provide specific support and information.

Our strategy is a commitment to change. It will help boost community confidence, break down barriers to reporting, and create a future where everyone feels valued, safe, and included. A united H&F means a stronger, safer, and kinder borough for all.

Cllr Rebecca Harvey,
H&F Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion & Community Safety

1 1 October 2023 – 18 October 2023 compared with the same period in 2022.

Superintendent Craig Knight Mst. (Cantab), CMgr MCMI, Metropolitan Police

Foreword by Superintendent Craig Knight Mst. (Cantab), CMgr MCMI, Metropolitan Police

To the communities of Hammersmith & Fulham:

My colleagues and I are privileged to police your communities and to be part of them. Whether you live, work or travel through this borough it is our responsibility, working with partners, to keep you safe and feeling safe. Crimes that are motivated by hate or intolerance to others are particularly damaging and a priority for us all to reduce or bring to justice.

The National Police Chiefs' Council, the College of Policing, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have agreed the common definition of hate crime as:

"Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender."

I would encourage anyone who feels they have been impacted by hate crime to come forward, whether as a victim or as a witness to such offending. Your valuable information and support can contribute to identifying and dealing with those responsible and sending a clear, unambiguous message across this borough, that hate crime in any form is not welcome or accepted here.

Superintendent Craig Knight Hammersmith and Fulham Police

Downloadable version of the Hate Crime strategy

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