Calls for inquiry as LGBT+ hate crime doubles in UK

Sometimes even a gay man can get beaten up just for refusing to hand over his money

Then that’s not a hate crime and wouldn’t be included.

The onus is on the police to prove hate crimes.

The UK's hate crime laws and, particularly, the recording of these crimes need an overhaul. Legislated categories are hate crimes based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability. Misogyny based incidents are, bafflingly, not seen as hate crimes, nor are those connected to age. The rules of what constitutes a hate crime have changed over the past couple of years so anything that causes fear or distress to any legislated category or any group the local police force deem to be targets of a hate crime are recorded by the police as 'hate crimes' even though no actual crime has been committed. Also, stating an opinion about a particular group is recorded by some forces as a 'hate crime', when no crime has been committed. For example, threatening someone because they are gay is, rightly, a hate crime. Saying you do not agree with homosexuality is not a crime, but many forces are recording this as a hate crime and cautioning individuals even though no crime has been committed.

Police setting their own definitions have resulted in numerous incidents of people being visited by police at home, being pressured to accept a police caution, which is listed as a crime on your record, when no crime has actually been committed. It's scandalous. This group is taking the College of Police to the High Court to get them to change their guidelines. https://www.faircop.org.uk/

Saying all this, the number of crimes committed against people due to their sexual orientation, race, religion etc has increased noticeably since the Brexit referendum, people who have these beliefs now feel they have been given permission by the government and society in general to act this way.

Th UK has been undergoing some horrible, malignant mass psychosis since the referendum, I hardly recognise my country anymore.

Then that’s not a hate crime and wouldn’t be included.

Actually, many police forces would also record it has a hate crime.

The onus is on the police to prove hate crimes.

No, if the police decides it's a hate crime, then it is.

Th UK has been undergoing some horrible, malignant mass psychosis since the referendum, I hardly recognise my country anymore.

I hope this will pass. Mate, I lived there for a long time & one thing that shone through the despair was the willingness for people to step up and help/show solidarity. The haters grab all the headlines but there's a lot of good people there, too.

As was witnessed after the Admiral Duncan and other atrocities.

Well, problem number one is that the designation of hate crime makes the motive a crime rather than a clearly provable act. And if you are going to punish people for a motive they simply lie about what their motive was to avoid the extra punishment. So who knows what the hell is going with the apparent disparity between a rise in attacks on the LGBTQ community and a fall in hate crime convictions? Sometimes even a gay man can get beaten up just for refusing to hand over his money and not for his sexual orientation too you know.

The whole thing could simply be driven by the fact that more people are openly LGBTQ now. The more that are, the more we will know were victimized for any reason.