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Racial and religious crime in Manchester up in 2014

Racial and religious crime in Manchester up in 2014

Categories: Latest News

Friday January 16 2015

Manchester Evening News discloses racial and religious hate crime statistics for the Manchester region on the back of FOI requests submitted to Greater Manchester Police by the local paper.

The paper reports that racially-motivated crimes in north Manchester rose by 43% last year, an increase more than four times greater than the year on year increase in race hate crimes across the whole of Greater Manchester, which was 10%.

According to the data released under the Freedom of Information requests, “There were 371 race-motivated offences in the north Manchester division between January and September in 2014 – up from the 250 in the same period previously.

“And race hate crimes across the whole of Greater Manchester also rose nearly 10 per cent in the same period, from 1,976 in 2013 to 2,144 last year.

“Crimes recorded as religious hate have increased 18pc over the same period – from 152 to 180.”

Home Office statistics released last autumn and covering the period April 2013 – March 2014, found that race hate crime across police force regions in England and Wales had increased by 4% from the same period in 2012/13. Religious hate crime had increased by 43% in the same period.

Data released to us from FOI requests we submitted to police forces in England and Wales further disaggregating the data shows of the 2,701 race hate crimes recorded by Greater Manchester Police between April 2013 and March 2014, 830 cases – 30.7% – involved victims of Pakistani or Bangladeshi background.

Moreover, of the 197 religious hate crimes recorded by Greater Manchester Police between April 2013 and March 2014, 49 cases – 25% – were Islamophobic offences.

Manchester Evening News also reveals the number of racial and religious incidents recorded over the last year by Greater Manchester Police with race hate incidents rising from 623 to 698 and religious hate incidents rising by 84%, from 74 to 136.

The newspaper notes some of the factors that have contributed to the increases observed with Chief Supt Nick Adderley, saying these “could be partly be attributed to events in Gaza, Syria and Iraq – together with the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, from Middleton, in 2013.”

The newspaper further notes factors that have contributed to anti-Muslim attacks in the region stating “businesses and community leaders in Rochdale report[ed] a spike of problems in the wake of the brutal murder of Middleton-born Fusilier Lee Rigby.”

Last week, West Yorkshire Police announced a targeted campaign through January on faith based hate crime in the region. London, which has the largest concentration of British Muslims, saw a hate crime strategy launched at the end of last year by the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime. 

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