This week 30 years ago: Islington hate crime victims ‘not reporting racist attacks because they fear police’
Islington Gazette: December 31, 1987 - Credit: Archant
Islington hate crime victims were suffering in silence – because they were afraid of the police.
An Islington Council investigation found they didn’t seek help because they feared cops would “start investigating them rather than the complaint”.
It claimed officers asked complainants for passports, questioned their immigration status and were unhelpful and impatient.
The report said “unhelpful” police attitudes led to “under-reporting” of racist attacks.
Meanwhile, a £10,000 Christmas gift to help kids suffering cancer turned out to be just... a tenner.
The New Barbican Hotel looked “astoundingly generous” when the donation to the mayor of Islington’s charity – the Barts Hospital children’s cancer ward appeal – was announced.
But a red-faced hotel chief had to tell mayor Cllr Terry Herbert: “Sorry, our public relations people dropped a clanger.” The PR officer had misread a note about the donation, somehow mistaking £10,000 for £10.
Most Read
- 1 When the Arsenal team had tea with the Queen in Buckingham Palace
- 2 Missing: 29-year-old Islington woman found 'safe and well'
- 3 The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee flypast: Where, and when, the planes will fly over north and east London
- 4 'Wrong place, wrong time': Men convicted after fatal mistaken revenge shooting
- 5 New cabinet announced for Islington Council
- 6 Travel bulletin: Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham
- 7 Appeal hearing of MP Claudia Webbe gets under way
- 8 Jailed: Members of 'sophisticated' drugs crime gang sentenced
- 9 40 firefighters called to scene as Highbury flat damaged
- 10 Man accused of sexual assaults in Camden and Islington bailed
But Cllr Herbert took it all in good humour, saying: “Every donation, no matter how big or small, is a help.”