Town hall and police to target hate crime in Islington after latest figures revealed

Police at the launch of their moped crime crackdown outside Angel Tube on Monday (Picture: Met Police) (Image: Archant)

A four-year hate crime strategy is set to be signed off by the town hall and police as reports continue to rise across Islington.

New figures reveal a 10 per cent surge across all categories from August last year to July, with Brexit and terrorist attacks partly to blame.

In the week after the EU Referendum, graffiti appeared in Newington Green saying “pack your bags scum” and “f*** the EU” and Clerkenwell Labour ward councillor Raphael Andrews was called a “monkey” and told to “go back to the jungle” in Angel Sainsbury’s.

Det Supt Stuart Ryan told the Gazette the referendum caused retaliatory attacks for three weeks, but the new Safer Islington Partnership policy was a cross-agency commitment to stamping it out altogether.

Over the last 12 months there has been a rise in disability, domestic abuse, faith and homophobic hate crimes, as well as racist and religious attacks.

The only category that showed a reduction was transgender hate crime.

Islington’s community safety chief Cllr Andy Hull, said: “Tackling hate crime is a priority.

“This will raise awareness, increase public confidence and increase the level of support for victims.

“It will do all of this with local communities by its side and with local residents offering their input and holding the partnership to account.”

The same report says Operation Attrition, set up last year to deal with moped thefts, was yielding short-term results but offered no real answers to the problem.

There has been a sharp rise over the last three months with reports of 50 phone snatches a week, but numbers are down over the last year and Det Supt Ryan said his team would not change their tactics.

Long term, however, he said it was about changing attitudes.

This graffiti appeared in Newington Green days after the EU Referendum (Image: Archant)

“It’s about asking them why they do it,” he said. “My staff are arresting sons of people they were arresting 20 years ago for similar crimes. It’s part of their lifestyle.

“It is the offending of choice because young offenders talk to each other and can discuss how to do it while going through the justice system.”

There’s also publicity work aiming to convince people to not walk around with their phones on display.

“We did a crime prevention thing outside Angel station,” continued Det Supt Ryan.

“One officer saw a woman walking past with her phone out – she was an easy target. He told her she should put it away and then within five seconds she had it out again.

“People almost feel a phone is not theirs because they are so easy to replace.”

The council is ploughing £2million into tackling serious youth crime and a cross-agency gang team, formed in May, has helped curb re-offending by working with the borough’s top 50 high-risk gang members.

Young people’s chief Cllr Joe Caluori said: “Serious youth violence damages the fabric and the future of our society, and tackling it is a high priority for us.”

Meetings have also been held between police and the council to address “over and inappropriate” use of Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO) for youngsters.

CBOs replaced ASBOs to stop youngsters repeatedly causing trouble, but are believed to be the reason for high re-offending rates.

Now the council must meet with all relevant parties before applying for one.

Talks with magistrates at Highbury Corner are also going on to get tougher sentences for repeat young offenders.

Det Supt Ryan said: “Sometimes us, the council and the Youth Offending Service maybe don’t make our argument clear enough to the courts.”