Do hate crimes continue to grow after Brexit?
Negotiations between United Kingdom and European Union have reached the final technical details, the European press informs.
A meeting to talk about the draft text of the Withdrawal Agreement, led by the Prime Minister Theresa May, is scheduled for today (14), according to Telegraph.
However, it does not mean that UK can now withdrawals from European Union, once political deals must be discussed such as North Ireland and Republic of Ireland.
It’s hard to talk about Brexit because it involves trade deals, political issues, and European treaties which it is not the idea of this post.
We could say that Brexit took a while to get where it is now. I mean, since 2016 we have read, watched and heard people talking about this long deal. Endless.
Well, we know at least that the EU referendum has brought at the same time a lots of hate crimes, no matter what they say if the agreement is going to bring good or bad results to UK.
On the one hand, the Brexit talks showed us more bureaucracy points than positive results. And on the other hand, the number of recorded hate crimes. That is what the Home Office’s survey about 2017-2018 reveals:
In 2017/18, there were 94,098 hate crime offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, an increase of 17% compared with the previous year”, according to Home Office.
These hate crimes happened between April 2017 and March 2018, and only in England and Wales, according to them.
They also say that it is related to the Brexit and the terrorist attacks in 2017.
We know that it has been a long tragic story for refugees, for example, when it comes to facing the complicated situation for those who are running away from their civil wars, such as in Aleppo, now trying to enter Europe.
The situation becomes more difficult, socially and politically, when considering Brexit and its consequences. For those wanting to escape war zones, for example, Brexit may pose problems in the future. And we can see that 71% of these hate crimes are motivated by race.
The world seems to have undergone drastic changes, with support for far right political movements growing at unpredicted levels in countries across Europe. Hate crimes — which can be seen as a result of this — are evidence of disastrous consequences for cultural tolerance in the UK.
Hate Crimes (2016)
According to a Home Office report, the UK has faced a growing numbers of hate crimes after the Brexit vote.
British and Welsh police have reported that 41% of these hate crimes have a racial or religious bias.
3,886 hate crimes were recorded by the police by July of 2015, compared to 5,468 this year, according to Home Office.
Labour MP
Even before the date of the Brexit vote, a barbarian crime took place.
On June 6, Labour MP Jo Cox, 41, died after being shot and stabbed 15 times by a 52-year-old man, named Tommy Mair.
Cox was in Birstall, near Leeds in northern England.
At the time, the police were investigating what a witness told to them: that Mair had shouted “Britain first” when he committed the crime in Birstall, West Yorks.
A Polish factory worker died after suffering attacks by a group of teenagers from Harlow, England. The reason? Arkadiusz Jóźwik, 40, was speaking Polish on the street.
Four of the boys were 15-year-olds and one of them was 16-year-old. Jóźwik suffered head injuries, and he could not stand the attack, dying at Addenbrooke’s hospital, says The Guardian.
Theresa May’s Speech
Most likely in an attempt to soften those delicate moments in England, specifically, the Prime Minister Theresa May (Conservative Party) released a speech on October 6 stating that she was against any type of hate crime in the UK after the Brexit vote. She said:
I am pleased to support the Hate Crime Awareness Week.
Hate crime has no place in Britain. In my 6 years as Home Secretary I saw the pain and suffering it causes — and the consequences when we fail to act. As Prime Minister, I am determined to make Britain a place where all our communities can flourish and all people — whatever their background, can go as far as their talents will take them. That means stamping out sickening and shameful hate crime.
Everybody living in this country is equal and everybody is free to lead their lives as they see fit. We are free to practise any faith, follow any religious denomination, or ignore religion altogether.
