4
Apr
2013
By Calvin at 18:06 GMT, 13 years ago
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has begun recording attacks on members of subcultures, such as Goths, Emos and Punks, as hate crimes.
GMP is the first force in the UK to treat the offences in such a way. Previously, hate crimes were only registered for offences against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
GMP has been working with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation a charity set up following the murder of 20-year-old Goth Sophie Lancaster in 2007.
Read the rest of this article at BBC News
TCPW Comment
We are pleased that the GMP are taking this stance and raising the awareness of this problem. We too hope that other police forces will follow GMP’s lead. The BBC report does unfortunately report that the former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, has ‘reservations’ about changing the legal definition of a hate crime – to include hate crimes against members of subcultures. Judging by the time it’s taking to get onto the Sophie Lancaster Foundation’s website today I think our judges should think long and hard about their reservations! Police forces don’t do these things lightly, so we hope the Government takes note.
Original story BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-22018888
Sophie Lancaster Foundation: http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/
