Walthamstow is a diverse community and we’re proud of it. However Walthamstow, like the rest of the country, has had to respond to the challenges we are facing as a result of divisions and hatred in our society. This free event is an opportunity for residents to have their say on our national hate crime legislation. The objective of this event is to hear the views of Walthamstow residents on these laws and ensure they are both inclusive and effective, and so enable everyone to live free from harassment for who they are in modern Britain.
Incidents of hate crime are rising in the UK, spiking following the EU Referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017. Home Office data shows that last year there was a 17% increase in the hate crimes recorded by the police compared with the previous year, 76% of which were motivated by race. In their 2018 annual report, TellMama noted that islamophobic incidents rose by 26% in 2017, with 6 in 10 victims being women. Antisemitic incidents, as recorded by the Community Security Trust, hit an all time high in 2017. So too, 1 in 5 LGBT people have experienced a hate crime in the past 12 months, according to Stonewall, and 4 in 5 did not report the incident to the police.
Our current hate crime legislation also treats different protected characteristics such as religion, disability or gender in different ways. For example, women in Walthamstow have been reporting their daily experiences of sexual harassment; whether walking along Hoe Street or trying to enjoy time with their family, women from many different backgrounds experience criminal behaviour and abuse in our community. Their experiences are not unique - surveys show one in five women regularly experience sexual harassment on our streets in the UK. However currently hostility towards women is not recorded in the same way as hostility towards people due to their faith or ethnic background. This means that patterns of such behaviour are not recorded in the same way, making policing and preventing these crimes harder to do. As a consequence many women in Walthamstow and around the UK report being fearful about travelling around their local communities. In other parts of the UK where misogyny has been treated as a hate crime and recorded as such by the police, this has changed the way in sexual harassment and violence towards women has been addressed. In particular, it has also benefited women from minority communities and their experience of reporting crimes to the police.
Given these challenges and experiences, in 2018, Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy campaigned for the Government to review hate crime legislation - which they have now agreed to do. An independent organisation called the
Law Commission will be leading this project. As part of their work on this for the Government, they have agreed to come to Walthamstow to hear from local residents about the challenges we face and how hate crime law should respond. This is a critical opportunity for residents of Walthamstow to directly affect their work on this important issue and help ensure that the UK has modern laws on hate crime which are fit for purpose. In particular, it is our chance to ensure the law protects the principle that everyone should be free to live in peace without being targeted because of who they are.
This is likely to be an extremely popular event. All residents of Walthamstow over the aged of 14 are welcome to apply to join this special community workshop which will be interactive.
Please note we have included in registration for this event a short number of questions about your background. You do not have to answer these questions, but if you do it will help us seeking to ensure there are a wide range of experiences represented at this event, and that the diversity of Walthamstow's residents is reflected in the participants. Please note the information provided will not be shared with any third party or made public and will be deleted following the event. This event will last 90 minutes and you do not have to do any preparation to be able to take part. All those who successfully register for this event will be sent the full details of the venue.
