Ulster race hate crimes up 15%
Racial incidents in the North rose by 15% to nearly 1,000 last year, Chief Constable Hugh Orde revealed today.
As detectives investigated five new attacks on eastern Europeans, his annual report emphasised the need to hunt down the thugs involved.
Orde said: “One of the biggest challenges facing the Police Service is increasing the number of persons detected and prosecuted for hate crimes.”
His declaration came as the North was branded the race hate capital of Europe.
A study by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM), identified institutionalised racism in the criminal justice system and asked how it should be addressed.
The report: “The Next Stephen Lawrence? – Racist Violence and Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland” by Dr Robbie McVeigh details the stories of 162 victims and survivors of racist violence.
He said: “The scale of the violence is frightening enough but the failure of different elements in criminal justice to deal effectively with that violence is just as problematic.
“It is, we believe, unambiguous evidence of institutional racism right across the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland.”
His findings were backed by a fresh wave of weekend attacks on Lithuanians, Latvians and Poles near Belfast, Lisburn and Carrickfergus, Co Antrim and Castledawson, Co Derry.
Northern Secretary Peter Hain condemned those behind the violence, saying: “Northern Ireland already has a bad reputation for religious sectarianism. We will not tolerate racism.
“I appeal to all local politicians, councillors, MLAs and the community themselves to make sure we work together to stamp out any of these nasty, poisonous racist attacks we have seen in recent days.”
The police statistics also bore out the threat level, confirming 936 racial incidents reported to officers during 2005/06.
Homophobic incidents also went up by 12.2% to 220 last year.
Although the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) met targets to increase clearance rates for both areas of crime, Sir Hugh stressed public support was essential to the fight.
Elsewhere, an overall 4.3% rise in overall crime was reported – but the PSNI insisted rates were still 145 lower than in 2002/03.
There were 1,112 more reports of domestic violence, which police believe shows victims‘ increased willingness to tell what has happened.
Violent crime went up by 5.8%, but the clearance rate also rose from 51.1% to 53.9%, while offences of criminal damage increased by 10.7%.
“Police continue to be concerned about the increase in violent crime,” said Chief Constable Orde.
“Throughout the course of the year there were 25 murders, and eight of those murders were carried out using a knife or bottle.”
As part of a major drive to improve road safety, the number of motorists detected substantially exceeding the speed limit during the year reached 27,585, up 1,293 on the previous year.
Detections for drink and drug-driving offences also increased from 4,260 to 5,195.
Chief Constable Orde added: “While the number of people who died or who were injured on the road is at its lowest level for 10 years, road safety remains one of our key priorities.
“During the last year, nearly five times more people died as a result of road traffic collisions than were murdered.”
