By GB News (World News) | Created at 2024-11-14 13:11:52 | Updated at 2024-11-22 02:16:04
1 week ago
The Chief Constable of Essex Police has listed hate speech as one of the largest threats to the community.
In a 2021 document, Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington suggested hate crime was on par with rape, child abuse, knife crime, domestic abuse and child sexual exploitation.
The document was part of the force’s four-year crime prevention plan, where Harrington said: “Essex Police have identified 14 thematic strands which not only pose the greatest potential threat, harm and risk to our people and communities but also present the greatest opportunity for prevention.”
His comments emerged amid a tit-for-tat row with journalist Allison Pearson who was told she was under investigation for a year-old tweet allegedly inciting “racial hatred”.
Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington
PA
The chief constable said hate speech was one of the biggest threats to the community
Essex Police website
Police say the investigation, which was opened under the Public Order Act 1986, was being treated as a criminal matter rather than a non-crime hate incident.
The Conservative-controlled Essex County Council, with contribution from the police, also commissioned a report this year into hate crime in the area.
A challenge outlined by the report was that the current political landscape has led to growing hostility towards certain communities.
It stated this was: “Fuelled by a rise in more mainstream Right-wing politics (the ‘radical Right’) and resulting in an increase in ‘freedom‑restricting harassment’.”
Police officers appeared at Pearson's home on Remembrance Sunday
GB News
However, the report found that there was a nearly 13 per cent reduction in hate crime offences recorded from the years 2022-23 to 2023-24.
A spokesman for the force said: “There were over 9,000 fewer reported offences in the last year and 20,000 fewer than five years ago.”
“Our officers and staff, some of which are military veterans, work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep the public safe and investigate crime.”
The spokesman added that there has been a “large amount of false reporting about an ongoing investigation.”
A complaint has been registered by the force with Ipso [Independent Press Standards Organisation].
