Metropolitan Police Service crime figures up to the end of March 2014 show that incidents classed as “Islamophobic crime” have nearly tripled, from 17 to 50 individual incidents. The increase coincides with the period of time in which Labour and Tory politicians were deriding Mayor Lutfur Rahman in the Town Hall and in their press releases. ELN has often warned that using Britain’s first Muslim Mayor as a hate figure (as opposed to debating policy differences) gives the green light to people who are predisposed to be anti-Muslim to take their own hate to the next level.
The rise in Islamophobic crime accounts for much of the overall increase in the “racist and religious hate crime” category: anti-Semitic crime is static over the same period (at five incidents). In comparison, homophobic crime has risen from 57 to 68 incidents: an increase of just under 20%.
Since Mayor Rahman’s Administration began encouraging women to report domestic violence and put support in place to help them do so, reported domestic violence has risen from 1,994 to 2,275. The figures appear to give a bad impression, but with this particular crime the Administration was hoping for an increase in figures to show that their supportive policies were working.
Almost all kinds of robbery and burglary were down over the 12 month period.
Unusually, the local Labour Party has not accused Mayor Lutfur Rahman of being personally responsible for the increases in the categories of crime which have actually increased. However, rest assured that Labour figures are blaming the Mayor for being part of the problem.
Labour’s John Biggs has focused on the fact that overall crime in other boroughs has fallen by more than it has in Tower Hamlets. Without stopping to suggest that he has considered any other possible causes of the increase in some crime categories, Biggs says that Mayor Rahman may not have been spending enough time on fighting crime: “we have to ask whether he has been putting his time into the job.” As Comrade Biggs intends, if elected, to be a part-time Mayor because he intends to hang on to his role in the Greater London Authority, we can only wonder how much time he would make for fighting crime, given that he has half a dozen boroughs to look after already.
However, the strangest comment comes from Labour’s novice councillor John Pierce, who gives Mayor Rahman a right telling off, saying “I hope he will be man enough to take his share of the responsibility as well. ” Labour voters will presumably be somewhat concerned about this new turn by their Party, which usually claims to back equality issues. Why the Party considers it a “manly” quality to take responsibility for ones actions is unclear. Labour has not criticised Mayor Rahman for being unduly feminine before: perhaps this is a new tack we shall see more of.