National Hate Crime Awareness Week

It’s National Hate Crime Awareness Week.

If you experience or witness hate crime of any kind, you can report it at https://www.reporthatenow.com.

That’s a dedicated hate crime reporting website for Warwickshire. It is run by EQUIP, the equalities organisation that Warwickshire County Council’s administration wants to cut funding to. EQUIP’s work is vital and fantastic. We proudly work alongside them and can vouch for the support they provide to victims of hate crime, including LGBTQ+ people.

Also, gotta say it… We see Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire County Council posting/having activities about National Hate Crime Awareness Week. Should they be getting their houses in order before preaching about reporting hate crime?

Warwickshire Police’s track record of dealing with LGBTQ+ hate crime is appalling. The number of LGBTQ+ people they have harmed by not dealing with hate crime reports properly is scandalous. Warwickshire County Council is run by an administration that is anti-LGBTQ+ and regularly targets LGBTQ+ people, communities, and Warwickshire Pride as the local LGBTQ+ charity.

Both institutions have a lot of work to do before they can be trusted to deal with hate crime effectively.