Racism link to rise in violent crime

Date: 17th Aug '01

Name: Lion Rampant

Country: Alba

Scotsman - 17 August 2001

Racism link to rise in violent crime

Dan McDougall Crime Correspondent

Police are linking a rise in violent crime statistics throughout Strathclyde to the racial violence currently aimed at asylum seekers in Glasgow.

The disturbing trend was revealed last night as new Chief Constable Willie Rae said he has suffered a baptism of fire since taking over as head of Scotlands largest police force.

According to the latest statistics, crimes of violence across Strathclyde have increased by almost 8 per cent over the past three months, coinciding with a big rise in race-related attacks in the Sighthill and Townhead areas of Glasgow.

Since February this year, more than 104 incidents involving asylum seekers have been reported, 56 of them violent assaults. Hundreds more are believed to have remained unreported to police.

The issue was brought to a head 13 days ago with the murder of 22-year-old Kurdish refugee, Firsat Dag, whose killer has yet to be caught despite an intensive investigation. .

Mr Rae admitted yesterday that he was deeply disappointed by the figures.

He said: "Violent crime is a serious issue for us and until recently we had reduced the amount of violent attacks in the area, but sadly it has risen again over the past few months.

"This is obviously very disappointing, and the figure would not have been helped by the occurrence of racially motivated attacks in Glasgow.

"The saddest thing we are seeing from the figures is that many people see it as the norm to go out carrying knives. This is something we will tackle."

The rise in violent crime coincides with a huge increase in the number of asylum seekers transferred to Glasgow - from around 1,350 at the turn of the year to more than 5,000 today.

Police have responded to criticism that they are not doing enough to prevent trouble caused by the arrival of refugees by introducing a raft of new measures, including the trebling of the number of officers on the beat, the introduction of interpreters, and the staging of community events. Meanwhile, 100 officers have been assigned to find the killer of Mr Dag.

But Marc Wadsworth, national secretary of the Anti-Racist Alliance, expressed serious concern that the true picture in Sighthill was still much worse than the police claim.

He said: "There is a gross under-reporting of racist attacks and this is one of our biggest worries. The violent crime figures related to racial incidents represent the tip of a very appalling iceberg."

Mr Rae said that the first three months of his job had been fraught. He said: "Its been a baptism of fire in recent weeks but Ive taken a great deal of comfort from the professionalism shown by our officers.

" Im sure we can get these violent crime figures back below our target level. With regards to the murder inquiry in Sighthill, I can assure the community that we are determined to track down Firsat Dags killer."

Strathclyde Police also came under fire recently following claims that they were heavy-handed during the recent riots in the Govanhill area of Glasgow, the worst disturbances the city had seen in years.

But Mr Rae said: "Our officers were up against a great deal during the Govanhill protest and they performed admirably under extremely trying conditions."

Strathclyde Police also said that drug detection arrests had risen by 25 per cent since the beginning of the year, while vehicle crime had fallen by 11.7 per cent.

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