by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura

November 5, 2016

 

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — On the surface, Britain would seem to be in the throes of an alarming wave of hate crimes.

In 2015, Britain recorded eight times as many hate crimes as the United States, which has five times as many people; that was 31 times the hate crimes reported in France and 88 times the total in Italy.

The rise of the nationalist U.K. Independence Party, resentment of immigration, terror attacks in Europe and perceptions of anti-Semitism on the fringes of the Labour Party have all contributed to an atmosphere of increased fear and hostility in parts of Britain.

Things seemed to worsen after Britain voted in June to leave the European Union, an outcome driven in large part by anti-immigrant sentiment. A Polish family’s house and a Romanian-owned shop were set on fire; Eastern Europeans were spat upon, beaten up and told to go home.

Full article:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/world/europe/britain-hate-crimes.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FHate%20Crimes&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection