MANCHESTER: CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST GOTHS AND PUNKS TO BE CONSIDERED HATE CRIMES

In 2007, 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster (pictured) and her boyfriend were attacked by five boys in Manchester, UK simply because they were goths. Sophie was beaten to death. After a rash of these kinds of attacks in Manchester, this was the last straw.

RASPI

MOSCOW, April 4 – RAPSI, Ingrid Burke. The UK’s Greater Manchester Police Force has begun to treat crimes committed against individuals belonging to Goth, Emo, punk rock, metal, and other such alternative subcultures as hate crimes, according to an official statement released Thursday.

Accordingly, metal heads bullied for their music and style preferences will now be treated in Manchester like ethnic minorities bullied by racists. Other hate crimes include those motivated by disability, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual preference, and gender identity.

The law was inspired by the murder of Sophie Lancaster. The 20-year-old Goth succumbed to her injuries in 2007 after she and her boyfriend were viciously attacked. According to Thursday’s statement, “[s]he suffered horrific head injuries and never regained consciousness.”

Her killers were sentenced in 2008, and the judge presiding over the case recognized the murder as a hate crime due to the fact that she had been targeted for being a Goth.

In announcing his decision to recognize Sophie’s murder and her boyfriend’s beating as hate crimes, the judge made clear to the defendants that he would not be deterred from doing so based on the lack of a specific provision relating to alternative subcultures in the relevant legislation: “I am satisfied that the only reason for this wholly unprovoked attack, was that [Sophie and her boyfriend] were singled out for their appearance alone because they looked and dressed differently from you and your friends. I regard this as a serious aggravating feature of this case, which is to be equated with other hate crimes such as those where people of different races, religions, or sexual orientation are attacked because they are different. This aggravating feature applies to all of you and I add that the courts are perfectly capable of recognising and taking account of such aggravating features without the necessity of Parliament enacting legislation to instruct us to do so.”

The Greater Manchester Police Force defines the term alternative subculture as consisting broadly of “a strong sense of collective identity and a set of group-specific values and tastes.” These aspects are often manifested through distinctive styles of dress, makeup, body art, and music tastes. Although the list of included subcultures is not exhaustive, the police force explicitly names: Goths, Emos, Punks and Metallers.

The force’s lead hate crimes officer, Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, lauded the announcement as a triumph and prided his force on the fact that it is the first in the country to extend protected class status to alternative subcultures: “Sophie’s tragic death brought forward a need to recognise that there are many other victims of hate crime that should be protected by law… I am proud to say we are now the first force in the country to officially record alternative sub-culture as a sixth strand of hate crime motivation.”

He added, “Hate crime ruins many peoples lives and in some cases can tragically cost lives. We work with many organisations to raise the awareness of what hate crime is and how victims can be supported and we will continue to encourage our communities to challenge it, report it and help us to stop it.”