Police refuse to pursue ‘hate crime’ after Swastikas sent to Jews

Telegraph report on hate-crime reported by LAAS

LAAS co-director Alex Hearn talks to The Telegraph

The Telegraph reports about how the police are letting down the Jewish community by refusing to investigate hate-crime.

In October, Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, complained to the Cambridgeshire force that a man had used X, formerly Twitter, was sending replies to Jews with the bloodied swastika and Star of David image with the caption: “The irony of becoming what you once hated.”

You can read the full article here

Police refused to pursue Swastikas being sent to Jews as hate-crime, saying it was "not grossly offensive".

Mr Hearn said: “This man has been posting swastikas and making Nazi comparisons at Jewish organisations and individuals including myself and the Chief Rabbi.

“One was even sent in reply to a post mourning a Holocaust survivor who passed away. His attacks often appear to be triggered by complaints about the huge rise in hate crimes, which government statistics say have doubled against Jews in the last year.

“This abuse which uses Holocaust-based symbols and tropes to taunt Jews for a second time, is not only designed to cause maximum distress but also to silence people speaking up about anti-Jewish racism.

“I hoped that Cambridgeshire police would treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves. However, they have ruled that it is not ‘grossly offensive’.

“If posting a swastika, the symbol of evil and the Holocaust, at Jews is not grossly offensive, then nothing is. Particularly when intertwined with the symbol of Judaism to compare Jews with Nazis, legitimising more attacks.”