Ex-Hackney bigwig plugs hate crime app in acid attacks letter – despite her own statistics

Sophie Linden is now London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime. Photograph: Hackney Council

Hackney’s former deputy mayor has been criticised for plugging her own hate crime app in a letter about acid attacks – after citing statistics that show no clear link between acid attacks and hate crime.

Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor of Hackney until June 2016, wrote a letter about acid attacks to all London authorities on 7 July in her new role as Sadiq Khan’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime.

Ms Linden reported that of the 526 acid attack offences in London in the last 15 months, only one is being treated as a hate crime.

However, she then advised local authorities to use a hate crime smartphone application run by her own department.

The pivot was criticised by Ms Linden’s rivals at the London Assembly, who called her emphasis on hate crimes “way off the mark” and accused her of contradicting her own statistics.

In the letter, Ms Linden reported that there had been 408 acid attack offences between March 31 2016 and March 31 2017.

She wrote: “None of these offences were hate crimes – the victims were not targeted purely on the basis of their race or religion, or any other basis that identifies a hate crime.”

Ms Linden added that of the further 118 between April and June 2017, only one “is being treated as a hate crime offence”.

Eight in ten of the victims in the year to March 2017 were men.

But in closing the letter, Ms Linden turned the attention to hate crimes, saying that “Muslim women in particular are worried about what might happen to them when they leave their homes”.

She wrote: “In an emergency always dial 999, but reports can also be made through our smartphone app and through third-party organisations, such as Tell MAMA. The app can be found by entering ‘MOPAC Hate Crime App’ in Google.”

Andrew Boff, Conservative London Assembly leader and former Hackney council candidate, said: “Clearly the Deputy Mayor’s emphasis on hate crimes in relation to acid attacks is way off the mark.

“This kind of inflammatory warning can actually do more harm than good and is more likely to divide communities.”

He added: “I find her references particularly surprising given that she quotes the contrasting statistic in the very same letter.”

MOPAC defended Ms Linden’s letter, saying the Deputy Mayor was responding to Muslim women’s fears they are being targeted, and was using the letter as “a further opportunity to promote reporting routes” such as the smartphone app.

When asked by the Citizen, a MOPAC spokesperson said: “Sophie Linden was seeking to respond to concerns among BME communities, and particularly of Muslim women, that they are being targeted.

“We would encourage reporting of all incidents, but we know that there is a particular problem of hate crime being under-reported and this was a further opportunity to promote reporting routes.”

Hackney had 20 acid attack-related incidents between 31 March 2016 and 31 March 2017, and a further ten between April and June this year.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike West, the Met’s lead for corrosive-based crime, said: “The Met police will not tolerate any attack using corrosive and noxious substances on anyone and will bring offenders to justice.

“We would appeal to all parents, teachers and other agencies who work with young people to challenge those they think may be carrying corrosive substances, and work to divert them from committing a serious offence or being injured themselves.”