Homophobic hate crimes triple in last five years
Catalan police investigating 35 such incidents from the first quarter of this year
Homophobic hate crimes have tripled in five years, from 38 in 2014 to 119 in 2019. The increase between 2018 and last year was 58% (from 75 to 199).
The Catalan police forces are investigating 35 reports of assaults, threats, and injuries with homophobic motives during the first quarter of this year, and have made 16 arrests of people as alleged perpetrators of criminal acts due to sexual and emotional orientation, identity, or expression of the victims. Among them are four minors.
This Sunday is International Day against Homophobia, and the Catalan Mossos d’Esquadra police have posted a video on their social media networks to raise awareness of the importance of reporting such situations.
As for the victims, 151 people reported being victims of LGBTQI hate crimes in all of 2019, while in the first quarter of this year the number of victims was 46.
The main crimes in this area are crimes against the exercise of fundamental rights and civil liberties, injuries, assaults, threats, and harassment.
The Catalan police have created the e-mail mossos.delictes.odi@gencat.cat for inquiries and to ask for advice related to any possible hate crimes. Last year, 214 consultations were handled, and during the first quarter of this year, 73 consultations were made through this e-mail address.