Beating of Asylum Seeker in London Is Said to Be Hate Crime
For some, the attack in the South London area of Croydon recalled another racially charged attack at a bus stop in the capital: the
murder of Stephen Lawrence, an 18-year-old black man who was stabbed in 1993 in an unprovoked attack by a gang of white youths.
Diane Abbott said that It’s an appalling crime, and I hope the people responsible are caught quickly and receive the full force of British justice.
On Monday, the frenzied assault on the 17-year-old, described by the police as "brutal," was reverberating across Britain amid growing concerns
that the country’s decision to leave the European Union, or "Brexit," had spawned an anti-immigrant backlash.
As many as 20 people may have participated in the Friday night attack, which the police are treating as a suspected hate crime.
Scotland Yard said on Monday that 10 people had been arrested after the beating of the
Kurdish-Iranian teenager, with five people, ages 20 to 24, charged in the attack.
According to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the number of reported hate crimes in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland jumped 46 percent, to 1,831, in the week after the June 23 referendum on European Union membership, compared with the same week a year earlier.