Reports of hate crimes doubled in Oslo

Police car. Photo Atle Johnsen Norway Today Media

The number of reported hate crimes in Oslo  were doubled in 2015 compared with the previous year, and the majority of the cases have to do with ethnicity and religion, according to figures from the Oslo police.
– We see that the number of hate crimes reported has doubled, and we are very satisfied with that,  senior adviser Ingjerd Hansen says to newspaper Vårt Land. The cause of this, according to the police, is a systematic training of the people in the police, their own hate crime group and good cooperation with NGOs.
In 2015  70 cases was registered that were motivated by ethnicity, 40 that were motivated by religion, and 22 that were motivated by LGBT, which stands for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.
Despite an increase in the cases being reported, police believe there are grounds for believing that there still may be be many incidents that go unreported.
Oslo police are currently the only police district with a separate hate crime group. In February  the Minister of Justice Anders Anundsen (FRP) stated that he wants to make sure that hate crimes are handled equally across the land.

 

Source:  NTB scanpix / Norway Today