Kernow Matters To Us (KMTU) meeting with police

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

At the suggestion of the police, two members of the KMTU steering group, met with two representatives of the Devon & Cornwall force from 7.30pm Friday 7th April, 2017 in the organisation's meeting room in Redruth.

The main topic of discussion was racist and hate comments directed at members of the Cornish National Minority.

The latest KMTU quarterly return together with actions taken has been forwarded to Cornwall Council Equality & Diversity Unit, the Council of Europe, the Equality & Human Rights Commission as well as the police.

KMTU has been collating and reporting anti Cornish abuse for over a year now and this has resulted in the police stepping in and dealing with an offender from Plymouth, in a Bristol based newspaper retracting comments, in an ongoing investigation by the Metropolitan Police in London and in the removal of offensive comments posted by website and for a users by the owners of several websites including one administered by the West Briton newspaper. Some US website owners have chosen to ban user ISP numbers to prevent recurrence.

News from Kernow Matters To Us:

We do not and should not tolerate racist, offensive, threatening, nasty or other such comments to be made against anyone. Nor do we expect them to be made against the Cornish. Post the Cornish inclusion in to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 2014, Cornish people are into different times and those who make unlawful remarks against them can rest assured that such actions will be dealt robustly whether the remarks are made in person or on the internet.

Abuse based on National Identity, ethnicity, sexual or religious orientation and identity, gender identification or physical abilities and differences is no longer acceptable, full stop.

Fortunately, anti Cornish abuse does appear to be reducing slightly.

Channels of communication between KMTU and the police are to be formalised and the meeting was declared most productive by those attending. KMTU has been making full use of the police's 'True Vision' website for reporting racial issues.

The current police log on the force's 'Storm' system relating to the latest batch of unlawful remarks aimed at the Cornish and reported by KMTU is 613/01042017.

Kernow bys Vyken!

Issued on behalf of Kernow Matters To Us.

John, Teresa, Craig, Tony, Matt, Mike, Clive, Ronan, Samuel & Mark

Elected Members of the KMTU Steering Group