Hate Crime. The Elephant in the Room. New event by Make More Noise!

Thanks DJ

I’m not really sure what I think about making misogyny a hate crime. It sounds like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen so much damage done by TRAs using “hate incidents” as a weapon against people who’ve done nothing wrong that I kind of don’t want feminists to sink to the same level. I think the whole thing has made me more inclined to support freedom of speech above everything, but that makes me uncomfortable in some respects as well. I’ll be interested to hear what these speakers have to say, given that they are very far from fragile little snowflakes themselves.

I've just bought my ticket!

If they make misogyny a hate crime I think it is inevitable that it will be weaponised by MTFs, at least against GC men, if not women.

Hate crime is where someone actually commits a crime (eg assault, harrassment), where the motivation is hostility or prejudice towards the victim's disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender identity.

Note lack of 'sex' in that list.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with having hate crimes as a type of existing crimes.

It's 'hate incidents' that are the vague, poorly defined 'things' particularly open to abuse.

Also the trouble is trumping up things as "hate crimes" that wouldn't be bothered with otherwise. Public Order Act, Malicious Communications are very broad and catch all. However as women, even though technically things that are said to us which might fall under those laws, no one cares.

Possibly this will seem an ignorant question, but how are hate crimes treated differently than crimes not motivated by hatred of the listed groups? If A assaults a gay man due to homophobia, and B assaults another man because he doesn't like the look on his face, how are A and B treated differently?

I'm not a huge fan of the idea of hate crimes - I was always doubtful but I can see why they might be useful in terms of looking at statistics for various purposes. Over the past, maybe five years? though, i've largely come to the conclusion that they do more harm than good so far as being an actual separate kind of crime.

I think the sentencing can be harsher if it was a hate crime. Sentencing uplift.

Bump

I wish I could go, but it's unfortunately a bit far for me this early in the year when I'm broke after Xmas. I'm sure it will be a great event. Any chance of recording/streaming?

I'm going!

Brilliant, thanks DJ!

Thank you

I don’t agree with the concept of hate crimes. At all.
I think you should be punished for the crime you commit, not the reason behind it. It’s a bit too thought crime for me.
What’s the difference for example between:

Stabbing someone because of the colour of their skin, or sexuality, and
Stabbing someone because they looked at you the wrong way?
The crime is the stabbing, and that should be what you are punished for.

Saying that, I think that regardless of my personal feelings about hate crimes, if you’re going to have them, it’s illogical that sex is missed off the list. But not one little bit surprising unfortunately.