This tweet from South Yorkshire Police...

[SunsetBeetch]

It's batshit, right? And rather frightening. Seriously, Orwell could have written it.

"In addition to reporting hate crime, please report non-crime hate incidents, which can include things like offensive or insulting comments, online, in person or in writing. Hate will not be tolerated in South Yorkshire. Report it and put a stop to it #HateHurtsSY"

t.co/p2xf6OLoQZ

It wasn't anything to do with trans people until you made it so, MadameButterface I would have posted it in FWR otherwisem

We already have laws against "hate speech" . Yes, most people get nasty stuff shouted at them or posted to them in the internet at times or even regularly. But what are the police going to do? What resources do they have for this? Where is the line drawn if not in law, and who decides and how, if something should be reported and action taken? It's a minefield, IMO.

what was it to do with then please?

Getting the police to do the record keeping for you is a bit lazy

No it isn't. You still have to phone them, or better still go into a police station. Reporting it adds authenticity and demonstrates that over a period of time incidents are accumulated. Not just being invented in your own head in an instance.

cos it's weird, but from Shrodingers replies I thought it was?

We already have laws against "hate speech"

as people have pointed out on this thread, they are perhaps not adequate, as they don't seem fit to tackle misogyny.

Is this the Rotherham lot

Yes it is

Let's be fair though, they must be feeling pretty depressed with all the stick they've taken for their endless failures. Perhaps they're doing this so they can cheer themselves up with a good laugh at the tsunami of stupid reports about to come their way?

Limited funding, limited time, limited police man power and hours.

Do I want that time and resources focused on dealing with murders, rapes, assaults, burglary, child abuse, criminal damage etc in a way that gets as rapid a response as possible and as many effective prosecutions as possible?

Or do I want police to pull staff away from the above to create paperwork and put hours into non crimes that will at most lead to a bit of pre emptive chatting? (Which may or may not prevent a more serious crime happening in the future, which there won't be enough police available to deal with any way?)

Ooooh tricky.

Women & snowflakes are tough enough on social media, they don't need protecting as it's mainly them doing the abusing.

South Yorkshire police cut their teeth at the miners strike Orgreave.
After that there is Hillsborough.
And Rotherham.

They know how to cover their arses, they have form.

From the twitter responses
“Non-crime-hate-incidents” is a bit wordy. Might I suggest you condense it. I think “thought crime” has a nice ring, dont ya think?

No it isn't. You still have to phone them, or better still go into a police station. Reporting it adds authenticity and demonstrates that over a period of time incidents are accumulated. Not just being invented in your own head in an instance

Reporting it does not prove you didn’t invent it. Talking to the police may give you a frisson of respectability, but it doesn’t change the fundamental facts that you claim an upsetting non-crime occurred at a time when no police officers were present.

Contemporaneous record keeping is effective and will be taken seriously by the authorities, if you are being subject to harassment for example and one incident would make you shrug your shoulders but the cumulative effect is intimidating.

Even compiling a list of ‘incidences over the last 3m’ and reporting them all in one go would be preferable to the ridiculous waste of resources that is reporting every single instance of non-crime that you found a bit hurtful.

I think SYP have accidentally taken this guy's fab rant seriously.

Am not referring to racist/sexist/disablist/etc speech here - any hate speech serious enough to log with the police is already covered under criminal law, anything 'non-criminal' is whining about being offended.

As far as I'm concerned every crime is a hate crime. Nothing will change my mind on that.

Nobody mentioned trans issues until you did MadameButterface I made no mention of it in the OP and I think I've made my concerns clear. If the thread has taken a different turn that's nothing to do with me. I think you're being rather facetious.

If the hate speech laws are inadequate, then they should be looked at carefully. Having a report free for all is ridiculous and unworkable.

Happynessiseggshaped in has it right. They have just worded it badly. A lot of people wouldn't know the police definition of 'hate crime' - disability based/racist/trans/religion. However I don't get how it can be a non-crime. If someone calls you racist names or insults that is a crime if you perceive it to be racist.

Well possibly snowpo in which case they need to take it down and reword, this is kinda embarrassing for them.

Well I went to stroke the cat and she went for me.
I'm dialing 101 now.

SunsetBeetch yes they seem to a bit slow sorting it out. Actually, looking at it again it defines hate crime in the red speech bubble.

I think this is likely a response to the woman who arrested for affray in Barnsley at the weekend, and the absolute torrent of hateful, abusive, racist nonsense that followed on social media. Out of context it doesn't make much sense but I think the force were right to make some kind of response as it really did look one step away from a lynching

It is horrible when people get dogpiled like that on social media.

A bit of clarification from SYP.

"Hi Neil, while non-crime hate incidents may not be criminal offences, they can feel that way to those affected & can sometimes escalate to crimes taking place. We work with partners to try & prevent this. More info on our website: "
t.co/yJGyHXT7LM

Come on mumsnetters. Do you actually think SY Police devised this policy themselves?! It's a government ruling which all forces have to follow. The govt haven't included misogyny in the list. . . Yet!

It’s absurd but the replies on Twitter are gold.

Fabulous. I will be able to make about 5 reports a day just on the commute into work!

So they’re admitting they’re going to investigate incidents which aren’t crimes but may feel like crimes to others? Totally bonkers.