Police contact after GC views?

[FairCop]

Hi all,
Regular poster, NC for this.

I am a representative of a group of individuals who have formed over shared concerns about the police’s attempts to criminalise people for 'thought crimes' even though they don't contravene any laws.

Our group already includes a number of high profile cases who have appeared in national media, but we were wondering if there are more people who have been contacted by police who perhaps haven't publicised it.

We're trying to collect accounts of people who have been spoken to by police (in the first instance, other figures of authority may well figure later on) for voicing their GC views, which have been conflated with the supposed offence of Misgendering or even Malicious Communications.

We aim to work with the College of Police, police forces, Police & Crime Commissioners and all other interested parties to improve the existing guidelines, ensuring that they recognise citizens’ freedom of expression while continuing to provide robust protection against actual crimes that are truly motivated by hatred.

Feel free to DM if you want, and I promise if you don't want your account included later on, it won't appear when our action goes live.

Bump

No such experience thankfully but I have recently been made aware of something that I didn't realise before, which may or may not be relevant to the thread.

The Home Office currently has five centrally monitored strands of hate crime on which they produce statistical reports each year. These are race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity.

These do not match up wth the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 but suprise, surprise, transgender identity seems to have crept in there despite not being one of the EA2010 characteristics.

Local police forces can choose to add 'locally monitored strands' if they so choose.

Why don't they match up?

I suppose they'd need another entire police force, wouldn't they, to police all the hate women get on grounds of the protected characteristic of sex: 'you stupid bitch' etc. Easier to leave it off the list really...

@antibles wow, why does this not even surprise me. It also explains why police are so dismissive of sex based and therefore hate crimes against women and girls. The mysoginist stench flows right from the top and is getting worse not better.

Extract from the Human Rights Committee which is being discussed on another thread. It demands answers from Twitter about why women are being discriminated against, and why sex is not included as a protected characteristic (again).

parliamentlive.tv/event/index/0364bfc3-5adc-4aef-99bd-48c68daacc38?in=15:27:30&out=15:50:30

Why don't they match up?

There's a reason why they don't match up.

In civil law there are nine protected characteristics against discrimination in services, employment etc (the Equality Act)
In the criminal law, there are fewer protected characteristics (as you've outlined).

There is a pilot project testing a hate crime/incident of misogyny in one force area.

Nottinghamshire if I remember correctly.

Thanks Pam.

Great clip sicario. Wow Joanna Cherry is impressive. So good to hear someone calling to account all this horrific misogynistic stuff on social media and emphasising sex not gender.

yes lass hate incidents against women and girls is just so...normal it's just the wallpaper of life.

Sorry OP if I've set the thread off on a bit of a tangent.

OP, I applaud your initiative but I think it's over ambitious for a group of individuals to aim to "work with" the range of interested parties that you've mentioned.

I also think that you may not be targeting the right people:

The guidelines on hate crime come from the Crown Prosecution Service*.
The 'Trans Toolkit' was developed by LGBT sub-groups of the National Police Chiefs Council.*
Police 'training' was adhoc, with each force* doing its own thing.

From what I've seen the 'training' did not touch upon the policing and investigation of transphobia (evidence gathering, points to prove etc) -

The so-called 'training' was delivered by transwomen explaining what it was like to be a transwoman. That information may be interesting but it is a fat lot of use when you are an investigator.

I'm not being negative about your aims, I'm being realistic. I believe that this topic has to be addressed either at the highest levels of government (Home Office and Justice Department) or at force level, in meetings with individual Chief Constables.

Good luck nevertheless. And I mean that!

Thanks all.

Bumping for the evening crowd.

I appreciate your comments Pam and we also hope we can capture the attention of the right people.
We have of course sought comprehensive legal advice and we believe we currently have the right initial target, but yes there may be others as we progress. Fingers crossed eh.

Op have you been in touch with index on censorship? They are a free speech charity. They would definitely be worth talking to.
Good luck. I am v supportive of what you are trying to do. Keep us posted.

Sorry for the Daily Fail link.

Harry The Owl (and limerick writer) is in the DM/F.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7018915/Businessman-launches-landmark-High-Court-battle-overhaul-official-rules-hate-crimes.html

PC: ‘we need to check your thinking’

Wow.
Just wow.

Manderley I believe one of our group is in touch with them, or hoping to be.

Thank you Gingernaut.
Also in the Times

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