Police raising awareness of hate crime

[Bluebell246]

Just saw a Facebook post from Police Scotland raising awareness of hate crime at a women's centre. Isn't being female the only protected characteristic not covered by hate crime legislation?

Maryfield Community Policing Team visited Dundee International Women's Centre to raise awareness during our Hate Crime Campaign.
Experiences about hate crime were shared and officers reinforced that hate crime should not be part of life - don't accept it - report it.

#DontTolerateHate
#bekind
#CoffeewithaCop

What about the Harry Miller case? Why does Harry Miller have a police record when the judge says he committed no crime? What about spurious allegations of 'hate crime' designed to silence debate? That was another comment by Justice Knowles. Public confidence in the police is at an all time low because they fail to investigate real crime. Why aren't the police concerned about that? And that they are perceived as operating on behalf of a lobby group while failing to protect the public from recidivist criminals?

I recognise that in this instance they are probably trying to raise awareness of racist and religious based abuse as it's an international centre but it just seems like a shocking lack of awareness or a shocking lack of care that they would choose a women's centre when women are not protected by hate crime laws despite being subject to appalling levels of violence and abuse

Misogyny is the only 'hate' crime against a protected characteristic that isn't recorded, OP you are right.

Misandry is too but men don't often get treated like women.

Please raise this and ask some questions if you can. It would be good to understand if the police think the hate crime is because they are women or because of their skin colour or religion.

I have seen some of those sort of posts. The thing that struck me is ‘hate crimes’ are crimes that are motivated by hate (they don’t say this) so why are they suddenly asking people to report crime but only if hate has been involved. Why not encourage people to report all crimes, including crimes against women? They are obfuscating the meaning of the word ‘crime’; may be because of Harry meaning they don’t want to say ‘hate incident’.

but it just seems like a shocking lack of awareness or a shocking lack of care that they would choose a women's centre when women are not protected by hate crime laws

I agree. Only a week ago crime statistics were published showing violent crime against women was at a 10 year high. It seems very bizarre to be highlighting 'hate crimes' at a time when violent misogyny is killing women, yet they have zero protection from this legislation. Harry's case shows how open it is to abuse.

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/can-no-longer-put-women-danger-homes/

I don't think it's the only protected characteristic that isn't covered. I'm pretty sure age isn't either.

I don't think it's the only protected characteristic that isn't covered. I'm pretty sure age isn't either

That's an interesting point floisme. There seems to be serious problems with the way hate crime legislation is being applied and its composition.

disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity

www.cps.gov.uk/hate-crime

Contrast with the College of Policing:

There are five monitored strands of hate crime:
• disability
• race
• religion
• sexual orientation
• transgender.
...
1.3 Non-monitored hate crime
The five strands of monitored hate crime are the minimum categories that police officers and staff are expected to record. There are, however, many other groups in society who have been targeted with hostility and crime. During consultation to agree the monitored strands, a further 21 different groups were identified for consideration. It is essential that the focus on the monitored strands is not used to deny the existence of other hate crimes. Additional strands that were considered, but not included, range from sexual abuse to football violence.

www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Support/Equality/Documents/Hate-Crime-Operational-Guidance.pdf

Then contrast these with the Equality Act 2010:

4 The protected characteristics

The following characteristics are protected characteristics—
age;
disability;
gender reassignment;
marriage and civil partnership;
pregnancy and maternity;
race;
religion or belief;
sex;
sexual orientation.

Then contrast those with:

4 The protected characteristics

The following characteristics are protected characteristics—
age;
disability;
gender reassignment;
marriage and civil partnership;
pregnancy and maternity;
race;
religion or belief;
sex;
sexual orientation.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4

Can you imagine, if insulting old women became hate speech? There wouldn't be enough paper in the world to record it all.

I’ve never understood the concept of hate crimes. I’m with Gene Hunt (Ashes to Ashes), who said:
“Hate crimes? What- as opposed to all those ‘love you to bits’ crimes?”!
Surely a crime is a crime. The emotional state or motive of the perpetrator should be irrelevant.
You shouldn’t have to try and prove in court that the person who attacked or threatened you actually hates you as well. What difference does it make whether they do or not?
And hating someone is not illegal - just acting on it is. I hate my obnoxious neighbour and have reported him to the police for criminal damage in the past, but I just ignore him. If I punched him in the street, then I should be arrested for common assault, regardless of the fact I hate him!

@Floisme, yes indeed.