Scottish Hate Crime Bill - information and resources.

[ArabellaScott]

Well. Here we go.

Disclaimer: I don't have any special expertise or knowledge. Check everything for yourself.

The Bill:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2021/14/contents/enacted

PART 1 Aggravation of offences by prejudice

PART 2 Offence of racially aggravated harassment

PART 3 Offences relating to stirring up hatred

It's part three that is most relevant to women and feminists.

I'll just paste the whole of Part 3:

(1)A person commits an offence if—

(a)the person—

(i)behaves in a manner that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting, or

(ii)communicates to another person material that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting, and

(b)either—

(i)in doing so, the person intends to stir up hatred against a group of persons based on the group being defined by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origins, or

(ii)a reasonable person would consider the behaviour or the communication of the material to be likely to result in hatred being stirred up against such a group.

(2)A person commits an offence if—

(a)the person—

(i)behaves in a manner that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive, or

(ii)communicates to another person material that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive, and

(b)in doing so, the person intends to stir up hatred against a group of persons based on the group being defined by reference to a characteristic mentioned in subsection (3).

(3)The characteristics are—

(a)age,

(b)disability,

(c)religion or, in the case of a social or cultural group, perceived religious affiliation,

(d)sexual orientation,

(e)transgender identity,

(f)variations in sex characteristics.

(4)It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to show that the behaviour or the communication of the material was, in the particular circumstances, reasonable.

(5)For the purposes of subsection (4), in determining whether behaviour or communication was reasonable, particular regard must be had to the importance of the right to freedom of expression by virtue of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the general principle that the right applies to the expression of information or ideas that offend, shock or disturb.

(6)For the purposes of subsection (4), it is shown that the behaviour or the communication of the material was, in the particular circumstances, reasonable if—

(a)evidence adduced is enough to raise an issue as to whether that is the case, and

(b)the prosecution does not prove beyond reasonable doubt that it is not the case.

(7)For the purposes of subsections (1)(a)(i) and (2)(a)(i), a person’s behaviour—

(a)includes behaviour of any kind and, in particular, things that the person says, or otherwise communicates, as well as things that the person does,

(b)may consist of—

(i)a single act, or

(ii)a course of conduct.

(8)For the purposes of subsections (1)(a)(ii) and (2)(a)(ii), the ways in which a person may communicate material to another person are by—

(a)displaying, publishing or distributing the material,

(b)giving, sending, showing or playing the material to another person,

(c)making the material available to another person in any other way.

(9)A person who commits an offence under this section is liable—

(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both), or

(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or a fine (or both).

It will be applicable to anything published in Scotland.

That covers anything on MN in theory.

Bonkers isn't it?

Does anyone know why misogyny wasn't included, how that came about? Why did we need to wait for a separate amendment and whose idea was that?

The Act was a response to lord Bracadale's report. Maybe in there?

Chilling

Disgrace my government. Really disgraceful

Will they need to extradite me?

I jest, but what a fucking mess

Important for anyone in Scotland if you are worried about being reported under the Hatemonster Act then you can find out if someone has targeted you by doing a Subject Access Request. WWW explain how to do this here:

Women Won’t Wheesht@WWWheesht
Those who attended #AlloaWomensFestival on Saturday will have heard @CallieMac88 discussing this.

It would appear that there are some who intend to use this legislation to try to curtail women's ability to freely discuss matters which affect their privacy, dignity & safety.

We all have a right to know if we have been reported for a "hate incident" & that has been recorded.

We have submitted individual SARs (Subject Access Requests) to Police Scotland, & will be doing so on a very regular basis whilst the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act is still on the statute, & we would recommend for your own peace of mind that you do too.

Hopefully Police Scotland have sufficient Staff to investigate every "hate incident" reported to them, as well as responding to every SAR within 1 month.

There is no charge to you for any SARs you submit.

If you wish to submit an SAR to Police Scotland, further information can be found here:

https://scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/data-protection/subject-access-requests…

There is a SAR template letter, checked by a lawyer, that is good to use & share available here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11GHJiIRDKe9NAiBB_aUPqvZyU2eV4055yNWJYo85kX0/edit

Doing this will also increase the bureaucratic costs of the Hatemonster act. Given that it seems a lot of Scots plan to break the act from April 1st onwards it should be pretty interesting.

Please share this around.

They can try and make life difficult for MNHQ. And no doubt expensive.

Expect more deletions and censorship.

The police won't do shit in most cases, but expect some show trials to silence women cos that's where we are at now.

It’s not going to be good for the Scottish tourist industry if there’s too much negative press. I can imagine The Fringe not being as attractive if punters feel the acts are being state sanctioned - takes the edge off it.

Thank you so much for all of this, it’s much appreciated. Solidarity and thanks to all the women pushing back in Scotland and beyond. We will prevail.

Googled the bill and this came up

Comedy Unleashed is currently looking into producing a special event in Scotland on 1 April to coincide with the implementation of the new bill. We’ll be platforming some reliably “problematic” comedians, and there’ll be plenty of wrongthink on display. Of course, this very much depends on us securing a venue that won’t cancel at the last minute

I tried to get tickets for that gig, it sold out in 9 minutes and the tickets were £30!

im disappointed, it’ll be a good night.

I bet. It would be great

Maybe they’ll stream it, subversive comedy that it is. What a thing to do to to Scotland Scot Gov

Thank you for your sterling work on this thread, @ArabellaScott.

I HRTFT yet, but this paragraph from the Scottish Police Guidance really jumped out at me:

"For recording purposes, the perception of the victim or any other person is the defining factor in determining whether an incident is a hate incident or in recognising the malice element of a crime. The perception of the victim should always be explored, however they do not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief and police officers or staff members should not directly challenge this perception. Evidence of malice and ill-will is not required for a hate crime or hate incident to be recorded and thereafter investigated as a hate crime or hate incident by police."

I can't quite believe this is really happening, tbh.

I want to encourage people to read the sources directly.

I'm no expert and the laws, guidance and their interactions seem quite complex.

I'm not sure if that police guidance relates to the new Act or if it will be updated as of next week.

Suzanne Moore has written a good article

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/03/26/scotland-hate-crime-act-humza-yousaf-snp-trans-self-id/

https://archive.ph/Urah4 paywallity jump

If, as appears to be the case, anything, written or said anywhere, that is read or heard in Scotland could break this law, then doesn't it put it at odds with Amerca's first amendment?

Police Scotland might have to send requests for American forces to investigate their citizens for hurty words.

I suspect although the US couldn't give a shiney what Scotland does (although Trump getting arrested if he visits one of his golf courses 😆) this could apply to any potential visitor from the States? Could be quite a diplomatic embarrassment.

Oh, Humza. It's like glaikit and panic are fighting for victory over his facial expression in every picture lately.

He really is responsible for a whole heap of mess and autocracy

''glaikit'' I had to Google that.

The DSL claims it's gendered, which surprised me. I had thought it was a unisex descriptor.

https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/glaikit

I wonder how many NCHI one could incur for singing this song?

Michael Foran is on STV tonight discussing this.

Great, I'll look out for it!

A service advisor (frontline call handler) from Police Scotland has kindly answered some questions. My questions are in italics, I've bolded some responses for emphasis and removed any potentially identifiable info:

Is the guidance I posted upthread current or will it be updated:

‘That's the guidance that we've got. And tbh, service advisors didn't even get that - we had a 6 minute briefing (basically a powerpoint) delivered by another service advisor that couldn't answer any of my (many) questions. That guidance is for officers, although we have access to it. A lot of the SA's aren't bothered about the officer's SOP and will just follow procedure, but a few of us are worried. Technically, if we say something on the phone or over email that someone takes a dislike to, they can report us. So even taking reports are going to be fraught with "am I saying the right thing?". We won't even be able to give advice’

‘we have had NO guidance so far about the third party reporting. I have no idea at the minute how this will work.’

will the police really and truly investigate every report of 'stirring up hatred'?

Resolution Team officers say they will be initially, but that will change pretty quickly. At the moment, a hate crime is prioritised, so officers will attend. But RT officers have said that will change and they will be passed all the HC reports (RT work from the service centre over the phone).
Service Advisors are encouraged to resolve at first point of contact (to lighten the load basically), but I don't think we're going to be able to do that when hate "crimes" are being reported - I can't count how many times I've told a caller or emailer that being an arsehole (name calling, swearing, staring, basically being a pita) isn't a crime. I don't think I will be able to do that any more. Mainly because it looks like that being an arsehole WILL become a crime if someone says "but it's a hate crime because....". Those narcs and personality disordered know exactly what words to say to get a response
I can't imagine that officers would be able to go out and arrest everyone that has been accused of a "hate crime" as they don't have the resources to arrest everyone that's been accused of a real crime! I suspect (unfortunately) that it's going to come down to who picks up the report as to what happens, as it is all subjective.

have you any advice for how we can deal with this?

Unfortunately, only advice I can give is report every time you feel any interaction could be classified as "hate". I hate to say it, but crashing the system with so many reports is the only way to get people to take notice - staff are struggling already with the volume of work. To give you an idea, I have been starting a shift with 4-500 emails sitting waiting to be answered (I work overlay which is evening into early morning) so that is after day shift have been working on them.

And if you do report, and feel able to do this under your own name, this is more likely to be investigated. Anonymous emails … are very low on the list of priorities as there is no-one to answer to, if you see what I mean. If an email is not anonymous, you can request either an incident number (which means an incident has been raised and will be seen by an officer) - this doesn't mean a crime has been committed, just that something has been reported.

Or you can request a reference number, which is the number that is assigned to the query itself, even if an incident isn't raised.
Report on the weekend - there are actually fewer emails to deal with over a weekend. Monday is the busiest day (lots of admin from courts/social work/healthcare workers/prisons, etc)

Final word:

There are a few of us that think this HC law is a disaster, and we're sleepwalking into 1984.

Thank you, anonymous police SA.

There are a few of us that think this HC law is a disaster, and we're sleepwalking into 1984.

Yes we are. Well said