Did anyone else see this news story headline and think…

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

Fury as Scotland's new Hate Police 'tell woman they are discarding her complaint about a Star of David merged with a Swastika in Facebook post made by SNP minister's relative - because she isn't Jewish

and think to themselves it could easily read …. Fury as Scotland's new Hate Police 'tell transwoman they are discarding their complaint about misgendering because she isn't __' 🤦🏻‍♀️

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13281717/Police-face-furious-backlash-row-swastika-hate-crime.html

No and I'm really quite angry that this actual hate crime is not being investigated or prosecuted. Especially as it would appear to be yet more evidence of the police refusing to treat the SNP politicians and their families the same as other people under the law

I agree with @Hoardasurass

@Hoardasurass absolutely! I think hate crime laws are pointless, but if you're going to have them why wouldn't you prosecute this? It's the intention to arouse hatred of Jews that's harmful, not its direct effect on non-hateful people.

Hang on a sec, isn't it an integral part of this Hate Law that it is the perception of anybody that matters, not just the person at whom the Hate is aimed?

So now everyone can use the Pride/Swastika with complete abandon.
Actually I agree with Hoardasurass.

You're right. This is what the Act says:

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.

So there is nothing at all about having to be a member of the group that the hate is aimed at.

Only as long as you are not/do not identify as any part of the alphabet soup rainbow.

Strong agreement from me. The absurdity of this law and its implementation is being peeled a layer at a time to reveal a particularly rancid onion.

It strikes me the police will use the law when they think it’s the ‘right kind of hate crime’ and it won’t hit the benchmark when it’s ’the wrong side of history’.

Let's face it, this law was made to shut women up about transactivsm. The rest of it is just window dressing

Neither the SNP nor the Scottish police give a good god damn about racism/antisemitism/Islamophobia/ homophobia etc.

It's all about the trans and always was.

I think you missed the small print where it says the cops can selectively enforce the law however they want.
For instance this is a hate crime https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/02/humza-yousaf-racist-graffiti-hate-crime-laws-scotland/
Whereas somone putting a swastika into the Star of David is absolutely not a hate crime, because something something Jewish people.
But if hypothetically you were to put a swastika on a trans flag that would be the very worst crime imagineable.

As a result of this reporting, surely a lot of Jewish people in Scotland will now have seen this disgusting display of antisemitism and be reporting it?

Absolutely ridiculous to suggest that only Jewish people can be offended by antisemitism and I understood the legislation had set no criteria for who could report what.

Surely this law must be repealed, it's an absolute farce.

If you follow the official investigation process, it all becomes clear 🙃

https://twitter.com/blablafishcakes/status/1776962351117266979?t=9WlFIv-Wroymj-raceyCvg&s=19

And on a more serious point, I fully agree with the above that it's a pointless crime category but as it does exist, this should come under it (irrespective of whether the person who filed the crime/complaint is Jewish or not).

Is it petty to hope that lots of people, Jewish and not Jewish, submit the same thing? It would lend itself very well to being a people's version to test the law, similar to JKR's test.

So does that mean this law is just a load of grandstanding with no substance, then?

This is different to the 'taking offence on someone's behalf' for trivial matters eg a non Muslim assuming that Muslims are offended by Father Christmas or something similar.
If something is blatantly offensive to members of a community then we should all be able to speak up as part of a wider community.

I think hate/thought crime is a load of bollocks but as a minimum it should at least be applied equally (obviously not for the old fashioned kind of women this is Scotland the new misogyny is just as strong as the old misogyny)

I can't understand what defence there is for only accepting reports from people with one characteristic when other reports can be made without the characteristic in question (although I suppose someone would have to define "trans" in a coherent way 🙃)

I find the current acceptance of antisemitism genuinely disturbing.

[Off topic but I love how EVERY news report about the idiot hate crime laws means a different audience gets to see JKR tweets because they keep including them!]

Brilliant but it misses out the very important question "is the person complained about a member of or closely related to a member of the SNP?"

Good point 😂

Good old Humza. After Boris and Nicola went, there was a bit of a gulf where we didn't have enough politicians acting like Spitting Image parody characters. Humza is now filling that gap with his hatefully discriminatory hate law and his unfortunate scooting technique. It would be pure comedy if it didn't have a real life impact on those who inevitably will be unfairly investigated at some point. So far all we've seen is the spectacular fails and reverse ferreting. I'm not looking forward to seeing the real impact, when a TRA manages to get an investigation opened up (although JKR's incredible offer to restate what was said if it's simply a factual statement about someone's sex will hopefully make a difference).

😱 how could you say such a thing?

But yeah! Seems like it!

Apparently antisemitism is not a hate crime but might be malicious communications instead so after public pressure they police are investigating it as such.
The question now becomes if blatant antisemitism isn't a hate crime under the hate act what is the point of having the act at all?

SNP Minister condemns own father in swastika hate row https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13285533/SNP-Minister-condemns-father-swastika-hate-row.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton

I think the biggest worry for me is that it depends on the officer's own viewpoint when reading the report as to whether it's deemed hateful enough or not to investigate. 99/100 police officers could deem it qualifies as hate but if you get that 1/100 who doesn't then it gets binned.

So, in theory, they could get all racism reports viewed by a white officer, all religious reports viewed by someone of an opposing faith/atheist, disability hate viewed by an officer who has a problem with anyone on benefits etc etc and suddenly they don't have to investigate anything. Or have I understood this part wrong?