Is "openly Jewish" a hate crime under the April Fools Scottish hate crime law?

[lechiffre55]

A Metropolitan police officer threatened to arrest a man for being "Openly Jewish" in London. Is this a hate crime in Scotland under the new hate crime laws?

I think it is. Could someone report it for me please I find it incredibly offensive and racist. I want to see what happens when Scottish Police try to get involved with racist actions taken by the Metropolitan Police.

https://twitter.com/Jebadoo2/status/1781393179683483960

I think if you reported this it would be referred to the Met, who would presumably then investigate themselves.

Absolutely shocking, though.

'The Met Police has apologised after an officer said an antisemitism charity leader looked "openly Jewish" as he was threatened with arrest for being near a pro-Palestine march.
Gideon Falter was wearing a kippah skull-cap when he was stopped in the Aldwych area of London on Saturday.
He was told by police his presence was causing a "breach of peace", in a video posted online.
...
Another officer said: "You will be escorted out of this area so you can go about your business, go where you want freely or, if you choose to remain here, because you are causing a breach of peace with all these other people, you will be arrested."
The clip showed the officer saying that Mr Falter's presence was "antagonising".'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68856360

I have no words. The Met are not fit for purpose

What the fuck have we come to?

Can you imagine how it would have gone down if an 'openly Muslim' man were told that he's breaching the peace and being antagonistic merely by his Muslim presence in the vicinity of a group of English Defence League marchers?

"openly Jewish" reminds me very much of this from the 80s
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I think this makes the Met look really stupid, but have to say I think politcians have ramped up this situation, and doubt the Met or any police force, nor the ordinary person on the street would come out of this well in taking a decision on the spur of the moment.

I certainly think the Met should apologise, but I think we need to find a way to calm down the whole hate crime, dobbing people in culture that people like Braverman have provoked.

And as we know from how quick TRAs are to report someone to the police, there is no doubt this happens in other areas. For all we know someone approached the police man I said I feel threatened. (And doubt that met police are required to be educated about different religions, cultures and the importance of signifiers of that.)

In France you aren't allowed to wear anything that is seen as religious, ie women not wearing the veil, although have no idea if this means that in France Jewish men cant wear a skull cap in public.

The boroughs in the part of London I live in have had to resort to no public displays whether flags or posters reflecting support for either side in the Gaza conflict. (Not forgetting that not that long ago the English flag carried far more connotations than supporting a football team and some boroughs stopped them being displayed on housing estates they managed.)

In Northern Ireland they have the parades commission as a way of "safely" allowing parades in support of differnt communities to go ahead but only on agreed routes. (Isn't there something similar in Scotland in relation to football matches and sectarianism?)

Not meaning to downplay what happened but to expect the bobby on the beat to have the right response is in fact one of the things the Met did complain about. That the Government was franchising out to them decisions about how society should behave, but not having the intergrity to do it itself.

But as OP's question was about how the Scottish police would respond to this situation, I think the question should be asked of the politicians in Scotland who created the law. Not the muggins on the front line who have been left to as individuals interpret, or worse take advantage of to promote their own biases.

This is madness

Should have added at the end of my post, which I know is long, but the stupidity of what this individual police man did is that many people who are "openly Jewish" participate in the "pro Palestinian" marches.

Following his logic he should have asked all of them to leave the march!

So much of what goes wrong today is about people at the very end of a long path of decision making being left to implement something they have neither the skill, nor the relevant information to act on.

Where @ArabellaScott quotes
"Another officer said: "You will be escorted out of this area so you can go about your business, go where you want freely or, if you choose to remain here, because you are causing a breach of peace with all these other people, you will be arrested."
The clip showed the officer saying that Mr Falter's presence was "antagonising".'"

Isn't this discrimination based on a protected characteristic under the equalities act? Being "openly Jewish" is "causing a breach of peace". What the police officer said is itself illegal? Add onto that the threat of arrest, and I can't see how it could possibly get any worse.

Seems like a setup to manufacture sympathy

Would you care to explain how that would work?

Are you saying the gentleman knew the police would react that way?
What do you mean by this post?

I think the whole thing is awful. He just wanted to go about his business in London.

@IwantToRetire

In France you aren't allowed to wear anything that is seen as religious, ie women not wearing the veil, although have no idea if this means that in France Jewish men cant wear a skull cap in public

That's not quite correct. There isn't a blanket national ban here on wearing any clothing that is seen as religious.

There is however a national ban on wearing obvious religious symbols in the public (i.e. state) schools and as you say full face veils.

I've seen Kippah's worn locally (large Jewish population in the city up the road).

Would the officer done that to a black person if a far right match was happening....the not the nine o clock news sketch instantly sprang to mind.

Isn't the French ban on/in publicly funded services/buildings not the legal sense of "in public".
e.g. it's ok to walk down a public road wearing religious garb, but you can't enter the public department of xxxxxx building with religious garb? Or am I completely wrong on that?

arrested for being "openly Black" in public
my how that 40ish year old comedy sketch has aged today........

You mean, he was asking for it?

Here are some actual facts about the incident. Members of the Jewish community in London are starting to feel uncomfortable and threatened by these protests. Many banners and chants could be interpreted as hate speech (including flying a swastika flag) and they feel that the demos are becoming less about Gaza and more about Jew hatred. Some have decided to confront the protestors with banners of their own and they often film themselves as back up incase something happens.
After the Jewish man was told he was being openly Jewish and they would arrest him, there was a complaint made and the Met issued a statement.
The statement basically said that Jews put themselves in danger by being there and they’re being provocative and they can’t protect them. Here’s a pic of what they wrote:

@ArabellaScott
Just like the women who were "asking for it"
and the kids were "asking for it"
and the wives were "asking for it"
It was their fault....

So in a climate of open antisemitism, a man's presence in a public space has been deemed problematic due to being identifiable as Jewish. And an official has decided to remove him under threat of arrest.

Jews don't count indeed
This is insanity

The police are suggesting Jews should, what, avoid certain areas? Hide any signs that might give them away as 'openly Jewish'?

It’s appalling, if this isn’t about Jewish people and anti-semitism then any Jewish person should be completely safe. If it is about Jewish people then they are unsafe. It’s like an admission from the met that some people at the marches are anti-semetic and they will hold the victims of aggression responsible rather than the perpetrators.

Theres that Iranian dissident the police arrested for holding a “Hamas are terrorists” sign.

It’s ridiculous, people absolutely have a right to peaceful protest but people have a right to counter protest too without fear of violence or arrest.

And they certainly have a right to walk about while being openly Jewish, ffs!

Perhaps if we used chalk to mark a six pointed star on the clothes of Jewish people in London, that people might recognise the Star of David on them as they walk around the city to know to treat them with respect? We could similarly mark their homes and businesses so people knew to be nice to them?
Perhaps we could tattoo their forarms with numbers so people could look the numbers up on a database to know how to treat them? Wouldn't that make London safer for everyone?
Why don't the Met just go whole hogg and get Hugo Boss in to redesign their uniforms?

This is incredibly sour and annoyed sarcasm for those that would abuse context.

Really? In the middle of a pro Palestinian march..just because you can doesn't mean you should.