Flags removed ahead of Pride event = hate crime?

[Windy23]

Not sure how to feel about this. I don't agree with someone taking the flags down but is it really a hate crime?

BBC News - Hate crime probe after Arran Pride flags removed
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgq3ekyjeveo

It's the Intent and the messaging and the intention to cause division by certain hate groups I'm glad the police are taking this seriously

"Certain hate groups"? Do we know who took the flags down then?

😂😂😂

Shame they don't take rape as seriously as they take this, eh.

Well yes they so but you had to comment just to be provocative whataboutary adds nothing

Good to see the flag of that bastion of gay rights, Palestine, still flying.

Yes. It is clearly a hate crime.

It's not difficult for you to look up the definition of that is it?

That's why they are investigating. It's probably much more than just removing a flag

That’s not the definition of a hate crime.

Indeed. What do you think the crime might be?

Destruction of property not belonging to those who did it perhaps?

Plus:

Any crime can be prosecuted as a hate crime if the offender has either:

demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity
Or

been motivated by hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity

I wouldn't call it a hate crime as such- in my mind, "hate crime" brings to mind physical assault or harassment- but I would describe it as hate-motivated vandalism at least. I'd certainly be a little wary of being openly gay around there; the removal and dumping of the flags feels threatening, like a warning, even if it's not a "hate crime" in the way I tend to think of them.

I wish the police would take the messaging of the f*ing flag seriously.

I love how in other threads FWR pretends that the board is not homophobic 🤣

Really obnoxious behaviour.
Including the fly tipping flags on the beach.

Lesbian and Gay people deserve better than to have their march sabotaged.

Suffragette flags, Adult Human Female banners, Palestine Flags, Star of David, and the Tufty Club. No one has the right to ban anyone else’s flag.

Well, except from Holyrood!

Early hours of the morning on an island of barely 4000 people sounds like some people who were pissed rather than an organised ‘hate group’. Although who knows what the ‘wee frees’ might get up to.

Oh come on Op be honest,we all know what you mean by certain hate groups.Women who are sick to the back teeth of the agps and fetishes who long ago bulldozed their way into the LGB and turned pride into a freak show.It’s. longer about gay and lesbian rights.It’s not hate that perpetrated this ‘crime’ it’s frustration and anger.

As the report states 'an unknown group' and you seem to have knowledge that it has been committed by 'certain hate groups', one assumes that you have contacted the Police to pass on this information as requested in the article. Would help with the inquiries presumably.

Putin and Orban would be proud of you, you have swallowed the rhetoric nicely 😂

As an LGB person I find the rainbow flags quite aggressively disturbing since they represent a movement that actively seeks to suppress and exclude homosexuals and sees them as 'sexual racists'. They're not a neutral message, are they?

I wonder if the removal of suffragette flags or Women's Rights flags would be as vigorously defended should someone want to remove them and their, er, messaging.

Sauce for the goose and all that.

The problem is that the rainbow flag is now seen as highly political. If the Reform party were holding a rally and people stole their flags, would that be seen as a hate crime? Probably not.

They don't, though, do they?

Given all the unsolved violent crimes, flags shouldn't just be low down on the list of priorities, they shouldn't make it onto the list at all.

The rainbow flag is fine as it's everyone but the progress flag is deeply problematic.

It might be pro-trans but there are several emerging issues which demonstrate it is essentially pro-homophobic at this point.

So I do think it's complex.

The police are wasting a huge amount of time on this though. Hate crime isn't removal of flag, because you don't know the intention of the removal and that's important.

Why? Well to give an example. If it's the progress flag is removed by a lesbian who feels like it's homophobic and an act of intimidation, good luck getting a prosecution.