A 'two-tier society': the new hate crime law in Scotland

What do a "sex shop, a mushroom farm and a 'hate monster' have in common?" asked the BBC.

They're all at the heart of a "blazing row" about "prejudice, offence and freedom of speech", ignited by the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which comes into force on 1 April. Supporters say the new legislation is a "serious and essential attempt to make Scotland a more tolerant society", said the broadcaster's Scotland editor James Cook. 

But critics claim the "illiberal" law is a "scandal".

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'Two-tier society'

The new legislation criminalises threatening or abusive behaviour that is intended to stir up hatred against someone who possesses, or appears to possess, certain characteristics related to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variations in sex characteristics. Race is already included under the Public Order Act 1986, but the controversial omission of sex has been criticised by some feminist groups.

Scotland is about to become a "two-tier society" where "some folk are given protection by the law from some kinds of hate crimes, while others will simply have to suck up abuse", wrote Jim Spence for The Courier. For example, "while it will be an offence to stir up hate against trans folk", it "won't break the law to stir up hate against women".

Harassment or threatening behaviour is already illegal, so the purpose is "clearly to criminalise speech which some minority groups find offensive or abusive", said Iain Macwhirter in The Spectator. "It gives carte blanche to anyone who feels they have been misgendered, ridiculed, or that their religion has been disrespected, to leap to their nearest reporting centre to ventilate their hurt feelings."

Third-party "reporting centres" will allow victims or witnesses who don't feel comfortable going to the police to make an allegation. The inclusion of places such as a mushroom farm in East Lothian and Luke and Jack's sex shop in Glasgow has "raised eyebrows", said the BBC's Cook.

An awareness campaign for the new law has also drawn criticism. The Police Scotland video, featuring a cartoon character called the hate monster who gets "bigger and bigger" until he's "weighing ye doon", has been accused of "trivialising hate crimes", said The Sun.

'Shadowboxing phantoms'

Critics of the new law are "shadowboxing phantoms", wrote Andrew Tickell for The Herald. The act has "plenty of safeguards". Although it does provide for stiffer sentences for offenders convicted of crimes deemed to be "aggravated by prejudice", the "aggravators" don't criminalise any conduct that is currently legal. And "contrary to what's been asserted", the act "does not say that offences are aggravated by hatred just because the victim feels that way". 

Similarly, said Tickell, "stirring up" offences have "been on the British statute book for decades".

Meanwhile, the founders of a sex shop in Glasgow's Merchant City have defended its role as a third-party reporting centre. "We're not actually taking any of the information ourselves," Ian Diamond told the BBC. "We're just kind of handholding" and "making sure that the police are getting all the information that is necessary".

First Minister Humza Yousaf insisted that the bill "sent a strong and clear message to victims, perpetrators, communities and to wider society that offences motivated by prejudice will be treated seriously and will not be tolerated".

"I don't know about you", said Tickell, but if a "knuckle-dragging bigot spits on a priest" while "gobbing up anti-Irish and anti-Catholic slurs, I have no problem with classifying that as a hate crime".