By Bill Heaney
Forty police officers a day have been brought in, on overtime, to deal with 9,000 reports of hate crimes in the first two weeks, Scottish Conservative Party leader Douglas Ross told the Holyrood parliament today.
He told MSPs: “When we opposed the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, the Scottish Conservatives warned that the legislation would overburden our already overstretched police.
“Now, that is exactly what has happened. Forty officers a day have been brought in, on overtime, to deal with 9,000 reports of hate crimes in the first two weeks.”
The Tory leader quoted Calum Steele, who is the general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations: “Police officers have been left embarrassed by this week’s hate crime farce, with some left so angry they have told me they have never been more ashamed of being in the police service than they are at this moment.”
He added that officers have been pulled from other parts of the service to deal with those complaints.
Why does Humza Yousaf think that he is right and the police are wrong, asked Mr Ross, whose wife is a serving police officer?
Humza Yousaf responded: “In almost a quarter of the hate crime reports, the victims are police officers. Not only that, but we can say from the statistics that we have to hand that many of them suffer the most outrageous abuse, some of which is directed at them because of prejudice in relation to their sexual orientation and some in relation to their race.
Tory leader Douglas Ross, Calum Steele, who is the general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations, and First Minister Humza Yousaf.
“Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed what I think is the most worrying and concerning debasing of our political discourse by the Conservative Party, in relation to the hate crime act.
“Just imagine that the Conservatives had been successful in repealing the hate crime act. If the act did not exist, the stroke of a pen would have removed protection from stirring up of hatred against those who suffer racist abuse, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or abuse because of their disability.
“What a reckless and, frankly, unforgivable approach is being taken by a party that seems to be more interested in gaining shoddy tabloid headlines than in protecting people from hatred.”
Mr Ross was outraged. He replied: “Shoddy tabloid headlines”, for quoting police officers! A voice was given to police officers in this chamber, and that is the response that they get from their First Minister.
“It is a disgrace that the First Minister is unwilling to accept the failures of his act and listen to the voice of police officers up and down the country.
If he will not listen to police officers, he should listen to others, including the Conservatives, who said that the bill was too vague, was poorly defined, and would not work.
“Now, some of Scotland’s top legal experts have said the same. Alistair Bonnington, who is a professor of law at the University of Glasgow, has said that the law is ‘extremely dangerous ‘ and could see entirely respectable and reasonable citizens prosecuted for expressing viewpoints which the law would allow in almost every country in the world.”
“Lord Hope, who is a former Supreme Court justice and Scotland’s most senior judge, has said that the act has ‘misfired’ and has described it as ‘unworkable’. As the Scottish Conservatives have done, he has called for the hate crime act to be repealed.
“Why does Humza Yousaf think that he is right and legal experts are wrong?”
“Of the 8,984 hate crime complaints that were made to Police Scotland in the first couple of weeks of April, the vast majority—at least 95 per cent—have been deemed not to be crimes.
“The idea that there would somehow be mass criminalisation of people simply for expressing their opinions, or for being insulting or offensive, did not materialise.
“Why did it not materialise? If we look at the detail of the 2021 act, it makes it abundantly clear that, for the new stirring-up offences, behaviour has to be both threatening or abusive and intended to stir up hatred.
“We have a piece of legislation that does what any civilised society would want a piece of legislation of that nature to do: it protects people from hatred.
” Of course, there is an appropriate balance to be struck in relation to protecting people’s freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
“If only the Conservatives spent more time opposing hatred than they do opposing the hate crime act, they would be in a much better place.”
But Mr Ross wouldn’t back off. He said: “We are opposing Humza Yousaf’s bad SNP law because of the impact that it is having.
“Victims of hate crimes are not getting support from the police because the police are being inundated with thousands of complaints. We are hearing that from the police and from legal experts.
“We said at the very beginning that the act would put free speech at risk. Members will all have heard the report of a 74-year-old pensioner who was taken by the police to a station over a dispute with her neighbour. That grandmother was not charged and had not committed an offence, but she has been punished by the process—exactly as we warned would happen, just a few weeks ago.
“Public opinion is already against Humza Yousaf’s law. A recent poll found that two thirds of Scots thought that the hate crime act should be repealed.
“Why does Humza Yousaf think that he is right and the public are wrong?”
“In the figures for 2021-22, almost 7,000 hate crimes were recorded by Police Scotland. Those are almost 7,000 people who have been the victims of racist abuse, antisemitism, Islamophobia and transphobia, and people who have been the victims of hatred because of their sexual orientation or disability. Those people deserve protection.
“What we have seen in the past few weeks is deliberate disinformation from the Conservatives and many other bad-faith actors who have refused to look at what the law actually does.
“The law is abundantly clear that, for the new stirring up offences, behaviour has to be threatening or abusive and intended to stir up hatred.
In relation to police officers, let us go back to what Police Scotland has actually said. Let me commend and thank Police Scotland for the incredible job that it has done, despite the fact that there have been many bad-faith actors in relation to the hate crime act.
“In Police Scotland’s own words, there has been a ‘minimal’ impact on front-line policing in the first couple of weeks.
“Let me thank police officers not only for the work that they do, day in and day out, in tackling hate crime, but for the fact that almost a quarter of hate crime reports are against police officers themselves.”
But Mr Ross’s dander was up. He said: “We warned him that all these problems with the hate crime act would happen. We warned that the police would be overwhelmed, and that the law was poorly written and would put free speech at risk. He dismissed every single valid criticism. Humza Yousaf said that he knew best.
“Now, the police, legal experts and the public are telling him that he has got this badly wrong. The only person in Scotland who seems to think that the act is working well is Humza Yousaf. How on earth can the First Minister say that the hate crime act has been a success?”
The Scottish Parliament decided to stick with the Hate Crime legislation.