---

Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Disorder (Scotland) Act takes full effect on Monday, 1 April 2024 – April Fools’ Day.  Even before the Act even comes into force the police are facing some tough questions.

The police have already drawn criticism for their decision to stop investigating certain crimes, such as theft and criminal damage, but they remain thorough in their pursuit of “hate crimes,” The Telegraph reported yesterday.

Now, Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament (“MSP”) Murdo Fraser is threatening legal action over Police Scotland’s decision to include his name on a database of “non-crime hate incidents” (“NCHIs”) after a trans activist chose to take offence at one of Mr. Fraser’s tweets.

After the trans activist made the report about Mr. Fraser, the police conducted an investigation but concluded that no crime had occurred and no charges were filed. However, police still added Mr. Fraser to their NCHI database and neglected to inform him about it. He only learned of this after the same person who had made the initial allegation lodged a subsequent complaint against him with the Holyrood standards authorities, using his inclusion in the database as evidence against him.

It could hardly get more senseless or menacing: An original accusation is made but found to have no basis. However, the accused is still listed on a police database that prospective employers may access during a recruitment process, under Disclosure Scotland.

The Telegraph quoted Mr. Fraser as saying: “I was – and remain – furious that the spurious complaint made against me was logged as a hate incident without my knowledge. How many other members of the public are similarly unwitting victims of this Orwellian approach to policing, despite having committed no crime?”

The implications are extremely serious: people with opinions with which others disagree may be unfairly stigmatised and hindered in their job search through the manipulation of law enforcement processes by political activists.

Why on earth are Police Scotland involving themselves in the first place in any incident where no crime has been committed? Are we now funding a national social work department, where uniformed officers’ job is to address hurt feelings and reprimand citizens at the behest of keyboard warriors?

“Things can only get worse when the Hate Crime Act becomes enforceable on Monday. One can imagine that in basement bedrooms all over the country, activists will be anticipating with glee the movement of their clocks’ second hands towards midnight on Sunday, when they can press “send” on all those complaints they’ve been storing up for just this occasion. And if, as will be the case in the vast majority of cases, innocent civilians are inconvenienced and intimidated by a police investigation only to be informed they committed no crime, they will still face the prospect of being placed on Holyrood’s sinister equivalent of the naughty step,” The Telegraph said.

It is unacceptable for innocent citizens to have their political views registered by the police on a database that can be accessed by potential employers or anyone else.

A week ago, The Telegraph reported that “trans rights” activists had vowed to target Harry Potter author JK Rowling with the new legislation.  JK Rowling’s response to the new law was that it is “ludicrous.”  She has said she will “do some more accurate sexing” once it comes into force.

In England, the practice by some police forces of recording NCHIs has already been ended, but good old “progressive” Scotland is way behind the curve as usual.  This will remain the case so long as the three of the main parties in the Scottish parliament – the Scottish National Party (“SNP”), Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats – give support to the ludicrous, undemocratic policy where the Orwellian policing of people’s thoughts and words now takes precedence over the humdrum and tiresome job of investigating actual crimes.

By using this law against their opponents, political activists are setting themselves up to become pariahs in their neighbourhoods and communities, and MSPs who advocate for this policy, as well as the police who are “just following orders,” will go down in the history books as incompetent buffoons.

Featured image: Humza Yousaf, First Minister of Scotland.  Source: CNN