Humza Yousaf has received more complaints under Scotland’s new hate crime bill for his 2020 speech about “often being the only non-white person in the room” than J.K. Rowling, it was claimed today. The Mail has more.
Since the controversial legislation was rolled out on Monday almost 4,000 complaints are said to have been made to Police Scotland, with the force reportedly dealing with 60 complaints on average per hour.
Police sources have now shed light on the nature of the hate crime complaints, revealing that the majority relate to the First Minister as well as J.K. Rowling.
“A lot of those complaints were about Humza Yousaf, on the same complaint about his parliamentary rant,” an insider told the Sun. “J.K. Rowling has had some, but not as many as Humza Yousaf.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson also said: “We have received a number of complaints in relation to a speech in the Scottish Parliament on June 10th 2020.
“Earlier complaints regarding this matter were assessed at the time and it was established no crime was committed and no further action was required.”
As the storm over the laws continues to intensify, Yousaf’s minister for victims and community Siobhian Brown, warned of “hysteria” gripping Scots, revealing that a member of the public had made a fake complaint in her name.
The SNP MSP said that there was “misinformation” about the new act that was leading people to make a series of “fake and vexatious complaints”. …
Meanwhile, complaints levied against Mr. Yousaf relate to a speech he gave in Holyrood back in 2020 during a debate to show solidarity with anti-racism following the death of George Floyd in the United States.
In a clip, that is often taken out of context and spread widely on social media, the SNP leader tells of how people are surprised that he is often the “only non-white person in the room” in most of the meetings he attends.
He adds: “Why are we so surprised when the most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by people who are white?
“Take my portfolio, for example. The Lord President is white, the Lord Justice Clerk is white, every High Court judge is white, the Lord Advocate is white, the Solicitor General is white, the Chief Constable is white, every Deputy Chief Constable is white, every Assistant Chief Constable is white, the head of the Law Society is white, the head of the Faculty of Advocates is white and every prison governor is white.”
A 45-second clip of the lengthy four-year-old speech, that was made in June 2020, gained traction online last year. It was spurred on when X’s owner, Elon Musk, replied “what a blatant racist” to a post by a well-known right-wing media account.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Murdo Fraser MSP has asked Police Scotland if they have logged a ‘non-crime hate incident’ against Humza Yousaf, just as they did against him when a trans activist reported his tweet mocking the SNP’s Non-Binary Equality Action Plan. He pointed out that Police Scotland have to log the ‘hate crime’ reports about Yousaf as an NCHI unless they operate different rules for the First Minister. The Telegraph has more.
Stop Press 2: Toby has written to Humza Yousaf, offering to help him get the NCHI logged against him deleted if he joins the Free Speech Union.
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