The Free Speech Union and Fair Cop, the campaigning group led by ex-copper Harry Miller, have written a joint letter to the Home Secretary threatening legal action if she removes the constraints on the police’s recording and retention of ‘non-crime hate incidents’. The Sun has more.
Mr. Young said: “The idea that forcing the police to spend more time investigating ‘non-crime’ is going to reduce actual crime is bonkers.
“Burglars and car thieves will have a free hand, knowing the police are too busy reading our tweets to police our streets.”
Woke police had sparked huge controversy by tracking ‘non-criminal hate crimes’ in recent years.
The policy saw police files opened on a number of bizarre and trivial incidents.
Cops opened a “hate incident” file after an 11 year-old boy was called “shorty” back in 2022.
Last year, then Cabinet minister David T.C. Davies was investigated for a non-crime hate incident after he sent a leaflet to his Welsh constituents about a proposed new travellers site in the area.
After a series of legal challenges, a new police code telling officers they should only record non-crime hate talk when absolutely necessary was unveiled last year.
Ms. Cooper wants to reverse this change because of a rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.
Mr. Young’s letter to the Home Sec – seen by the Sun on Sunday – states: “We ask for your assurance that the proposed reversal… will not happen.
“Should this assurance not be forthcoming, we put you on notice… we will take legal action to force you and the College of Policing to comply with the law.”
The letter is also signed by ex-police officer Harry Miller.
Mr. Miller was dragged through the courts and ended up being slapped with a ‘non-crime hate incident’ on his crime report after he sent tweets criticising the idea of changing gender.
He won a legal challenge against the move, with the Court of Appeal ruling that his right to freedom of expression had been breached.
Reports of non crime hate incidents can show up on a criminal record for six years.
Worth reading in full.
Here is a key passage from the FSU and Fair Cop’s joint letter:
We were alarmed to read in yesterday’s papers of your desire to see more NCHIs recorded by police forces in England and Wales. According to a report in the Telegraph, Home Office officials, at your urging, are considering a new “zero-tolerance” approach to ensure that specifically antisemitic and Islamophobic ‘hate speech’ that falls short of criminality is recorded by police.
A Home Office source – presumably one of your Special Advisors – is quoted as saying: “The Home Office has committed to reverse the decision of the previous government to downgrade the monitoring of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate, at a time when rates of those incidents have increased.”
“It is vital,” the source added, “that the police can capture data relating to non-crime hate incidents when it is proportionate and necessary to do so in order to help prevent serious crimes which may later occur.”The source appears to be unaware that the reason the threshold for the recording and retention of NCHIs was raised by the previous government was to bring the practice into line with the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Miller v The College of Policing [2021] EWCA Civ 1926, not because Suella Braverman was less concerned than you about “antisemitic and Islamophobic ‘hate speech’”. According to the Court of Appeal, the manner in which NCHIs were being recorded and retained when the threshold was lower – and the operational guidance police forces were following – was a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR” or the “Convention”), as brought into British law by the Human Rights Act 1996 (“HRA”), as well as the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”). We are concerned that if the statutory Code of Practice introduced by the last government is withdrawn, which appears to be your intention, and the College of Policing is once again given a free hand when it comes to drawing up operational guidance relating to NCHIs, police forces in England and Wales will start breaking the law again.
Stop Press 2: The Telegraph has a piece on the same story here.
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Don’t know about anyone else but I become a bit pensive when I hear some ‘champion of liberty’ say, “I believe in free speech, but …”
Free speech is precisely that – no caveats, no weasel words, no qualifications. If I don’t approve of what someone is saying, I ignore it. It really could not be simpler.
Yes I agree. And when somebody says they intend to kill you (or similar) they should be prosecuted for the intent to harm, as perhaps evidenced by the speech, and more importantly, any other evidence that points to that intent. The speech itself should never be the crime and should never be enough to prosecute. This is important with respect to social media because usually the speech exists in isolation, and without any other evidence is inadequate to prove intent.
It’s all so flipping obvious, because, for instance, 300 WhatsApp messages in one day, saying, “I love you” may be useful evidence to prosecute a stalker whereas a tweet explaining that it would be a great plan to kill everybody in Greece, in isolation, is evidence of stupidity alone.
What’s wrong with hate anyhow? Isn’t it morally justified to hate bad things?
Thank you for that thoughtful reply, Jay. As you say, the speech itself is not harmful – it’s rather like someone saying “guns kill people”. Well, no they don’t. the gun is not dangerous until someone picks it up.
As for hate; I was always advised that hate is born of fear and, having reached a very advanced age, I can confide that I fear nothing these days. The strongest feeling I can find within me is distaste or loathing for the fools who live amongst us.
And that is why I turned off all msm four yrs ago. The lies, the lack of honesty, truth was unbearable.
Yes, now that free speech is apparently illegal and legit criminals are being released early ( or not being sent to prison at all ) so that non-criminals who dare to dissent and oppose government policies can take their place, let’s take a look at how that’s working out for the government in Scotland, because that’s bound to help with the continuing issue of overcrowding, surely?
”The ”soft-touch” justice SNP Government has been accused of “fuelling crime” after releasing almost 500 inmates early from prison despite a high reoffending rate. Angela Constance secured enough support at Holyrood from the Nats and Scottish Greens to allow the initiative to go ahead due to overcrowding fears.
She confirmed on Wednesday that 477 cons were let out of jail before the end of their sentence, with them being freed in batches since June. Concerns have been raised by victims’ groups about the potential for these criminals to commit more crimes.
And now the Scottish Daily Express can reveal that the re-conviction rate for offenders who were released early during the Covid pandemic was worryingly high, with 70% of them returning to prison. The Scottish Prison Service confirmed that out of the 348 individuals released under emergency Covid powers in 2021, 250 had returned to custody at some point as of April 11, 2024.
The Scottish Tories blasted the Scottish Government for allowing a second batch of cons out early despite the risk to victims. Deputy Justice Spokeswoman Sharon Dowey told the Scottish Daily Express: “The SNP appear to have learned nothing from the early release of prisoners during the pandemic.”
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-fuelling-crime-70-prisoners-33555894
Next: Trans Man becomes Trans Woman
And it comes on top of Pixie Balls Cooper allowing the use of the word ‘criminals’ for people being arrested on suspicion of committing a crime as yet unproven.
I joined the Free Speech Union yesterday ….. just in time to feel that I’m contributing to this pushback in a very small way
Best £29.99 (I’m retired) I’ve spent this month.
4000 new members recently, according to the latest newsletter.
Good news indeed.
That is wonderful news!
You cannot be in two places at once. At least not unless you are light beam. While the copper in this photo is writing up his little hate incident, an unfortunate person is having a knife or a machete thrust into their ribs. Perhaps if Starmer exercised the same excessive zeal in stop and search and fast tracking the court appearance for those found with knives, then sending them down for 5 years instead of policing sentences on social media we might actually be a safer country for people to walk the streets.
It is mind boggling that the Police force are being used to such an extent of stupidity, how and what is the point of a “non crime”, other than to force control onto others?, its difficult to believe how far society has fallen in the last decade or so.
So this is what it will take to stop this incompetent government. Block up the courts with lawsuits against the gov’t. Another horrible waste of taxpayers money, but if the Labour gov’t continues to wreak havoc on we the people, what choice do the taxpayers have. Cutting winter fuel allowance for the elderly was one of the most despicable actions I have seen the Uk gov’t take in my 27 yrs here. Now they want to ban smoking in outside venues. How about tackling the real issues…..like lack of access to GP’s, a 7 million person waiting list for operations, young people being stabbed, few police visible anywhere, continually handing a billion pounds to ukraine despite nothing improving, and never speaking out or making plans to get able bodied adults into work.
Yvette ‘Allo ‘Allo Cooper is playing one of the parts in Keir Starmfuhrer’s comedy about the racist anti-semitic national socialist occupation of the UK.
And why is the Health Secretary Wes Streeting not fronting the ban on smoking in public places?
Will Wes be playing an active part in the comedy soon.
Not bloody likely.
They are keeping him warm and dry to take over.
So Starmer makes the announcement even though it is not his job.