The Government could be forced to abolish non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) after a former head of the Metropolitan Police and Toby tabled a widely supported amendment to axe them in the House of Lords. The Times has more.
Lord Hogan-Howe, who led Britain’s biggest police force between 2011 and 2017, and Lord Young of Acton, head of the Free Speech Union, have tabled an amendment to the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill that would stop requiring police to record NCHIs.
It would abolish NCHIs as a special category of incident that must be recorded by officers.
The bill is being scrutinised in the Lords. Hogan-Howe and Young’s amendment is understood to have received the backing of dozens of crossbenchers in addition to the Conservatives, which means it has a good chance of succeeding.
If the amendment is voted through the Lords it will force the Government to either accept the scrapping of NCHIs or to use its majority in the Commons to overturn the amendment when it returns from the upper chamber.
NCHIs are supposed to be reserved for incidents that fall below the criminal threshold but help forces to develop intelligence on situations that could escalate into more serious harm or heightened community tensions.
Official guidance tells officers to record incidents that are “clearly motivated by intentional hostility” with a real risk of escalation “causing a significant harm or a criminal offence”.
They were introduced in 2014 after recommendations prompted by the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in London in 1993. However, they have been increasingly used by forces to record petty arguments and trivial online spats. Critics claim they are stifling freedom of speech and wasting police time.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Watch Toby’s speech tabling the amendment.
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Good work Toby.
“Non crime”. It was utter bollox from the outset. Why should plod and the judiciary concern themselves with a “non crime”?
Yes, it’s a very interesting example of the “Neuro-Linguistic Programming” that retired Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Gerrish of the UK Column warned about years ago.
See how the Globalist Marxists inserted the word “crime”, knowing that people will focus on that, and assume there is some sort of legitimate reason for police and lawyers to get involved, when, as you rightly pointed out, no crime has been committed in a “non-crime”.
So… an amendment to Crime and Policing legislation to make something that isn’t a crime, not a crime anymore.
Paging Mr Python. Please call your office.
True. But to undo absurdities, one must often begin by doing absurd things. It’s just the way of it.
This is an opportunity for Conservative lawmakers to start rebuild their reputation as conservatives (start being the operative word) by every single one of them getting behind this and pushing it hard. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow manage to screw that up.
What’s even better about this fantastic news is that it shows that Lord Toby and Lord Hogan-Howe TOGETHER are more powerful and effective than if either had tabled this amendment alone.
I noticed that in a church choir some years ago, when two sopranos were vying to be chosen to sing the solo part in a hymn for an upcoming wedding. When a choir member pointed out that their voices were much more beautiful and powerful singing together, the choirmaster agreed, and the resulting hymn was a great success at the wedding service.
Lord Hogan-Howe’s strong support of Lord Toby will also help restore the tarnished reputation of the police.
Hear hear
Completely off topic but I think J K Rowling should write another Harry Potter book.
Harry Potter and the Muggle Magic
After defeating Lord Voldemort and completing his studies at Hogwarts Harry returns to live in muggle world. He soon learns that some muggles claim to have powerful magical abilities. Some muggles claim to be able to change themselves from male to female, or vice versa, simply by believing they’ve done so, there’s even rumours that they can change themselves into cats or other animals. Some muggles believe they can change the climate and weather over entire continents simply by heating their home or driving an SUV. Even muggle cows are claimed to be able to change the weather simply by farting. Harry returns to Hogwarts to ask the professors why he wasn’t taught about this amazingly powerful magic. Intrigued by what Harry has told them a group of professors visit muggle world to investigate these claims. They quickly learn about muggle Starmer who believes that he’s such a powerful wizard he can stop tens of thousands of people crossing the Channel by doing pretty much fuck all. After looking at the evidence with an open mind they soon realise… Read more »
I enjoyed that. Thank you. May I ‘borrow ‘ it, please?
Feel free, I’m sure there’s more examples of muggle magic to add to it such as believing that waving a few bits of black, red and green cloth every weekend can stop a war 3,000 miles away.
“They were introduced in 2014 after recommendations prompted by the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in London in 1993.”
Ah yes, “because racism”. Restrict freedom of speech, because racism. Can’t protest about immigration, because racism. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Yes, and can’t display your national flag, or poppies, because “racism”.
UK city to spend £250k tearing down hundreds of England flags – ‘we won’t stop’ | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Poppy display axed as UK council shut down Remembrance Day plan | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Happy to report lots of our flags still
flying in my part of the world. Drove through Hoddesdon the other night and there were a couple of geezers with a van putting them up on all the lamp posts
Well done, Lord Toby! 👊
Hopefully this will pass.
We will not get real policing back until Parliament repeals all legislation that makes it a crime to utter or write words, no matter how hurtful or offensive or hating or inciting they may be. Not much chance of that, I fear.
“Let him have it“
Exactly. Society has to toughen up and be prepared to be offended, hurt, incensed, whatever. The police should never have been put into a position of having to enforce these hate crime laws. It’s our MPs who should carry the can for this nonsense.
If the laws were repealed, social media would become so extreme that most people would just shrug their shoulders and ignore it as a great cesspit of extreme hate-mongers and psychopaths. Maybe even the press would get off their backsides and do some real investigative journalism instead of wasting their time writing stories about keyboard battles on ‘X’.
Would that include offending Jews, Mohammadans, Buddhists, LBQT, Aborginees, Eskimos and police horses too not just Christians?
As Starmer is fond of saying, it is the right thing to do.
Without having a clue what he is saying.
All power to Lord Toby…thanks for trying to find a way to get rid of this ridiculous “crime”.
Bravo!
Ditto..!