Hate Crime Act protest at the Scottish Parliament

The Scotsman

A protest is held outside the Scottish Parliament against the Hate Crime Act.  Representatives of the socially conservative Scottish Family Party were among those giving speeches.  The rally was partly organised by Stef Shaw, known as the "Glasgow Cabbie".

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:05 Hello, I'm Alistair Grant, the Political Editor of The Scotsman and I'm here outside the Scottish

00:08 Parliament in Edinburgh where people have gathered to protest against the new Hate Crime

00:13 Act. This is a legislation that has come into force today on Monday April 1st, been generating

00:19 a lot of controversy in Scotland. It essentially consolidates existing hate crime law but crucially

00:25 also creates a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics including

00:30 age, sexual orientation and transgender identity. A stirring up offence against racial hatred

00:37 has been on the statute book in Scotland since 1986 but the new legislation has raised concerns

00:43 about a potential chilling effect on free speech. Linked to that there's also concerns

00:49 about how the police might implement this, how they might go about enforcing this law.

00:55 There's also concerns that the police could face a flood of complaints relating to comments

00:58 made on social media. There's concerns as well raised by the Scottish Police Federation

01:04 about the training that's been given to officers. High profile critics of the Hate Crime Act

01:09 include J.K. Rowling who launched an attack on the legislation this morning on social

01:14 media. She said it's wide open to abuse and she also said "I'm currently out of the country

01:19 but what I've written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new Act. I

01:25 look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment."

01:29 So quite strong comments from J.K. Rowling and as you can see there's quite a lot of

01:32 people gathered behind me outside the Scottish Parliament to protest against this Act. It's

01:36 a protest that was co-organised by the Glasgow Cabbie aka Steph Shaw. Also quite a lot, a

01:43 strong involvement on the stage from the Scottish Family Party, the socially conservative party.

01:49 Well it's a protest against Humza Yousaf, the SNP and Scottish Greens, hate crime laws

01:55 here in Scotland which are draconian and could decent people, decent good people, set them

02:02 back in terms of employment and various other things because you go into a database if somebody

02:07 is perceiving that you have been a naughty boy or a naughty girl and report you to Police

02:13 Scotland. Well this is based on perception and it's wrong to base a crime on perception.

02:20 The other thing is that in actual crimes that are happening, smaller, minor crimes that

02:24 are happening such as burglaries, it could be breach of the peace. Police are now ignoring

02:30 them to say that they will investigate every hate crime complaint in the country. We campaigned

02:38 against the gender reforms and they collapsed and Nicola Sturgeon resigned only five weeks

02:43 later. Let's hope the same thing happens here.

02:46 [Music]

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