Actual Met hate crime policy guidance:
Particularly egregious: "isn't a crime(!!) but the victim, or anyone else(!!), believes it was motivated by prejudice or hate...may (when exactly? when they are deemed an 'enemy of the people' perhaps?) be possible to charge with an offence"
Actual UK Government anti-discrimination guidance:
The lunacy speaks for itself.. what are interview processes but a means of determining and discriminating upon personal characteristics of applicants?
So what, the wording might be a little wishy-wash but it's still a good idea in principle no?
Let me start with this: of course prejudice, hate, racism, sexism, third-moon-of-mars-ism (you get the point..) exist.
That is not the problem here. The problem lies with tasking government with legislating against these extremely complex and difficult to measure phenomena. Once you let the government decide what are the 'valid' forms of prejudice or hate, what constitutes a valid 'other perceived difference', you leave the door wide open for tyranny to creep in. The legislation basically mandates that government become the all-encompassing thought police.
The more laws you have in place, especially subjective or vaguely defined ones, the more reliance you have to put on the good judgement and incorruptibility of those with the power to enforce those laws - i.e. the police. The danger is that those in positions of authority use their increased power for personal gain or to push their own political agenda.
There have been two cases recently of people being barred entry from the UK for their political beliefs:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-43393035
This is only reasonable you might say - they are extremists after all you might say. However, the policy of barring those with extreme views is not being applied consistently (to say the least..)
This leads me to strongly question the good judgement and incorruptibility of the police and UK officials. As I said when I initially shared the video above on facebook - this is a sign something has gone very wrong.
What I argue is happening is that the authorities are policing by convenience, cowardice in its highest form. There is no thought for conscience or justice.
The grooming scandals and cover-ups are the archetypal example of this. Individuals were so scared of being called racist that they neglected to fight back against horrific crimes. The level of cowardice and moral bankruptcy required from our trusted protectors is beyond contempt.
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What I see unfolding is smear campaigns by noisy, resentful protesters being used as a weapon against individuals deemed 'problematic'. The ever increasing anti-discrimination/anti-hate legislation gives them more and more teeth to bite their victims with. The police, for convenience, go along with it. I see a danger of the concepts of right and wrong, hard learnt by history, being forgotten along the way.
If you have watched any movie ever you will know that the baddies (tyrants) always rely on a crew of spineless cowards that they control. What we need as a society is heroes who are intolerant of tyranny and who are prepared to fight back against it. The alternative is that everyone will fall under the control of the malevolent.
A key problem with democracy is that, in the absence of these heroes, a historically illiterate, apathetic or resentful electorate can vote in a police state. This is why the United States has a constitution protecting certain liberties no matter what. From what I am seeing, the UK is in danger of sliding down the path into darkness. We need people to wake up, see the light, and defend the freedoms that our ancestors gave their life and blood for us to have. We can start by repealing this awful legislation.
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STOPA very insightful post, it’s a pity it hasn’t had more attention. This is the real battle of the UK today but I believe we can only win by educating everyone including and especially the people supposedly protected by the hate crime laws.