Wings Over Sealand

Bookmark the links in this article, readers, because Wings might not be here tomorrow and it’s important. According to the Scottish Government, our beloved country is in the grip of a terrible epidemic of hatred. That’s plainly an unacceptable – one could also say intolerable – situation, and every last one of us must play our part to end it.

Even if that causes some administrative difficulties.

Because we can’t give hate a free pass just because reporting it creates paperwork. Police Scotland have been absolutely clear that we MUST report anything that “feels wrong” to them, even if we’re not sure if it’s a crime.

So when the Hate Crime Act comes into force tomorrow, it is absolutely incumbent upon all of us to be good citizens and do what we’ve been asked. If you see anything on the internet that feels wrong, makes you feel upset or which you think might make anyone else feel upset, you must file a report with Police Scotland.

They’ve made it very easy. There’s an online form.

You don’t even have to give your name – it’s best not to, as that’ll save everyone some typing. It’s all very simple, it only takes a couple of minutes (these two screenshots are the entire form) and you can make as many reports a day as you want.

It doesn’t have to be about your transgender identity, although of course if it is your report will be given super-duper extra-double priority. This is especially the case if you have a hyper-minority identity like being “circumgender” – someone who was (for example) born as a woman but also identifies as a man who thinks they’re a woman.

Don’t worry if you’re a bit confused by all this stuff and don’t really understand it – Police Scotland will NOT challenge your perception. All that matters is that you “perceive” the thing that made you feel bad to have been motivated by whatever the hate criminal thinks you are, or that someone else is.

But remember, you don’t have to be a minority at all. We all have a race and a sexual orientation and an age. If you think someone hates you because you’re white and/or straight and/or old (eg calling you “gammon” or “boomer”), you’re protected too.

(The Police Scotland website strangely omits that the Act covers age.)

And you don’t have to be the subject of the hateful behaviour yourself. You can make a report on behalf of someone else, even if that person doesn’t appear to be upset by the thing that happened. You’re allowed to be vicariously upset FOR them and tell the police about that.

And they’ve repeatedly promised to investigate every single report.

So there are no barriers. It really is that straightforward. And no downsides either – Scotland’s media has assured us that there will be no issues with everyone clyping each other all the time (or if there are they’ll only affect “right-wingers” so it’s fine).

As Jean Johansson so astutely notes in today’s Sunday Mail, our national legislators have ensured that the Act is watertight and full of safeguards.

And before cynical readers suggest it, she’s not just some echo-skulled numbwit honking cretin-drivel about things she doesn’t have the slightest understanding of. Johansson is expert in the law, as she demonstrated just two weeks ago when she posted a tweet which breaches the HCA in at least two ways, by stirring up hatred of groups of people on the basis of their sexuality (hetero) and race (white).

(Fortunately sex isn’t included in the Act, so she wasn’t guilty of stirring up hatred against people because they were men.)

After a number of people helpfully pointed out the slip (or as she put it, instigated a hateful pile-on), Johansson first locked replies, then deleted the tweet, then locked her entire account so nobody could see it until she’d wiped all her comments and replies on the subject.

As the Hate Monster might put it:

So Jean Johansson isn’t, as some have unfairly suggested, a quacking idiot blasting stupid-bombs through a clown-cannon at an audience of tens of thousands of people – she’s a razor-sharp commentator putting her own liberty on the line to demonstrate just how insidious and sneaky hate can be, and how we all have to remain eternally vigilant against ourselves and everyone else.

(To that end, we should all also be filing regular Subject Access Requests with Police Scotland to see if any hate incidents have been recorded against us, to make sure we haven’t accidentally been doing hate without knowing it. The form for that is here.)

It’s not enough to fight hate for one day, readers. We can’t do it on 1 April for a laugh and then quit. Until hate is defeated forever in Scotland (or this law is repealed and the form isn’t there any more), every last one of us needs to report hate EVERY day.

Police Scotland and the Scottish Government need your help, readers. Please don’t desert them in their hour of need. Do your bit. Until there’s no more hate anywhere in Scotland, the battle has just begun.