One complaint a minute being made under Scots hate law
POLICE in Scotland have been swamped with almost 8,000 complaints since the introduction of Humza Yousaf’s shambolic hate crime laws, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Control room officers are battling to keep on top of the backlog – equivalent to one grievance every minute.
‘Stirring up hatred’ is now prohibited – and police are braced for thousands more cases following football’s Old Firm derby today.
David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), said: ‘It is a disaster and officers are swamped under a deluge of complaints.’
Senior officers have warned that police will be forced to make cuts to frontline crimefighting and face a big overtime bill as a result.
Legal experts fear sectarian chants and songs, a regular occurrence at the highly charged matches between Rangers and Celtic, fall foul of the laws. Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said rival fans could simply submit complaints to make mischief.
The SNP administration introduced hate crime legislation on April Fool’s Day relating to age, disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variation in sex characteristics.
It prompted author JK Rowling to challenge police to take action against her over her gender critical views, but officers said no action would be taken.
Mr Yousaf at first claimed there was ‘absolutely no evidence’ to support warnings of a deluge of complaints.
But, as cases stacked up, he was forced to ask people not to misuse the law.
Ironically, thousands of objections already submitted have been over a speech Mr Yousaf delivered about a number of key figures in Scotland being white. No action was taken.
Mr Kennedy said: ‘There has been no extra funding from the Scottish Government, despite the extra work which has been created, so officers who are stretched to, or beyond, their limits, are simply being swamped.
‘While the vast majority of complaints will end up being deemed for no further action, each [case] has to be closely checked and assessed, so that is using resources which could be used elsewhere.’
SPF chairman David Threadgold said the force may have to reduce services to meet the demands of the new law.