Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has written to Scotland’s top police officer to demand “urgent clarity” after the force recorded a social media post he had written questioning the SNP-led government’s LGBT+ policies as a ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI), yet failed to act when similar complaints were made against SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf and multi-millionaire author JK Rowling.
In a letter to Jo Farrell, the chief constable of Police Scotland, he said the force now had “serious questions” to answer.
As reported by the Scotsman, police confirmed on Wednesday that a series of tweets by Ms Rowling as the new Hate Crime Act came into effect were not criminal and had not been recorded as a “hate incident”.
The author had listed a number of transgender women, including violent criminals and activists, and insisted “every last one” is a man. She then challenged the police to arrest her under new hate crime legislation if they believed she had committed an offence.
Complaints had also been made about Mr Yousaf, the First Minister, relating to a speech he gave in 2020 about how “the most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by people who are white”.
A force spokesman said of both cases: “The circumstances have been assessed and will not be recorded as a non-crime hate incident.”
This announcement prompted Mr Fraser to accuse the police of double standards. “Police Scotland have not only breached their own policy on recording non-crime hate incidents,” he said, “but now appear to be making it up as they go along.”
Mr Fraser was reported by a member of the public in November 2023 after he shared a post on social media about the Scottish Government’s transgender policies. He said that “choosing to identify as ‘non-binary’ is as valid as choosing to identify as a cat”.
Although Police Scotland judged that the post was not a crime, it was still logged as a hate incident, without telling him.
In his letter to Ms Farrell, Mr Fraser said: “I am writing to you concerning Police Scotland yesterday announcing, that contrary to its stated policy, NCHIs would not be recorded in relation to comments made by First Minister Humza Yousaf and the author JK Rowling. I have a number of serious questions which arise from this and for which I would be grateful to have your urgent response.
“They have taken a different approach to comments made by the SNP first minister to those made by an opposition politician. It is hard not to conclude that Police Scotland has been captured by the SNP policy agenda and that this is a decision that reeks of political bias.
“I hope the chief constable will contact me urgently with an immediate apology for recording a hate incident against me and confirming all records in relation to it have been destroyed. They should also ditch their existing unlawful policy — as has been done in England and Wales – which I believe is a clear breach of people’s human rights.”
Let’s hope Ms Farrell complies with these demands.
With the FSU’s help, Mr Fraser is now threatening to take legal action against Police Scotland after the online post in which he criticised the Scottish government’s transgender policy was reported as a ‘hate crime’ by a trans activist, and then logged as a NCHI.
As widely reported, Mr Fraser called in the FSU to back a legal challenge on the basis that Police Scotland has “adopted a cavalier and disrespectful attitude towards me and my rights to freedom of expression and privacy, and the right to be informed of false and damaging information held on police records”.
In his letter to Police Scotland, Mr Fraser requests that the force make changes to its operational guidance so that it conforms with UK law and international human rights law, and that it permanently delete its record of the ‘hate incident’ relating to him. The force has until 5th April to respond, or we will help Mr Fraser seek a judicial review and/or initiate a civil claim.
When Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf was asked about Mr Fraser’s ordeal, he seemed entirely unperturbed about the extent to which NCHIs are contributing towards the chilling of free speech north of the border. “It’s important they are recorded,” he told STV News, “because what it does is it gives police an idea of where there might be spikes in hatred.”
But as Mr Fraser’s case demonstrates, the defining factor in the case of an NCHI is only ever the complainant’s perception of what happened, and whether they personally felt offended. You only have to glance at the FSU’s case files to see that what activists ‘perceive’ as ‘hateful’ is often just the expression of perfectly lawful views that they happen to disagree with for purely ideological reasons.
Now the Act has been activated, the FSU expects to see tens of thousands of these NCHIs being recorded against Scots who, like Murdo, dissent from fashionable orthodoxy.
That might sound far-fetched, but the country’s national police force has made clear that its officers will investigate every single complaint made under the new law, and even if an incident doesn’t meet the criminality threshold (i.e., that the legal fiction of the ‘reasonable person’ would consider the perpetrator’s speech to be threatening or abusive), it will nevertheless still be logged as an NCHI. Why? Because the defining factor there is only ever the complainant’s perception of what happened, even when there isn’t a shred of evidence to support the claim that the accused was motivated by hostility towards one or more protected characteristic.
As if to aid in the weaponisation of this investigatory process by activists, Police Scotland has even created 411 ‘third party reporting centres’ around the country where ‘hate crimes’ can be reported anonymously.
This nascent culture of snitching on one’s fellow citizens risks having a detrimental effect on people’s careers – for instance, an NCHI can show up on an enhanced criminal record check and may prevent you getting a job as a teacher or a carer, or being allowed to work for charities.
If you’re concerned about the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, and the number of innocent Scots likely to be get entangled in its net, please do consider donating to our newly established Scottish Fighting Fund. You can do so by clicking the button below.
Any money generated by this fundraiser between now and 31st March 2025 that we don’t spend on Murdo Fraser’s case will be spent on fighting cases related specifically to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.
To provide FSU members with as much peace of mind as we can, we also have an arrangement in place with a top firm of criminal lawyers in Scotland so we can assign a solicitor to FSU members who are arrested or questioned under caution because they’re suspected of committing a speech-related ‘hate crime’ (as defined in the new law), although whether we help them in this way, and whether we continue to help them after the first police interview, will be discretionary.
If you’re an FSU supporter and you live in Scotland, now might be a good time to join the FSU.
You can do so by clicking the button below.
