Police Scotland has come under fire following the launch of its hate crime awareness campaign which features a red cartoon character that has been dubbed a “pound shop version” of Sesame Street’s Elmo.
The ‘Hate Monster’ Campaign appeared on the Police Scotland website and YouTube channel, where viewers are warned that giving in to their anger or prejudice could lead them into committing a hate crime.
Scotland’s Hate Crime Act is set to enter into force by the end of the month, when “stirring up hatred” will become a criminal offence punishable by seven years in jail.
To accompany this, Police Scotland launched its ‘Hate Monster’ campaign, in which a bright, red cartoon monster “represents that feeling some people get when they are frustrated and angry and take it out on others,” the campaign webpage reads.
“The Hate Monster loves it when you get angry. He weighs you down till you end up targeting someone, just because they look or act different to you.”
The campaign claims that young men aged 18-30 “are most likely to commit hate crimes,” who may have “deep-rooted feelings of being socially and economically disadvantaged, combined with ideas about white-male entitlement”.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay described the Hate Monster as a “pound shop version of a Sesame Street character” that “should never have seen the light of day”.
“While people rightly ridicule the ludicrous ‘Hate Monster’, the suggestion that people from deprived areas are more likely to commit alleged hate crimes is grossly offensive,” he said.
The Hate Monster campaign website reads: “Committing hate crime is strongly linked to a range of risk factors including economic deprivation, adverse childhood experiences, substance abuse and under-employment. Those who grow up in abusive environments can become addicted to conflict.”
The campaign warns the Scottish public that committing a hate crime “doesn’t make you feel better,” and that it “can really mess up your life in other ways too, like when it comes to things like finding a job”.
“Go on, be good to yourself. Don’t feed the Hate Monster,” it ends.
Critics of the imminent hate crime legislation have warned that it could lead to people being prosecuted for comments made in their own homes, and that it could overburden the police force.
Meanwhile, the Irish Government is set to proceed with its own hate crime legislation despite renewed calls for it to be paused following last week’s referendum defeats.
Finance Minister Michael McGrath said this week that the “Government has made commitments…We shouldn’t ignore the reality that there is a problem in parts of society, particularly on social media, and we don’t want to be a country that is tolerant of people inciting hate”.
The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hated and Hate Offences) Bill would make the expression, or potentially even the possession of materials, deemed “hateful” to be a criminal offence.
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Criminalising dissent. That’s what hate speech legislation is all about.
We got rid of the blasphemy element of the constitution on the basis of the need for absolute free speech. The government of the time & all the NGO’s advocated for the removal of the blasphemy clause as it was contrary to free speech . Amnesty international in particular advocated for the blasphemy removal on the basis that mechanisms like blasphemy for limiting free speech was something akin to what they see in the evil oppressive totalitarian regimes around the world & such restrictions have no place in modern Ireland .
Now they advocate to gag us so we can’t question or call out the government & NGO’s.
Pull the other !
P.s.@ Michael Mc Grath what “commitments have we made & to whom ? . He mustn’t be left off the hook on that comment .
That would say to me… Scotland, if you want to save yer country from Authoritarians… resist and fight back!
They are the ones who would be done for hate against free speech. Thats what happens when you have an import head of a government.
What about hate speech against the English? Bet that’s acceptable.
Not to the English or to me it’s not. Sinn Fein of course promote “Brits out”. Every other grifter criminal freeloading scum in without limits. What a shower of dum drums.
The campaign claims that young men aged 18-30 “are most likely to commit hate crimes,” who may have “deep-rooted feelings of being socially and economically disadvantaged, combined with ideas about white-male entitlement”.
So based on the above quote from this campaign the police have already concluded what the motivation of the criminals is before anybody has been charged with the crime ??
The motivation for breaking this law is that they are white and have a sense of entitlement as a result.
Yes and going by RTE 67 percent of them are watching porn and because of this are very agressive.Agressive hateful entitled white young 18 to 30 year old men.
What a way to win the young vote.
somebody may explain to RTE that young men have been known to aggressive long before pornography came along….
The very phrases ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crime’ are infantile, and have no place in legislation.
All government has to do is explicitly extend and enable the existing concept of ‘incitement to hatred’ to communications on the internet.
I’ve no doubt that ‘culture wars’ are sowing division on social media, and that regrettably this will in time poison face to face relations. But the first line of attack has to be on trolls and abuse on platforms themselves.
The last thing Irish society needs is what is effectively a privatised system for initiating prosecution, whereby a person has the Gardaí investigate an affront to their opinions, putting an onus on a third person to disprove their guilt. This directly reverses the presumption of innocence. And even if vindicated, the third person may have a non-hate incident recorded against them (as is the case in Scotland). This is a fundamental breach of an individual’s rights, and must be resisted at all costs.
Politicians and opinion formers need to face up to the reality that personal responsibility is the order of the day. Build individual character, and arrest this insidious drift into a society riven by confrontation and dispute.
And do the Gardaí a favour. Keep perpetual whiners from their doors. They have more important work to do than cosset social media activists and narcissists.
Our constitution and E HR upholf freedom of expression
Imagine being in a prison with murderers, rapists and thieves for calling someone a “wrong” gender or some other bs. I honestly feel like the kindergardeners are running the show.
“Stirring up hatred will be a criminal offence punishable by seven years in jail”. They will have to build a new prison for Celtic and Rangers supporters.
Jailed for a comment on just eat or trip advisor. “The chicken was a bit dry and the chips undercooked” I should have just kept my mouth shut
The first people in would be the executive boards of both clubs
Still waiting on the definition.How can i commit something if i dont know what it is?
Who sent out the memo to every western country? This is what happens when you let them lock you down.The Red Ugly Power Monster starts to grow.
Is there a scottish Gript ? Just so i can kind of see if i am the only stupid person that doesnt understand a hate speech bill?
Are they appealing to children?
Is hatred the problem or crimes committed as a result of hatred like murder, assault, rape, arson, slander and the likes. There are adequate laws to deal with and punish those who commit these crimes. It is not only hatred that can lead to crimes. What about envy, greed, anger, drunkenness, lies and deceit? Are we going to expand our crime categories to include say envy crimes or simply use the existing law to deal with crimes committed because of envy?
What about hatred that does not result in crime? Take a child who is mercilessly bullied by bigger children. Take a devoted wife whose husband is unfaithful behind her back. Take an employer who is defrauded by his accountant. Take a terrorist who plants a bomb and kills a number of people at a concert. In these and many other instances are feelings of hatred and even a verbal expression of this hatred not understandable? Who would be so apathetic as to not care about what brutal dictators and wicked people do?
What about hating bribes and unjust gain, lying and false witness? Three thousand years ago a wise man wrote, “Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” Children need to grow up recognizing that we all experience various emotions and one of these being hatred. There is right time and place for hatred and also a right response to our emotion of hatred. It is the home where a child should first learn and establish a moral foundation and how to control and channel our hatred. If we attend a church, we should be taught about love and hatred and self control. It is not the role of either a government or police force to legislate and enforce a morality but to punish those who do wrong and protect those who do what is right. Because many parents in Scotland – and here – have abdicated their reponsibility, it is not the duty of the police to step in. We do not need a nanny state with the police acting as nannies.
The launch? This has been on their You Tube channel for 10 months.
Minister McGrath is perfectly correct. There is a problem with hate. About 70% of the electorate hate this government and political establishment and want them gone. If he thinks that repression and censorship is going to save this bunch of dangerous radical incompetent clowns he had another thought coming
More and more police time and effort will be directed at chasing down and arresting people saying bad words or critizing protected people. Instead of tackling real and increasing vicious crimes they will be able to show how many people they have successfully been able to lock up especially as as “hate” is not even defined.
This craven and disgusting government is destroying this country.
My parents grew up in a deep communism in Czech Republic. One was a child of communists, another was from catholic family whose parents joined the party only so their children could go to university. They said it was terrible, neighbours would tell on each other, people sent away who never come back, you couldn’t trust nobody… I feel like we are living this now too, how is history repeating itself? In different country?