Scotland’s New Hate Crime Act Explained

In today's video, we're exploring Scotland's new Hate Crime and Public Order Act, set to take effect soon. Despite passing in 2021, it's still sparking debates about free speech. Let's delve into what the law entails, its impact, and enforcement.

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[westsideisdabest]

I'd like to report Humza Yousaf for his speech where he said there are too many white people in Scotland, by this law he committed a hate crime in parliament.

[davidsmith]

If the police don't understand the provisions of the Act, then what chance do the public have?

[danporath]

If you can’t define it with a great deal of precision, how can you enforce it equally and rationally?

[EmM-komu]

breaking news Scotland arrests the entire UK government under new hate crime act

[RWM]

Nothing at all can go wrong with the police being told to enforce a law they have no idea how to enforce.. Right?

[doctorbobcat]

SNP currently doing the self-destruction speedrun any %

[LondonTrainEnthusiastuk]

They're going to pick and choose when to enforce this law. It isn't about protecting people. It's about domination.

[drjohnsmith]

Private conversations are not exempt? What sort of fascism is this? I say things in private conversation with my friends (off-colour jokes etc) all the time that I would never say in public. Is the Scottish government asking citizens to report things said in private conversations? How else would they know what was said? This is garbage and needs to be challenged in the courts and done away with

[jesseberg]

I hate it when a law references a "reasonable person". If there are such people, they must be very uncommon, since I have never met a reasonable person.

[richard-gnes]

Hate is an emotion... It's got no place in a law. Common law already covers threats and violent actions.

[immortallvulture]

The problem with the hate crime act is because it’s so poorly defined it basically gives the police and Scottish government carte Blanche to decide if something counts as a hate crime regardless of the protections in the bill, and makes any prosecution or defence based on the bill a complete coin toss which is going to make enforcement nearly impossible.

[stephen_ne]

criticizing politicians is now a hate crime

[monarchist]

Will Humza then be held responsible due to his rant against Scots of the majority demographic holding top government jobs? Or is that acceptable?

[kjlovescoffee]

"People are allowed to express antipathy, dislike, ridicule or insult towards religion, or religious beliefs" - yeah, we all know which religion that doesn't apply to.

[omhz]

And I thought Canada was bad with this, what a dreadful group of people in the Scottish parliament

[thelusogerman]

Private conversations not being protected is CRAZY

[ohwellplaythecardsthatimgi]

"Why is the SNP polling so poorly" it's a mystery, some unknown we can't comprehend

[bigangryscotsman]

5:39 Forcing tolerance on people with laws like this never works, it will just end up making people less tolerant as people will end up cementing their positions as a counter to what they see as the government telling them what to think.

[yourneighbourhooddoomer]

It should be clear that this new act is deliberately made as vague as possible, so people will eventually start to self-censor or keep their mouths shut altogether out of fear for prosecution, especially if they're not even safe anymore in their own homes.

[SpartanOfficial]

This is authoritarian in every way. Let’s be honest, society’s biggest problems right now is not hate, you’re never going to remove it. The laws already in place were sufficient. You still can’t go around making derogatory comments about any protected groups before this. All this does is regress free speech and that’s what’s intended. I live in Scotland and have not heard of anyone being in favour of this law which brings democracy as a whole into question. It’s just SNP and Humza that are, who treat the police as their own personal security.

The laws are purposely vague so that if you make criticism comments regarding Humza for example, he can complain and claim racism (something he’s already done several times). Is Humza’s famous “white” speech mean he’s at risk of arrest? There’s also the matter of the amount of stress this puts on the police as well.

When you have to clarify that actors and comedians should be safe, you know we’ve really regressed and our speech is at severe risk. It’s actually had a different effect introducing this law, it’s caused unhappiness, concern and increased criticism and hate.