Scotland moves to criminalize age insults as ‘hate crimes’
Mocking someone’s age will be considered a hate crime come next year, the Scotland government said this week.
"In Scotland, hate crime law will be changing in 2024 to include age,” announced the Scottish National Party (SNP) in a document. The SNP is the country’s ruling faction headed by Humza Yousef, Scotland’s first minister.
"A hate crime is when someone does something to hurt you because of who you are or who they think you are,” the document added. “The criminal thinks you are different from them and hates you because of that difference."
Scottish law defines “hate crime” as “any crime understood by the victim or any other person as being motivated (wholly or partly) by malice or ill will.”
The law would fall under “ageism” and be included in the Hate Crime and Public Order bill passed in 2021.
Under the new rule, politicians like SNP Westminster Deputy Leader MP Mhairi Black could be charged with a hate crime for her comment last week in which she referred to those who disagree with her on gender ideology as “50-year-old Karens”.
“The notion that describing someone as a 'grumpy old man' or a 'callow youth' should be a hate crime is ludicrous,” commented Free Speech Union General Secretary Toby Young.
The SNP tried to defend the new law by saying it only applies to speech that is “threatening or abusive.”
"The new offence of stirring up hatred in relation to age requires behaviour that is threatening or abusive. Being rude to someone because of their age would clearly not meet this threshold,” said an SNP spokesman.
But the term “threatening or abusive” is also open for interpretation.
So far, however, the hate crime law has not yet been applied.
"It still hasn't activated the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act because Police Scotland doesn't have the resources to investigate the deluge of complaints it will receive, with thousands of neighbours and ex-lovers accusing each other of hate crimes,” added Young. “Not a single 'hate crime' set out in the Act has been prosecuted. Adding 'ageism' to the list is therefore just meaningless blather, typical of this zombie government."
Scotland’s neighboring Ireland also recently passed a hate speech law. Irish citizens who are caught in possession of “hate speech” may face up to five years in prison unless they can prove in court they did not have hateful intent.
Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 was introduced last year to update the existing Prohibition of Incitement law of 1989 and make it easier to prosecute offenders.
The bill will punish anyone who “prepares or possesses material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or a group of persons on account of their protected characteristics” and is “reckless as to whether that violence or hatred is being incited”.
“Hate” is not defined in the bill.
