When I first saw this I thought it must be some kind of parody or spoof, unfortunately not. Can it really be so that our police force are expanding their remit to investigating "insults" and "offence"? Personally I'd prefer them to be policing crime instead of speech! We already have sufficient laws preventing incitement to violence but who the hell knows what a "non-crime hate incident" is or how it might be arbitrated? Should I phone them the next time I'm the victim of road-rage or perhaps when I'm particularly offended by the cheap, nonsensical analogies used by Boris Johnson in the Daily Mail? Technically "hate" is not illegal. For example, I "hate" criminals who abuse children, rob pensioners and exploit vulnerable people in our society, and I would be quite comfortable using "hate-speech" to communicate that feeling, am I now a criminal too?
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