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There is no doubt that the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in the United States in 2020, and global protests against racial injustice, have highlighted the pervasive nature of structural racism around the world. But Britain's free speech advocates warn that the government's attempts to “take hate crimes seriously” – which created racist scam hotlines and led to police actively searching for petty altercations and ugly insults – were bad laws. .
The last British Labor government passed tougher sentences for specific crimes – whether of a racial or religious nature, or for crimes motivated by hate – as an election pledge in 1997. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 that followed introduced crimes were strictly defined, all of which were already illegal in their basic form, and only harsher penalties were permitted. To prove that these crimes were aggravated on a racial or religious basis, the prosecution must prove that the underlying crime was followed by a racial or religious aggravation.
In 2023, 145,214 hate crimes were recorded in England and Wales. While overall hate crime incidents there decreased by 5 percent, there was an 11 percent increase in recorded hate crimes against transgender people. In addition, religiously motivated hate crimes increased by 9 percent.
Little data is available on accusations or convictions of racism against whites, but those who have shut down critics who say the laws would have unintended consequences have long said that racism by those who are not white is impossible, because racism is tantamount to racism. . Hatred plus power.
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But the National Equality Survey Evidence Last year's report found that race in Britain was not just a black and white issue, challenging the basic assumptions of a narrow idea held by many about what constitutes racism.
For example, the study found that 40% of white Irish people reported experiencing some form of racist assault in their lives. This means that white Irish were more likely to say they had experienced prejudice in Britain than black Africans and all Asian ethnic groups.
Courts may also differ, according to a 2021 Institute for the Study of Civil Society report, as about 14 percent of those convicted of aggravated racial or religious crimes are non-white. The proportion of black convicts was about twice their share of the population, while there was a slight underrepresentation of Asians.
But Richard Norrie, the report's author from a British think tank that works on issues related to democracy and social policy, says the British approach has led to a “corrosive” response.
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Nouri said: “Queen Elizabeth I, Queen of England, said her famous phrase: ‘I have no desire to open windows into men’s souls,’ noting that he considers it one of the cornerstones of liberalism that no government should intrude on the conscience of the citizen.” .
But with hate crime legislation, haven't we? Should this not be objected to as an extension of judgment into thought and of liberal principle?
He said hate crime legislation, which can be traced back to legal attempts to punish incitement to violence, now punishes offensive ideas as well as introducing inequality before the law.
Another problem, he said, is that it has created a class of crimes that cannot all be immediately compared in terms of their seriousness.
“When I think about the most serious crimes, I prioritize crimes targeting the body, then property, then crimes targeting feelings,” he said.
“Hate crime, as we now view it, is problematic because it reinforces the image of a state at war with itself, with those deemed oppressed at the mercy of the dominant. This is far from the truth.”
Amnesty International, which defended the laws, says hate crimes cause lasting physical and emotional damage to marginalized communities.
“They can incite despair, anger and anxiety in victims. They spread fear and mistrust in communities and weaken the social glue that holds society together,” the organization says.
“The effectiveness of such legislation has been questioned, but the value of having hate crime laws should not be underestimated.”
Judge Judith Elaine Coelho told the court on Monday that she understood Kerr's defense to be that she did not intend to cause the officer alarm, harassment or distress and that her conduct did not rise to that level, nor was it racially aggravated.
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