Rabble-rousers are inundating police with irritating complaints in an attempt to overwhelm officers dealing with newly-introduced hate crime laws in Scotland.
Far-right white nationalists are said to have bombarded Police Scotland with anonymous online gripes in a coordinated attempt to make light of laws which came into force last week.
Control room officers are battling to keep on top of the backlog – equivalent to one grievance every minute – after around 8,000 complaints were made, including from neo-Nazi agitators, it was reported.
Police union bosses described the law as ‘a disaster’ and claimed officers are already ‘swamped under a deluge of complaints’.
Senior officers also warned that police will be forced to make cuts to frontline crimefighting and face a big overtime bill.
Rabble-rousers are inundating police with irritating complaints in an attempt to overwhelm officers dealing with newly-introduced hate crime laws in Scotland
The SNP administration introduced hate crime legislation on April Fool’s Day relating to age, disability, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variation in sex characteristics.
First minister Humza Yousaf initially claimed there was ‘absolutely no evidence’ to support claims of a slew of complaints.
But, as cases stacked up, he was forced to ask people not to misuse the law, adding that there was a ‘very high threshold for criminality’.
Police were braced for even more complaints around yesterday’s bitter Old Firm football derby between Scotland’s two biggest clubs Rangers and Celtic, amid a history of sectarian-related disorder.
Last week, the leader of one English far-right group is said to have urged members to ‘mass report’ hate crime complaints of ‘anti-white’ hate to police, The Observer reported.
JK Rowling has been critical of the new hate crime legislation in Scotland
First minister Humza Yousaf initially claimed there was ‘absolutely no evidence’ to support claims of a slew of complaints
Members were also reportedly told that a particular claim from a former local councillor that ‘people of colour, disabled people, LGBT+ people’ were most likely to be impacted by hate crime ‘because it’s probably happened to them’ ‘singled out white men as evil’.
Former Scottish first minister Jack McConnell branded the new legislation ‘unworkable’ in a column for the Sunday Mail.
It has already faced a fierce backlash from entrepreneur Elon Musk, former Rangers and Scotland footballer Ally McCoist, and JK Rowling.
Indeed, Rowling continued her impassioned campaign ‘against women’s and girls’ rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men’ in a lengthy social media post over the weekend.
The author wrote: ‘Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it.
‘I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety.
‘I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex.’
She added: ‘I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men’s desire for validation.’
