How is it that Ireland can have witnessed a sharp rise in the reporting of hate crime and hate-related incidents just as the Irish Government’s own survey data indicates the country is becoming an increasingly tolerant country, where eight in 10 people feel “very comfortable” living next door to people with different nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and marital statuses?
As the Irish journalist Ben Scallan points out in an article that caught Elon Musk’s eye this week, a clue lies in the fact that an increase in “reporting” is not the same thing as an increase in actual hatred.
All that’s required for the Garda to log a reported hate crime (a crime motivated by hatred), or non-crime hate incident (behaviour motivated by hatred), is that the “victim” — or any other person who witnessed the incident — perceives that the “perpetrator” was motivated by hostility or prejudice towards one or more of the victim’s protected characteristics.
The distinction between perceived and actual hatred is deliberately glossed over by the identikit woke graduates with degrees in all sorts of ghastly sounding subjects . . .
Continue reading @ The Critic.
Coupled with the various protests currently taking place outside Leinster House and the general feeling among ordinary Irish citizens that the south has become another faceless EU country (among other serious issues), this is not going to end well. Potential for a Jan 6th style incident?
ReplyDeleteChristy Walsh Comments
ReplyDeleteHate crime should not be tolerated. The Irish Hate Crime of perception law lowers the standard of justice where convictions can be secured without any actual evidence, AND, the alleged victim can be the perpetrator motivated by hate for the person they accuse. Or the criminal justice system prosecutes alleged offenders out of fear it will be accused of racism.
The Rochedale Child Sex Scandal taught us the serious harm and injustice that can be caused when the criminal justice system is governed by perception. In the Rochedale case a network of paedophiles raped and abused young girls for years with police knowledge. For years British police allowed the abuse to continue and actively refused to protect any of the children because senior management was afraid of the 'perception' that they would be called racists because all the KNOWN paedophiles were exclusively Pakistani men.
Christy,
DeleteAs well as the above case, the likes of Cyril Smith (a long time MP) had been abusing children in the area since the 60's. A local school, Knowl View, also had an appalling record for this stretching back to the 70's.
"How is it that Ireland can have witnessed a sharp rise in the reporting of hate crime and hate-related incidents just as the Irish Government’s own survey data indicates the country is becoming an increasingly tolerant country, where eight in 10 people feel “very comfortable” living next door to people with different nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and marital statuses?"
ReplyDeleteIt's not rocket science, maybe some of the 20% who don't feel very comfortable living next door are more prolific in their offending due to any number of reasons. But it's actually because the statistics don't say what the author states.
How does the author compare only two years of hate crime statistics with the only "Survey on People in Ireland’s attitude towards diversity". How does a single survey show a "growing" tolerance if it doesn't compare itself with a previous year? The author is guilty of the offence they accuse others of: manipulating statistics.
Hate-crime levels are hard to judge particularly with the absence of a legal definition and a lack of relevant statistics. It is hard to deny the rise of right-wing protests. They are more visible and they are occurring more frequently and with greater numbers than in the past.
One of the reasons for bringing legislation is that there are no laws specifically governing hate crime in the Republic of Ireland. The approach by Gardaí is acknowledged to be lacking, hence the decision to draft legislation.
The proposed legislation is heavily flawed too. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has made several recommendations for the bill:
Strengthen and make more explicit freedom of expression defences. Remove an offence that would criminalise the possession and preparation of material that would likely incite hatred. A statutory review of the legislation within five years
“Other forms of hate speech, which might cause deep offence but do not reach a criminal threshold, should be combated by other means," they added.
Hate-crime legislation is needed but it shouldn't be a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Disingenuous rants about the woke aren't the answer either. It almost reads as a parody of the paranoid.