Tag: scotland

Police Scotland Deluged With Nearly 4,000 Complaints As New Hate Crime Law is Weaponized

As predicted, Police Scotland was deluged with nearly 4,000 complaints in the first day alone after the passage of an absurd new hate crime law, proving the legislation is being weaponized by activists.

Under the new legislation, anyone deemed to have been verbally ‘abusive’, in person or online, to a transgender person, including “insulting” them could be hit with a prison sentence of up to seven years.

Transgender activists have been busy making lists of people they are waiting on to make such comments, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling herself.

Although it was announced yesterday by police that Rowling wouldn’t be investigated, the mere fact that she has been reported could create a ‘hate incident’ file on her that will remain in perpetuity.

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Hate crime law: Glasgow LGBT+ sex shop designated official reporting centre for controversial new laws

Police Scotland has been urged to drop an LGBT+ sex shop as an official reporting centre for Scotland’s new hate crime legislation after the outlet’s designation was described as “ill-thought” out.

The controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which was passed back in March 2021, will come into force on April 1.

This legislation makes it illegal to stir up hatred against protected characteristics, such as age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.

To help members of the public report incidents of hate crime, Police Scotland has designated numerous sites as ‘third party reporting centres’, with most being based in community buildings such as citizens’ advice bureaux, housing associations, libraries and council buildings.

However, Police Scotland is coming under fire for listing an LGBT+ sex shop called Luke and Jack in Glasgow’s Merchant City as one of these sites.

Other venues listed as third party reporting centres include a mushroom farm in North Berwick, a demolished office block in West Dunbartonshire, and a salmon and trout wholesalers in Duns.

Scottish Conservative MSP Annie Wells said: “Serious questions must be asked as to who thought a sex shop was an appropriate setting to report a hate crime. The SNP’s act is flawed enough without asking people to relay their experiences in this sort of outlet in the heart of the city centre.

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Police Scotland to Stop Investigating Crimes While Enforcing New Anti-Free Speech Law

As it prepares to investigate every report it receives under the new Hate Crime Act, Police Scotland admits that a separate plan to stop investigating crimes like theft and criminal damage will help criminals.

A Police Scotland pilot in Aberdeen which was deemed a “success” means “more than 24,000 offences a year will no longer be allocated to a front-line officer.”

The body refused to tell the Telegraph which offences would not be investigated, asserting that it would provide criminals with a “tactical advantage”.

“Police Scotland refused to release the data, claiming that admitting which crimes the policy could apply to would risk handing “those with criminal intent” the opportunity to “plan and orchestrate their criminal activities with the aim to avoid detection,” reports the newspaper.

However, Chief Constable Jo Farrell told a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority that some forms of theft and criminal damage would not be investigated.

The new policy is designed to free up time for officers to focus on other crimes.

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Scottish Police Trained To Target Actors And Comedians Under Hate Crime Laws

Police in Scotland are being trained to target actors and comedians under new hate crime laws set to be activated next month, reports The Herald, citing leaked police documents.

Training materials obtained by the outlet state that content deemed to be “threatening and abusive” under the Hate Crime and Public Order can be communicated “through public performance of a play.”

A slide from the leaked training material titled “stirring up hatred” also lists ‘protected’ characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

In other words, under First Minister Humza Yousaf’s new law, any performer who for example ‘misgenders’ trans people, jokes about race or religion, or even criticises migrants can potentially be prosecuted.

The training material further states that even those forwarding or sharing material deemed to be ‘hateful’ can also be targeted under the law.

It states “The different ways in which a person may communicate material to another person are by: displaying, publishing or distributing the material, for example on a sign, on the internet through websites, blogs, podcasts, social media etc., either directly, or by forwarding or repeating material that originates from a third party, through printed media such as magazine publications or leaflets.”

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The stories of the women accused of being witches must be told

THERE has been an increased interest in the Scottish witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th centuries in recent months, with campaigns ongoing for an apology, a pardon and a national monument.

Much has been written about the numbers accused – about 3837 – the role of the Kirk and the courts, and the beliefs of both the church and the accusers. But what of the women who were accused? What was the experience of those taken in for questioning?

Those accused of witchcraft were predominantly women – 84%. They were Christian but also said to be practitioners of magic. These magical powers might have been innate, inherited from a mother or grandmother, or they might have been gifted by the fairies.

These powers could be used to help heal a sick child, find lost property or gain a husband. Those with a reputation for being a witch might well be tolerated within a community – and indeed welcomed by some – for a time until external pressures caused the community to turn against them.

The turbulence of the Reformation and the wars of the Three Kingdoms were the two main pressures communities faced at that time. For John Knox, the father of Scottish Calvinism, power was unnatural to women therefore any woman who had power could only have derived it from an evil source – Auld Nick, meaning the Devil.

With that mentality added to the command “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” in the King James version of the Bible, magical practitioners came under threat.

When an accusation was first made, these women were taken from their homes and dragged in front of the Kirk minister and elders to face an aggressive interrogation.

The moral leaders of their community castigated them as evil, wicked and in thrall to the Devil. Physically, there might be several men crowding round them, roaring and bellowing in their faces about their black, sinful soul. They were scared and disoriented – and expected to confess to the very worst of crimes. Torture might be used to force that confession.

Trial records note that accused women were tortured by “hanging them up by the thombes and burning the soles of their feet at the fyre”.

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Death of transgender prisoner Tiffany Scott, 32, considered ‘one of Scotland’s most dangerous inmates’ is being treated as ‘unexplained’ by police

The death of a violent transgender prisoner who was considered to be one of Scotland’s most dangerous inmates is being treated as ‘unexplained’ by police.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) confirmed Tiffany Scott, who was previously known as Andrew Burns, died in HMP Grampian yesterday at the age of 32 after becoming unwell and being taken to hospital.

Scott was convicted of stalking a 13-year-old girl while known as Andrew Burns in 2013 and had requested to be moved to the female prison estate early last year.

The 32-year-old became ill on Wednesday night and died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary the following day.

The death is being treated as ‘unexplained’, according to police and there are said to be no suspicious circumstances around the prisoner’s death.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said that at around 10.50pm on Wednesday, the force was made aware of a 32-year-old taking unwell at HMP Grampian.

They added: ‘The death is being treated as unexplained and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.’

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Tiffany Scott, 32, of HMP Grampian, died on February 29.

‘With each death in custody, Police Scotland are advised and the matter reported to the procurator fiscal. Fatal accident inquiries are held in due course.’

Last year there was outrage when it emerged that Scott, who stalked a 13-year-old girl and later attacked female prison officers, was set to be moved to a women’s prison. 

A statement posted on the SPS website yesterday said: ‘Tiffany Scott, 32, has died in prison. With each death in custody, Police Scotland are advised and the matter reported to the procurator fiscal. Fatal 

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Parents Who Refuse to Let Their Kids Go Trans Could Face 7 Years in Prison

Parents who refuse to accept their children identifying as transgender could face seven years in jail under a new law in Scotland.

“Proposals published on Tuesday state that actions designed to “change or suppress” another individual’s gender identity, causing them physical or psychological harm, would become illegal under the radical law,” reports the Telegraph.

The law would ban so-called ‘conversion practices’ which often take place in a “family setting,” according to ministers.

It would mean that if parents try to stop their child “dressing in a way that reflects their sexual orientation or gender identity,” they could face criminal sanctions even if they believe they are acting in the child’s best interests.

Actions deemed to be “coercive” or “controlling” in attempting to stop the child wanting to go trans would be illegal even if performed with “a desire to help or protect the person.”

“The Scottish Equalities Minister behind the proposals, Emma Roddick (pictured) is a 26 year-old woman who identifies as bisexual,” writes Will Jones.

“That’s right, she was still at school in 2015. Exactly the person you’d want imposing her wacky Gen Z views on millions of people.”

People in Scotland who question radical transgender activism are routinely targeted by the authorities.

A 50-year-old mother was charged with a ‘transphobic hate crime’ and faces up to two years in prison after she retweeted an image of a suffragette ribbon.

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New Scottish trans prison rules accused of being grounded in ‘institutional sexism’ and worse than before by women’s rights campaigners who say they make it even easier for dangerous men to exploit the system

New Scottish transgender prison rules are grounded in ‘institutional sexism’ and worse than before, women’s rights activists have claimed.

Campaigners, who are calling on Scottish MSPs to block new guidelines that were set up after a trans rapist was sent to a women’s prison, say that the rules make it even easier for dangerous men to exploit the system, The Telegraph reports.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) plans to allow criminals with a history of violence against women and girls to serve their sentences in female jails.

The policy, set to be put in place from February, will apply to transgender inmates who are considered not to pose ‘an unacceptable risk of harm’. 

The guidance was issued in the wake of the row over Isla Bryson, a transgender rapist who was initially sent to an all-female prison following conviction.

Bryson – who was previously known as Adam Graham – was subsequently removed to a male wing of a prison after widespread criticism.

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THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO, 270 PEOPLE WERE KILLED WHEN PAN AM FLIGHT 103 CRASHED: EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT CIA WAS BEHIND IT

On the evening of December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 traveling from Frankfurt to New York crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, after a stopover at London’s Heathrow Airport, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew along with 11 civilians on a residential street.

Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals, Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah.

A Scottish court found Fhimah not guilty, though Megrahi was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. 

In November 2022, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former senior Libyan intelligence official, was kidnapped from his home and charged with two criminal counts related to the bombing—it was alleged that he set the timer before the bomb went off.

U.S. officials say that Mas’ud admitted during an interview with Libyan law enforcement following the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 that the Lockerbie bombing was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that he and others who participated were personally thanked by Qaddafi for their roles.[1]

However, the former director of that prison, Khalid al-Sharif, denies that Mas’ud ever made such a confession while he was there. Sharif, now living in exile in Turkey, was one of the top leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an Afghan-based group that was listed in 2004 as a terrorist organization, though this designation was removed in 2015 after it participated in the 2011 U.S.-NATO-supported armed revolt that toppled Qaddafi’s secular national government.

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Sharp Rise in Facial Recognition Use by Scottish Police, UK Protest Footage Scanned

The police in Scotland have tripled the use of retrospective facial recognition over the last five years jumping from just under 1,300 in 2018 to nearly 4,000 in 2022.

The rising trend has continued during 2023 with more than 2,000 searches carried out in the first four months of the year, according to data obtained by a freedom of information request by UK investigative journalism organizations Liberty Investigates and The Ferret.

The trend has been rising in other parts of the country. In 2014, the total number of searches using retrospective facial recognition by all police forces in the UK amounted to just 3,360. By 2022, that number jumped to 85,158, according to UK Home Office data.

The Scottish police ranks fourth in the use of the technology in the UK. The leader is the London Metropolitan Police which accounted for 30 percent or 27,677 searches last year.

The UK police have been using retrospective facial recognition to match faces captured with CCTV cameras with millions of images stored in the Police National Database. The practice has proved controversial as the database still contains many images of people who were released without charge.

Police in Scotland operate a distinct policy from other UK forces, only uploading custody images to the database once an individual has been charged with a crime and removing images of those found innocent after 6 months.

Facial recognition use by the police has been a target of criticism from some lawmakers, non-governmental organizations and policy experts.

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