THIS hysterical furore about the hate crime laws has my mind feeling as if it’s Edvard Munch’s The Scream painting. Would everyone please just SHUT UP! And stop. And think.
It reminds me of my childhood and a school rammy: the “leaders”, bent on notoriety, vent their supposed grievances, while mindless others pile in on the fight, not really knowing what it is about at all. And yes, I remember from 70 years ago, it could feel scary, even just witnessing it. Your Wick correspondent (Letters, Apr 4) put it pithily, in that if we didn’t realise we needed a hate crime law, then this reaction is proof that we do!
READ MORE: The public messaging around hate crime is centring the perpetrators
Even people from abroad are weighing in: just how much detail to understand it do they have? I, for one, am prepared to trust the judgement of such legal experts as Andrew Tickell and Adam Tompkins (not normally bedfellows.) If it does prove a problem, then surely it can be revised.
In the meantime, for people who do love to attack others, it’s proving a feast to energise them. What personal experience do these protesters have of any of the situations they’re getting so worked up about? Do they appreciate that media circuses like this bring an increased risk now for innocent targets as these souls go about their daily lives?
Catriona de Voil
Arbroath
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