Police Scotland have established a number of community “third party reporting centers” for hate crimes across the country, utilizing retailers, mosques, and even an adult toy shop. Among the spots where citizens can now report hate speech and other hate-motivated incidents in Glasgow are a mosque that invited a cleric so incendiary he was banned from speaking in Pakistan, a salmon farm, and an LGBT sex shop.
Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act is set to go into effect next month, creating a new offense of “stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.” Likely in anticipation of an uptick in “hate crime” reports, Police Scotland have partnered with a number of community establishments across the country to act as “third party reporting centers.”
In Glasgow, one of those third-party centers on the list is Luke and Jack, an LGBT-friendly sex shop. On their Instagram, a recent post is tagged #backdoorlove, while another post from October advertised selling teddy bears complete in fetish gear.
“Welcome to Humza Yousaf’s Scotland, where you can go shopping for a dildo and report a ‘hate crime’ at the same time,” tweeted Toby Young of The Free Speech Union in response to the news.
“A bona fide sex shop. Is it sponsored by Creative Scotland?” asked Susan Dalgety, referencing the recent news that the Scottish government’s public body for the funding of arts awarded almost £110,000 to a “hardcore sex film,” as The Publica previously reported.
A review of the lists by The Publica has turned up even more shocking third-party hate crime centers.
In Aberdeen, hate crimes can be reported to the Four Pillars group, which offers support for LGBT “youth” from the age of 13 up. In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the LGBT Youth organization, which directs young people who question their gender identity to the controversial charity Mermaids, is also an authorized reporting center.
Other centers have concerning links to radical Islam. On the Forth Valley list sits the Falkirk Central Mosque, which in 2017 was set to host a Pakistani Imam who had been banned from preaching in the country because, according to the Guardian, “his sermons are considered too incendiary.”
Another hate crime reporting centre in the list for Glasgow is Islamic charity Ahl Al Bait. Former director of the charity, Azzam Mohammad, accompanied then Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond to a trip to Iran, and has “strong ties” to their government. He remained a director of the charity for almost four years despite being disqualified from holding a directorship.
Migrant Help UK, a charity that has also repeatedly advocated against legislation to crack down on illegal migration, and that currently gives refugees advice on asylum claims, is another contact in the Glasgow region.
Other strange contacts on Police Scotland’s contact list included a salmon farm and a mushroom farm in Lothians and Borders, as well as an address for a demolished set of offices for West Dunbartonshire Council’s Equality and Diversity department.
“Serious questions must be asked as to who thought a sex shop was an appropriate setting to report a hate crime,” said Scottish Conservatives MSP Annie Wells. “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. Glaswegians will rightly be wondering what the thinking behind this decision is. Police Scotland should drop this shop from their reporting centres as a matter of urgency.”
Calum Steele, the former general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, argued in a post to X that the data may end up being completely unreliable.
“With literally hundreds of third party reporting vehicles available – inevitably each one with their own interpretive vagaries – that means data confidence will be nigh on impossible to be derived,” he said.
“I suspect that within a very short period of time we will have ‘data’ suggesting Scotland to be one of the most ‘hateful’ countries on earth. This jackanory data will be used to justify an endless drive to deliver a Pygmalion utopia.”
