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Removing non-crime hate incidents is 'essential', O'Neill claims
Apr 23, 2025
Free Speech Campaigner Brendan O'Neill has declared that it is "essential" for non-crime hate incidents to be scrapped following calls from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.The Conservative Party has proposed scrapping the recording of non-crime hate incidents by police in England and Wales, except in limited circumstances.FULL STORY HERE.
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0:00
Could you just explain why, if indeed you do think it's a good thing
0:03
what the Tories are doing now then? It's not only a good thing, it's an essential thing
0:08
We've got to get rid of these non-crime hate incidents. The only thing that worries me about what Kemi Baden-Ock is proposing
0:15
is that she says they can still be recorded in certain circumstances
0:19
I don't think they should be recorded at all, ever. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think the police should be keeping logs of things
0:25
that are not criminal offences, that are not crimes. If we're talking about speech that doesn't cross the threshold of criminal behaviour, it is none of the police's business
0:36
So in a hypothetical scenario where I say something that some people deem to be incredibly offensive, which, of course, would never happen
0:43
And someone reports me to the police. And even if the police say that's not a crime, what they just keep all of my details on their record, are they indefinitely at the moment
0:51
Yeah, it's profoundly Orwellian. It goes against all the natural principles of justice, which is that people should be left alone unless they break the law. It goes against all those principles, but it's also profoundly anti-freedom of speech
1:06
People should be allowed to express themselves, even if they say offensive things
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even in my view, if they say deeply offensive things, including racist things or misogynistic things
1:16
I am such a free speech fundamentalist. I think people should even be free to do that without having their collars felt by the cops
1:23
But, you know, if you look at the things that get swept up in non-crime hate incidents
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as you say it includes ridiculous things like children at school One 11 year old was recorded as a non hate incident because he referred to someone as shorty He calls someone a leprechaun
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because they're small. But then also it goes right up to Amber Rudd, the former home secretary. One
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of her speeches about immigration was recorded as a non-crime hate incident because someone found it
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offensive. The police are logging elected politicians' speeches as hate crime, hate offenses
1:52
in their books. That is really, really Stalinist. Has the whole point of this been to essentially scare the bejesus
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out of predominantly, I would suggest, maybe middle-class people in their own homes to think like, you hear about these cases
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these nightmare scenarios, and you think, oh, gosh, I have got some views about that migrant hotel
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at the end of the road or about the fact that my son went to school
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and came home and was told he'd been born into the wrong body. But if I voice that, then I might get a knock on the door from the stars
2:24
Was that the whole point of this? Do you think that's definitely one of the key effects
2:29
I think non-crime hate incidents play two roles. Firstly, they punish people for expressing themselves, which is always a bad thing to do
2:38
But yes, as you say, they also have a chilling effect across society. They send a warning to everyone else. Don't even think this stuff
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Never mind saying it because you might end up on a book somewhere in a police station
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and it could mean that you don't get the job you want to get or you will have a criminal record in the future
2:55
So it hangs as a kind of sword over the heads of everyone in this country as a warning them not to say the things you're not supposed to say
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It is profoundly chilling
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