Free expression has reached a 'very fragile moment' in the UK: Baroness Claire Fox
Baroness Claire Fox, a member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords, speaks to Fox News Digital about the state of free speech days after Scotland's hate crimes law took effect.
Scottish police have been inundated with reports since the country's controversially broad hate crime act went into effect last week, overwhelming the system to an extent that could render law enforcement unable to address small crimes.
"Thousands and thousands of complaints have flooded in," Baroness Claire Fox of Buckley, a member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords, told Fox News Digital of the law, which targets certain forms of speech.
Fox, who has been a notable voice for free speech in the UK, opposes Scotland's latest act. Its passage and implementation have created a firestorm of controversy for those who similarly seek to protect free expression.
"To a certain extent, you can be sure that some of [the calls] are almost trolling, right?" she continued.
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A hate crime billboard in Glasgow, Scotland. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Among them are calls to report Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf's 2020 speech about White people in positions of power in the country. "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, a frequent target of the far-left for her views on sex and gender, is another notable subject.
The Telegraph reported Tuesday that reports of hate crimes, if the pattern continues, are slated to outnumber the total for all other offenses, posing a burden to police as "front-line officers warned they ‘can’t cope’ with the surge."
A press release from the Scottish government said the law creates new criminal offenses for those who use "threatening or abusive" behavior intended to "stir up hatred based on prejudice toward characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics."
It additionally warns Scots can be prosecuted for sharing offensive rhetoric, including, "displaying, publishing or distributing the material e.g. 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, etc. Giving, sending, showing or playing the material to another person e.g. through online streaming, by email, playing a video, through public performance of a play, etc."
The policy went into effect on April 1, much to the amusement of its critics, who were quick to note that was April Fool's Day.
Approximately 8,000 reports came through within the first week of the law taking effect, The Telegraph's report noted.
"A lot of the Scottish police federations were very antagonistic to the bill because they said it was so broad that they would be inundated with calls," Fox said.
"The police received a lot of ridicule in the buildup to the last few weeks. The other thing that happened by coincidence is Scottish police said, 'We've run out of money, and we're now not going to investigate low-level crime, so, if your bike gets nicked or your car gets stolen, don't bother phoning us because we haven't got resources to follow it up,' so that happens as soon as the Scottish Hate Crime Act became a piece of legislation the other day," she added.
Scottish police, she said, have also made clear they intend to investigate every hate crime complaint that comes their way, and the police will keep those complaints on-file as "non-crime hate incidents" even if the suspect is not prosecuted.
Baroness Claire Fox, a member of the UK's House of Lords, cautioned against Scotland's new policy toward hate crimes, accusing it of stifling free speech. (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
"These [incidents] were being flagged up when people were applying for jobs because, when you apply for a lot of jobs, you have to get a clearance," Fox said. "If you want to be a social worker or a teacher with children in any capacity, they automatically do these place checks on you. Of course, we all assumed that the place checks were to find out whether you're being prosecuted for child abuse or child porn, or that you were a fraudster or what have you. But no, the police computer that holds all the information on non-crime hate incidents that have never been prosecuted… it can flag up."
This can lead to certain applicants being overlooked for jobs, she noted.
The Scottish government, while promoting the initiative against hate crimes, even invented a character known as the "Hate Monster" – a red, furry cartoon creature – in an effort to help curb acts of hatred.
Fox ridiculed the effort as "ridiculous" and "patronizing," accusing it of treating the Scottish public like children.
Rowling, a prominent voice for protecting single-sex spaces for women, blasted the law as the "mother of all April Fools' jokes," and declared free speech dead in her home country.
The author became a hot topic of discussion after the hate crime policy came into effect, as many speculated whether Scottish police would prosecute her for her opinions about sex and transgenderism.
Despite Rowling daring law enforcement to arrest her for speaking out, they declined, saying her speech is permitted.
CRITICS SLAM SCOTLAND'S NEW HATE SPEECH LAW AS AN ATTACK ON FREEDOM
‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling has been outspoken in support of biological women and retaining single-sex spaces. (AP)
"[She] largely became the spokesperson for those who opposed the bill, so we've concentrated on the trans issue in relation to people being very nervous about this piece of legislation, but there's much, much more to it than that," Fox said.
She explained that Scotland established multiple third-party reporting centers, something outlined online as SCOREscotland, to help make reporting hate crimes easier.
It's another "pernicious" aspect of the law, she said, by encouraging people to "snitch" on each other.
"One of them [the reporting centers] was even set up at a sex shop," she said, chuckling. "God knows why. Another was at a mushroom farm."
"But this obviously actively encourages the Stasi-like behavior on behalf of Scottish people to spy on each other effectively," she said, referring to the secret police agency of Soviet-occupied East Germany during the Cold War.
The broad nature of the offenses outlined by the government, a common criticism, was another problem she noted.
Fox wanted to make clear that controversial speech outside alleged anti-trans rhetoric could land Scots in hot water under the act. She said the UK has arrived at a "very fragile moment" as the state of free expression has reached a crisis point, but that free speech erosion has gradually taken place over the course of several years.
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"If you look historically at the last 20 years, it's actually largely been in the sphere of hate crime that we've seen a gradual erosion of free speech per se. And, culturally… younger citizens in the U.K., but not solely, do not see free speech as a value. They think free speech is a cover for wanting to spout hate speech. So, if anything, free speech itself has become demonized as something a bit dodgy," she said.
Fox authored a book called "I Find That Offensive," emphasizing the dangers of censorship and how people are expected to "walk on eggshells" or else face the consequences.
"I find that 'offense' was a way of closing down your free speech, but it's gone from offensive to harmful, and it's as though there's no distinction made between physical harm, threat to physical harm, and psychological or just subjective harm felt… That's obviously a very dangerous state of affairs," she said.
Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this report.
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