The Miller judgment – another blow against hate crime legislation

Dec 21, 2021 by Jill

by Charlotte Gill, Conservative Home:

With all the doom and gloom about Coronavirus in the news, it’s been hard to think of much else than whether Christmas is going ahead or not. But yesterday the media had another big story to talk about, in the shape of a landmark legal ruling.

Harry Miller, a former police officer from Humberside, has been victorious in challenging police guidance, which once saw his social media posts recorded as “non-crime hate incidents”, at the Court of Appeal. His is, at the very least, an important victory for free speech.

[…] Originally Miller challenged the actions of Humberside Police and the College of Policing guidance at the High Court, but he only proved successful on the first count. While the court deemed Humberside Police’s actions “disproportionate”, it resisted attempts to change policing guidance – which allows forces to record “gender critical” views as non-crime “hate incidents” – saying that it served “legitimate purposes”.

The Court of Appeal decided otherwise, however. Dame Victoria Sharp, one of England’s most senior judges who presided over the case, said that guidance had been “exceptionally wide”. She warned that there was nothing in it “about excluding irrational complaints”, and no mechanisms to “address the chilling effect which this may have on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression.”

Her words further emphasise two of the main issues with hate crime legislation, which is a) its scope and b) that it relies too much on perception of whether someone shows hostile intent.

Read here

Read also: Being offensive is not an offence from spiked

Farewell to the ‘non-hate crime incident’ by Dan Hitchens, UnHerd