Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
It's easier for the police to do something with an IP address. I've had my bike stolen and my house broken into and the police also didn't 'do' anything but aside from examining CCTV (which they did for the bike) and taking forensics (which they did for the break-in) if nothing turns up they are limited by a lack of information. 
---------- Post added at 20:40 ---------- Previous post was at 20:34 ----------
I think you're being unfair by characterising this issue as people calling each other names. I looked at the story and assumed it was about people, largely women, getting horrific threats and violent language used against them online. I still think this is what they're primary going after although there will inevitably be the high-profile cases of them going after someone for something mild.
The enforcement of existing laws relating to threats of rape, death and violence though is perfectly acceptable to me and it shouldn't be a choice between that the enforcement of other laws. If there is then the police should prioritise the more serious crimes first but we should also see how we allocate resources.
However if you make this a case of someone calling someone an idiot online vs a old granny getting mugged in her own home then of course it's silly. We would agree on that, it's just not the debate we're having. |
I think you're being extremely unfair by saying something I didn't. I don't think every example of hate crime boils down to name calling but a good proportion, probably the vast majority, do and that's what I'm referring to. I don't think it's necessary to qualify every statement I make here with a list of exclusions. If I believed, stupidly, that all hate crime is trivial nonsense, I'm quite capable of articulating that unequivocally so if I haven't done that it's safe to assume that's not what I'm saying.
Even where the abuse is most appalling such as those you quoted, how many people actually sincerely believe that some nutter from the ether who spends their entire life in their bedroom spouting this garbage is really going to murder them or rape them for something they've said on the internet? No it's not pleasant at all, it's highly unpleasant but we do need to put things into perspective and that's all I'm trying to do.
Lots of things shouldn't have to be a choice but in the real world they do - take NHS care for example and the provision of live saving drugs. There's a limit to the available resources and unless more are going to be provided to cope with the additional load, then someone else's provision is going to suffer. If the police are deluged with hate crime reports merely working through them all to prioritise them is going to be a substantial task which will require resources the police are always telling us they don't have. The very reason burglaries are being 'trivialised' is because the police no longer have the resources to deal with them properly and for me the reality of someone actually being in your home is far more worrying than a threat on the internet or for that matter some very unpleasant abuse on the train for example.