Officers are given extensive training on ‘diversity’, but are taught next to nothing about free expression.
Last month, when a Koran was accidentally dropped and scuffed in a Wakefield school, West Yorkshire Police recorded a ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) against the four boys involved. This was despite the fact that the headteacher found there to be no evidence of any malicious intent. One of the sinister things about this is that NCHIs, unlike actual crimes, aren’t automatically deleted from someone’s record when they reach the age of 18. This means these ‘non-crimes’ can show up in enhanced criminal-records checks, potentially impacting those boys’ future employment prospects.
