CNN article on Ireland Hate Crime legislation

Igotadose

Interesting read, Ireland out of sync with the rest of the EU wrt to hate crime legislation.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/13/europe/ireland-hate-crimes-intl/index.html

"Unlike most other countries in the European Union, Ireland has no purpose-built hate crime legislation and the government doesn't gather national statistics on hate crime, racist attacks or discrimination."

Article does go on to say there's some movement towards hate crime legislation in Ireland, but it's not close.

johnnyskeleton

A spokesperson for the Irish police told CNN in a statement that they were "investigating a burglary."

But Noonan said nothing was stolen from the property so treating the attack as a burglary was "insulting" to the Muslim community. The incident was targeted and premeditated, according to Noonan.

When investigating a potential murder case, the Gardai always say they are investigating a serious assault. They shy away from referring to cases that require specific intention. So, with the greatest of respect to Imam Noonan, he should perhaps try to understand why they say what they say rather than assuming that there is an insult in it.

Unlike most other countries in the European Union, Ireland has no purpose-built hate crime legislation and the government doesn't gather national statistics on hate crime, racist attacks or discrimination.

No. But it doesn't have any purpose built legislation to deal specifically with crimes against the elderly, or crimes against women*. And the reason why we don't is set out in the next paragraph:

In Ireland, while a hate motive may be an aggravating factor that can contribute to stronger sentencing in criminal cases, there is no specific law that covers hate crimes in the criminal justice system, with each sentence a matter for the presiding judge.

We have a different system to most other European countries. And our government trusts our judges to make the correct decision. The fact that we are different, doesn't make us wrong.

As to the statements that racially motivated attacks are on the rise, sadly that is probably true. That should perhaps be the main focus of the article, perhaps looking at ways that might discourage the fringe far right groups from behaving in these ways, rather than bringing in new laws that basically just prohibit the same behaviours and have the same results.

Ultimately, a new piece of hate crime legislation doesn't cost the government anything, and they can be said to be tacking hate crime. But it doesn't change anything in the real world and would be utterly tokenistic in my view. So they will probably bring it in now.







*yes, there are specific crimes that can only be committed against a woman, but this is due to the nature of the offence rather than du