A police force is facing a furious backlash after a row over a potential hate crime posted to social media. An officer reportedly said “it won’t be moving forward as a crime” after questioning the woman’s ethnicity.
Police Scotland became involved in the row after a woman reported an anti-Semitic picture she had seen on Facebook showing the Star of David with a Nazi Swastika in the middle of it.
Following the report, the woman was quizzed by officers on her ethnicity before cops told her they would log the incident but it would go no further as she is not Jewish.
The woman who did not wish to be identified said she made a statement on Saturday after reporting the image on Thursday and was told within an hour that it would not be going any further.
She told MailOnline: “They were very much for not taking the complaint at all. One said, ‘We’re snowed under with all these complaints, how are we supposed to get through all these?’.
“I said, ‘that’s not my problem’. The First Minister has said he wants people to report these things; he’s very keen for everything to be reported. The officer called me later that afternoon. He said, ‘Can I ask you, are you Jewish?’ I said no.
“He said, ‘I’m going to ask you again; it’s just because I need the box ticked. Do you identify as being Jewish?’ I said no, I’m not going to lie to get anybody charged.
“He said, ‘Well, that falls out with the parameters. It won’t be moving forward as a crime. It will be logged as an incident, but it will not be going further criminally’.”
Wording around the image shared on social media compared the policies of the current Israeli government with those of the Nazi Party in the 1940s.
She raised the issue via Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which means any allegations made may be reported by anyone.
Under the new legislation, the test of whether a crime has been committed is if a “reasonable person would consider the communication of the material to be likely to result in hatred being stirred up against a group”, which includes a nationality or religion.
Police Scotland said it was unable to comment on the woman’s claim that the Facebook post was not being treated as a crime because she is not Jewish.
A spokesman told MailOnline: “We received a report of offensive content online, which is being investigated. Inquiries are ongoing.”
