JK Rowling arrest threat under hate crime laws: No end in sight to all this silliness

Ricky Gervais was blasted and JK Rowling threatened with arrest after making comments offensive to trans women. Is there no end to this silliness, asks Julie Cross.

Opinion: Like comedian Ricky Gervais once said, “ … the worst thing you can say today, get you cancelled on Twitter, death threats, the worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises,’ right?”

Within hours of his comedy special going live on Netflix, Gervais was blasted by a US LGBTQ group who called his jokes “dangerous”.

I’m bringing this up because on Monday new hate crime laws came into force in Scotland. Any Gervais-style speech interpreted by someone as stirring up hatred, could now see you investigated.

It’s no joke.

Comedian Ricky Gervais is not afraid to stir the pot. Picture: Getty Images for Netflix

Critics of the legislation – in particular women who believe sex is biological, not a choice – feared it could be “weaponised” by activists.

Cue, within 24 hours of the legislation coming into force, there had been 3800 hate crime reports.

Police Scotland promised to investigate every single one.

No doubt many of those first complaints would be related to the Harry Potter author and advocate of women’s sex-based rights, JK Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh.

She tested the law on day one with a series of tweets deliberately “misgendering” 10 high-profile trans women, by calling them men.

Then she dared the police to arrest her.

British writer JK Rowling put Scotland’s new hate crime laws to the test by daring police to arrest her. Picture: AFP

Police have already said JK Rowling’s tweets did not meet the criminal threshold, leading to one of her targets Britain’s first transgender national television newsreader India Willoughby, accusing the police of caving into the author and making a “mockery of the whole hate crime Bill”.

Meanwhile, there’s been a great twist to this drama with Scots taking the opportunity of reporting Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf who brought in this legislation, for a 2020 speech he made complaining that all senior positions in the country are “all filled by white people”.

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, who introduced the new hate laws, is now in hot water with the law himself. Picture: Getty Images

Again, police have decided not to take it further.

There’s no end in sight to all this silliness.

Meanwhile, I have sympathy for the police who have a horrible job of treading a very wobbly, thin, blue line – and the taxpayer, of course, who has to pay for it all.

Originally published as JK Rowling arrest threat under hate crime laws: No end in sight to all this silliness