UK police have urged the public to report ‘non-crime’ incidents in an effort to stop non-criminal comments from hurting the feelings of those affected.

The message sent out by the official Twitter account of South Yorkshire Police said, “In addition to reporting hate crime, please report non-crime hate incidents, which can include things like offensive or insulting comments, online, in person or in writing.”

“Hate will not be tolerated in South Yorkshire,” the department said. “Report it and put a stop to it #HateHurtsSY”

The tweet which has prompted thousands of angry responses, comes after it was revealed South Yorkshire Police were responsible for policing areas of Britain where many of the worst rape gang incidents took place. This includes the small town of Rotherham where, at conservative estimates, 1,400 girls were gang raped, according to Breitbart.

Attached to the original tweet was an image that said, “Hate crime is an incident or crime, which is perceived to be motivated by prejudice or hostility against a person’s race, faith, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity. Hate hurts. Report it and put a stop to it.”

Responding to the message, one individual reminded the department of the children’s song about sticks and stones. The SYP support staff however told the individual that although non-crime hate incidents are not a criminal offense, they can feel like a criminal offense to those affected.

“While non-crime hate incidents may not be criminal offences, they can feel that way to those affected and can sometimes escalate to crimes taking place. We work with partners to try and prevent this,” the department said.

This is, once again, just another assault on free speech. There’s no virtue in shutting down free speech, so the idea of ‘hate speech’ was invented. Hate speech provides a way of silencing an opponent while still claiming the moral high ground.

To quote the UK’s own Rowan Atkinson, “To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom.”

“The freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas – even if they are sincerely held beliefs – is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticise and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.”

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