Saturday 23 August 2014

This Is Not A ‘Homophobia’ Story…

…it’s a ‘lax justice system’ story:
Solicitor Daniel Donaldson, 34, said he and his partner Arran Southall, 28, have endured months of misery as their property was attacked and they were abused at their home in Edinburgh.
Mr Donaldson, a volunteer at Glasgow 2014, has written an open letter to the Scottish Justice Secretary, the Lord Advocate and others urging them to review the current laws on hate crime which he said were ineffective against children.
All our laws seem to be ineffective against children. Hell, they aren’t that effective against adults most of the time!
The couple had lived happily in the Drylaw area of the city for the past three-and-a-half years but trouble started earlier this year when a number of new families moved into the neighbourhood, he said.
Oh..? So, it's certainly not the case that Edinburgh is ripe with 'homophobia', then. They've clearly imported it.

And I get the distinct impression that these children would not have been angels should there have been no gay people in the immediate vicinity. The targets would have been the elderly, or the mentally challenged, or any ethnic minority, or the obese, or...

I'm sure you get the picture.
“It just built up over a period of time. It started with low level stuff – them shouting ‘gay’ and ‘puff’ – and then escalated quickly to vandalism and property damage,” he told The Independent.
And this should be the offence - the vandalism & property damage. But it won't be.
Edinburgh councillor Cammy Day, community safety leader, said: “Hate crime is completely unacceptable. The council treats all reports of hate crime extremely seriously, and is working with Police Scotland to investigate.”
*sighs*

4 comments:

Dr Cromarty said...

Hmmmm.

'New families' that just happen to be homophobic. More to this than meets the eye. 'Imported' you say?

AndrewWS said...

Mmmm, yes. One would like to know more about socio-economic background of these families.

Area on the slide? Houses bought up by the council to house problem tenants with lots of children?

andy5759 said...

While growing up in the 1950s and 60s my family was targeted for not being posh enough by one lot on the estate. That lot were our neighbours in the private houses. We were also targeted by many of the council house dwellers for being above our station. The targeting then was so innocuous that it was easily shrugged off. No damage done. Targeting today is rather more hateful, there is a spitefulness about us which I find discomfiting.

JuliaM said...

"'New families' that just happen to be homophobic. More to this than meets the eye. "

Could well be, but since they aren't identified in the story, we'll just have to guess.

"Houses bought up by the council to house problem tenants with lots of children?"

Could well be!