Police face ridicule over 'ludicrous' Hate Monster campaign trends now
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Police Scotland has been ridiculed over a ‘ludicrous’ campaign aimed at cracking down on hate crime which features a ‘pound shop version of a Sesame Street character’.
The animated ‘Hate Monster’ on the force’s website and YouTube channel comes ahead of the introduction of new hate crime laws, due to be enforced from April 1.
A video shows the monster with a voiceover urging people to not allow their anger or prejudice to lead them into committing an offence, such as making a racist comment.
Police Scotland’s ‘Hate Monster’ has been compared to a puppet from TV show Sesame Street
But police chiefs were accused of ‘profiling’ by claiming that white men aged under 30 from poorer backgrounds are more likely to perpetrate a hate crime.
Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: ‘Police Scotland’s pound shop version of a Sesame Street character to explain Humza Yousaf’s hate crime law should never have seen the light of day.
‘While people rightly ridicule the ludicrous “Hate Monster”, the suggestion that people from deprived areas are more likely to commit alleged hate crimes is grossly offensive.’
The video shows the monster with a voiceover which states that it will appear ‘when yer feeling insecure, when ye feel angry’.
The Hate Monster is said to represent that ‘feeling some people get when they are
