The hate crime ambassador

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

The BBC reports:

A comment in which a transgender Tory councillor was called “he” by a Labour rival is being treated as a hate incident by police.

Zoe Kirk-Robinson, 35, said Guy Harkin, 69, referred to her twice as a man in a debate at a Bolton Council meeting.

The hate crime ambassador, who transitioned 10 years ago, said the comments on 24 August “hurt a lot” and she reported them to police.

Mr Harkin has apologised. Police said “hate incidents are not tolerated”.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said it will resolve the incident, which was reported on 25 August, using restorative justice.

Mr Harkin said he “inadvertently referred to her as a he” during a debate about pensions at the meeting where more than 60 councillors, press, council officers and the public attended.

Hate incidents are not tolerated. Really? You could have fooled me. There’s certainly a hell of a lot of tolerance for men calling women cunts and twats and bitches.

Ms Kirk-Robinson, who has stood as Conservative councillor for a year, said: “All I’m looking for is an apology and a chance to say why this is inappropriate.

“To have someone attack me, for being me, it’s deeply upsetting.”

Interesting…Here’s Kirk-Robinson on Twitter a couple of years ago:

https://twitter.com/ZoeKirkRobinson/status/504231494475595776

Note that the BBC referred to Kirk-Robinson as “the hate crime ambassador.” She seems a tad misogynist for a hate crime ambassador.

Comments

8 responses to “The hate crime ambassador”

  1. Oenotrian Avatar
    Oenotrian

    Ah, yes. MA Melby. That explains much.

  2. Amrie Avatar
    Amrie

    Ambassador FOR hate crime.

  3. Myrhinne Avatar
    Myrhinne

    Do we know who she was talking about in that Tweet? I couldn’t make the link work. There’s another one on Feminist Current.

  4. Holms Avatar
    Holms

    Doesn’t an action need to be a crime before it can be considered a hate crime? While I agree that the comment was probably deliberately offensive (and careless if it was accidental), and should warrant an apology either way, this strikes me as a mere toolbag moment rather than anything criminal. Unless this is part of a sustained habit of his and therefore harassment… But I got the impression that this was a single meeting.

    And yes that tweet contains a clear signal. Insulting trans = bad, insulting femaleness and age = no worries.

  5. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Myrhinne @ 3 – I think it was Janice Raymond.

    It looks as if the ambassador took that tweet down.

  6. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Meghan Murphy at Feminist Current has more:

    In a recent YouTube video, Kirk-Robinson, who transitioned from a man to a transwoman over 10 years ago, defends the decision to report Harkin:

    “I am a Hate Crime Ambassador. I tell everyone that has issues where someone’s shouted at them in the street [with] transphobic abuse, or homophobic abuse, or racist abuse, or disablist abuse… you should report it. Because if you don’t, then the police don’t have the proper statistics on what’s going on, which means that they can’t get the funding to have officers deal with the proper crimes that are actually happening. I’ve got to stick by what I’m telling people and it really hurt a lot. The guy had no reason to suggest that I was male…

    …The problem with this sort of thing is that if he’s doing it, he feels secure to do it — or he feels it’s acceptable — and that legitimizes it for other people.”

    The fact that misogynist or sexist abuse was left out of Kirk-Robinson’s list of verbal abuses that should be reported to the police unfortunately doesn’t appear to be accidental, considering the councillor’s casual use of the word “bitch” to describe women.

  7. Lady Mondegreen Avatar
    Lady Mondegreen

    I tell everyone that has issues where someone’s shouted at them in the street [with] transphobic abuse, or homophobic abuse, or racist abuse, or disablist abuse… you should report it.

    I’m sure the police love taking reports about shouted abuse in the streets, which they can do nothing about and which tells them nothing about actual actionable crimes.

    I spent most of my life being vulnerable to verbal abuse in the street (and elsewhere.) It hurts, I get it. It’s very bad for people. But the cops can’t do much about it.

    And yes Ms Ambassador left the sort of abuse I experienced regularly right off her list.

  8. Myrhinne Avatar
    Myrhinne

    These days the public transport racists often get into trouble when someone films them.

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