Should ageism be considered a hate crime?

No!
The actual crimes as described above are already on the statutes.
What we lack is the sheer numbers of Police Officers, fully qualified as such and having the full authority of that role, to actually Police the country. Their numbers have been continually diminished until it is not even a thin blue line or even a dotted line but merely sporadic. There is a history in this country of lurching from crisis to crisis and it only gets addressed when the people cry out for help. Labels don't do anything and are just used as a stick with which to beat people. In this case it will be the police rather than the criminals.
It is sad that as a country we have swallowed all the pc rubbish spouted by politicians who want the votes of people who seem incapable of thinking beyond the obvious and the simplistic. It has got to the point when even the families of Police Officers actively discourage their young people from entering what used to be a proper Police Force and then became a mere Service which is not respected because their hands have been tied with increasing bureaucracy becoming an ever more dangerous working environment. The working conditions of the Police have been reduced beyond recognition from those set out by the Edmund-Davies Commission which put them on the right footing and when you start penny pinching what you see now is only the start of worsening public order issues.

And don't get me started on those who now handle prosecutions.

That was my answer to the OP Grandad43

lemongrove,
No?????

No

varian, far too many fifty and sixty year old employees are discriminated against and written off because they do not realise or understand that there is legislation in place to protect them.

The above is what poor employers rely on when carrying out that discrimination and dismissing them.

No, ageism should not be considered a 'hate crime' in my opinion. However, where older people are being victimised or bullied, then this behaviour must be investigated.

I would not say ageism should be categorised as a hate crime but I think there is a problem with age discrimination in employment.

I was fortunate in my early fifties to be able to convince an employer that I was a better prospective employee than I would have been in my thirties when I had small children in tow and might have wanted maternity leave, but far too many capable fifty and sixty somethings are written off because of age discrimination.

I do think that targeting the elderly through scans/ fraud etc is heinous but they are not hate crimes, just crimes. Ageism has been with us for some time but it seems representative of our snowflake society to call it a hate crime. Let's not go there!

^That’s because the main driver in this review by the Law Commission is misogyny.
I do think that the dreadful online assaults on women MPs, academics such as Mary Beard and others should be treated as hate crime.^

Some of the hatred against Mary Beard etc is quite disgusting imo. If we are looking to equality I suppose we must include misandry too.

I missed a lot of the programme because I arrived at my destination before it finished.
I can hardly think there are many cases of sexual assault by women on men, as described in the programme, and surely any sexual assaults could come under that crime heading?

I am not sure if there is any need for additional legislation to define attacks against the elderly (however that is defined) as a hate crime. Any kind of abuse is to be deplored and I think there is sufficient legislation to protect older people from abuse

janeainsworth
It is treated like any other rape and we know that any rape or sexual attack rarely gets prosecuted. But some of this is repeat behaviour, the victims live in terror but nothing can be done if their "carer" or family member keeps threatening them.

The police see these things every day, they want more powers to put abusers and thieves who commit offences against the elderly behind bars.

Like all sort of abusing there will be a hue and cry from abusers against stopping them having their kicks but we really need to clean up society to ensure our grand children do not grow up in a world of savages where the elderly are fair game

Surely all of this is already covered under existing acts of parliament. The Equalities Act legislates against ageism including workplace discrimination and that is supported by the Health & Safety at Work Act in the sections "Employers Duty of Care" and "Employee Duty of Care". Both sections cover Harassment & Bullying and in that causing stress to others.

Harassment Act 1997 has in recent years been amended to cover many forms of online bullying, and therefore I feel that legislation already supports the many factions that can be used when any person feels they are being subjected to hate or ageism.

To me, a person can only demonstrate hate by bringing forward harassment or bullying or both against another person and in carrying out that, legislation will already cover that action as an offence.

I think the police have asked for it to be a hate crime. See Action against Elderly Abuse charity, they have worked with the police to get this cruelty classed as a hate crime. So many elderly are treated very cruelly at the end of their days and that makes us ask questions about how civilised we are?

If children were beaten up, called names, property stolen, sexually assaulted and/or raped we have laws too arrest the perps. Likewise, our elderly vulnerable deserve the same protection from everyone they are in contact with. That is not how it is now. It's an epidemic.

When we show respect to our elderly by caring and respecting them then we can start calling ourselves civilised again. A clear line has to be drawn between what is hate crime, and it is cruelty and hatred.

jalima I was listening the radio today whilst driving and apparently there are calls for misandry to be included as a hate crime

That’s because the main driver in this review by the Law Commission is misogyny.
I do think that the dreadful online assaults on women MPs, academics such as Mary Beard and others should be treated as hate crime.

No more isms, please. Before long we'll hardly dare to open our mouths in case we commit an ism.

I was listening the radio today whilst driving and apparently there are calls for misandry to be included as a hate crime.

I think that deliberately breaking a window is criminal damage and the police should be allocated the resources for investigating such crimes which already have a label without adding more to their work overload.

Blimey are they looking for elderly snowflakes now?!

I think we would all like the police to pursue such crimes as burglary, assault, robbery, fraud and murder and are a little upset that they fail do do so in many cases today. Creating yet another special case for hate crime is unnecessary because the crimes are already on the statute book and there is no guarantee that, identified, they would pursue an ageist offence any more rigorously than they pursue crimes now.

Not another one for Heavens sake. I am old but definately dont feel old and I am never treated as really old, I am still young at heart and treated as such. We certainly dont need any more hate crimes let the Police do their job and try to catch real criminals.

I absolutely agree. That comment about your dad not mattering any more was unacceptable. I have also found that people increasingly seem to consider it okay to speak disrespectfully about older people since all this talk about how we are to blame for all the woes of the younger generation.

wildswan,

I agree with you that the sentencing of a crime should fit the gravity of it. Sentencing based on the crime itself without taking into account the motive however, could result in a lighter sentence. Without motive, there is no way to measure the crime.

In order to establish a legal standard to describe crimes driven by prejudice (aka hate) they have to be labeled as such. Otherwise they can't be prosecuted fully and the sentence would reflect that. I believe that's where labels are useful.

If you had to punish someone for breaking a store window to steal bread, it would be useful to know if it was hunger or because the thief acted out of negative feelings against the baker himself. The latter would make the crime more serious. Motive is everything.

No of course not
Abuse is a crime already, rape is a crime already it doesn’t matter whether it’s an old or young person its still a crime

I don’t consider your Dad nearly getting knocked over by a running child who was rude to him as a hate crime growingoldisgracefully That was a naughty and rude kid

We are not needing any more hate crime titles certainly not on my behalf Please stop and let the police deal with real criminals whatever age the victim is

No. Any crime is just that - an act intended to damage someone else. The sentencing of the criminal should reflect the type of crime they choose to commit.

We cannot keep giving the police more and more "labels" to cover. We are (most of us) appalled at crimes against anyone just because of their colour, looks, mental capacity, age, religion etc etc, but they are all just crimes against our society. Stop complicating things unnecessarily.

A crime is an unlawful act that includes physical aggression. A 'hate' crime means that an unlawful act was driven by a strong dislike (aka 'hate') towards a person's gender, lifestyle, race, age (as in this case), ethnic background or religion.

Example: An older citizen is badly beaten on the street for no apparent reason since nothing was taken, not even his wallet. The perpetrator is also known for shouting that older people are "useless" and "shouldn't even be allowed to go outside." These comments are indicative of a very strong dislike for the elderly. The subsequent beating of the older citizen by the same person who also made these comments, can be categorized as a 'hate' crime.