JK Rowling stunt ‘shows Police Scotland can’t be trusted to apply hate crime laws’
The scenario presented at an anti-hate crime workshop drew criticism for its similarities to JK Rowling
A fictional trans-hating character called “Jo”, who women’s groups claim is an offensive parody of JK Rowling, was invented by Police Scotland officers, it has emerged.
The national force faced scrutiny this week over a “scenario” presented at an official hate crime event in which “Jo”, a gender-critical campaigner who, like Rowling, has a large social media following, states that trans people should be sent to gas chambers.
The Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign group, which ran the hate crime event in collaboration with police, revealed the Jo character had been “written by officers at Police Scotland based on their expertise”.
‘Validating conspiracy theories’
Women’s groups said the revelation raised new doubts over the ability of police to impartially enforce new hate crime laws, which come into force on April 1.
They say the fictional narrative written by officers is offensive as it reinforces inaccurate claims commonly made by trans-rights activists that gender-critical campaigners like Ms Rowling have been radicalised.
The story also validates unfounded conspiracies that such women wish to physically harm or even kill trans people and have links to the far-Right.
“To find out that this clear parody of JK Rowling was invented by serving police officers is astonishing,” Marion Calder, a director at the For Women Scotland campaign group, said.
“Whoever came up with this clearly believes that women who believe in biological sex have somehow been radicalised and endorses activists’ ridiculous claims that transgender people are somehow being targeted in a ‘genocide’.”
Escalation into extremism
In the scenario created for a Police Scotland youth-engagement event on February 27, “Jo” is initially described as making moderate statements such as “there are only two genders”.
But it bizarrely escalates when it concludes with “Jo” posting a video with the caption “They all belong in the gas chambers”.
Attendees at the event were then invited to discuss whether “Jo” had committed a hate crime, with views then fed back to “decision makers within Police Scotland”.
Police Scotland has refused multiple opportunities to deny that the character was modelled on Edinburgh-based Ms Rowling, whose first name is Joanne and is called Jo by her friends.
Trans activists have vowed to report Ms Rowling under the new hate crime laws once they come into force for “misgendering”, meaning to refer to a biological male who identifies as a woman as a man.
SNP politicians have also admitted the Harry Potter author could be targeted with multiple complaints.
Ms Calder added: “Women’s confidence in police to reasonably apply new hate crime laws was already at rock bottom, but now we have evidence that serving officers actually believe these bizarre conspiracy theories.
“Police Scotland must now break their silence over this scandal and apologise, and launch an investigation into how this was ever allowed to happen in the first place.”
‘A fictional character in a fictional scenario’
The scenario was presented at an event organised by police for LGBT History Month and attended by secondary school age children.
TIE distanced itself from the “Jo” character after some social media users suggested the organisation had been behind the creation of the hate crime scenario.
In a statement, the group said it had been invited by Police Scotland to take part in the event and that its role had been to act as “facilitators for educational workshops intended to help young people understand hate crimes”.
It added: “The workshop used fictional scenarios, designed to help young people identify what may or may not be a hate crime. These scenarios were written by officers at Police Scotland based on their expertise.
“The purpose of the particular scenario that was reported on was to support young people to understand the difference between freedom of expression and extremist hate speech.
“It was situated in the context of TikTok and Instagram, which young people report as the platforms where they often see viral videos with extremist content about minority communities.”
It added: “Regrettably, some individuals have decided to mischaracterise and deflect from such a serious topic by focusing on a fictional character in a fictional scenario and creating an inaccurate narrative.”
Police Scotland said it had nothing to add to a previous statement, which did not address the “Jo” character or accusations it had been based on JK Rowling.
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