Neighbour who blasted Bob Marley music to ‘mock’ house owner is reported to police for non-hate crime incident
- Do YOU know the people involved? Email [email protected]
A homeowner playing Bob Marley music loudly to ‘mock’ a black neighbour was recorded by police as being a non-crime hate incident (NCHI).
North Wales Police decided the incident, which happened between June 2023 and 2024, was a form of ‘racial prejudice’ and the music was played as a ‘way to mock her’.
Officers reported ‘further issues with her neighbour who has been playing music, which she believes was in order to get a reaction from her’.
Free Speech Union director Toby Young said the complainant should have been scolded for ‘wasting police time’.
He told The Telegraph: ‘You would hope that if someone reported their neighbour for playing Bob Marley they would be told to stop wasting police time.’
The same force also recorded a NCHI after a young person jumped over a man’s fence and ran through his garden this August.
Police call log data showed the complainant thought this was ‘bullying and racist’.
NCHIs are meant to be reserved for cases that are ‘clearly motivated by intentional hostility’ and where there is a genuine risk of significant escalation, according to government guidance.
Bob Marley (pictured in 1980 in London) is widely regarded as the most famous Reggae singer of all time
Free Speech Union director Toby Young (pictured) said the complainant should have been scolded for ‘wasting police time’
Officers are able to record such incidents if a single person thinks it involved hate.
A North Wales Police spokesman said: ‘North Wales Police do comply with the Home Office Guidance. Perception of hostility or prejudice can be subjective and linked to various factors.
‘The force’s efforts to follow the new code is robust and regular auditing is now in place to ensure we comply with this firm change in legislation. We will not be commenting on any individual cases.’
Details obtained under freedom of information rules by The Times showed a nine-year-old child was among the youngsters who have been looked at by police.
Officers recorded incidents against the child, who called a fellow primary school pupil a ‘retard’, and against two schoolgirls who said another student smelled ‘like fish’.
The Chancellor insisted officers should be making the ‘best’ use of their time as she was asked about the incidents in schools.
The recording of trivial incidents as NCHIs has been an issue for years.
In 2020, former police officer Harry Miller was visited by Humberside Police for a series of allegedly ‘transphobic’ tweets, including one which read: ‘I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.’
Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are meant to be reserved for cases that are ‘clearly motivated by intentional hostility’ and where there is a genuine risk of significant escalation
The force recorded the complaint as a ‘non-crime hate incident’, defined by the College of Policing’s guidance as ‘any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice’.
Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, challenged both Humberside Police’s actions and the College of Policing’s guidance at the High Court and a judge ruled the force’s actions were a ‘disproportionate interference’ with Mr Miller’s right to freedom of expression.
A later Court of Appeal ruling found the guidance also breached his freedom of expression rights – forcing the College of Policing to review its guidance to add in more safeguards for freedom of speech.
Yet despite rulings such as these, highly dubious NCHIs continue to be exposed by the Press.
In 2021, a man was investigated for racial hatred because he whistled the Bob the Builder tune at his neighbour.
Wiltshire police also investigated an incident where a person said others were mocking the length of their hair.
More recent cases of reported hate crime include a Lithuanian customer who was unhappy with their haircut claimed it was done deliberately because he spoke Russian and the barber was allegedly ‘aggressive and rough’ as a result.
