UK police forced to apologize after claiming 'being offensive is an offence'

Police in Merseyside, a town in northwestern England, were forced to apologize after putting up a billboard claiming that "being offensive is an offence."

An image circulated on Twitter showing Merseyside Police outside a market with a large advertising truck that read "Being offensive is an offence."

The police say the billboard was meant to encourage residents to report hate crimes, but afterwards, they had to make amends, according to the BBC.

Merseyside police "[apologizes] for any confusion this may have caused" while noting that "hate crime is an offence and will not be tolerated."

"Hate crime can come in various guises that can include assault, criminal damage, verbal and written online abuse," the police spokesman said.

The billboard sparked widespread criticism, with people describing the billboard as "chilling" while British columnist Brendan O'Neill compared the billboard to 1984.

Over 100,000 hate crimes were reported in England and Wales in 2019, a number which has been increasing steadily since at least 2012. Hate crimes in England and Wales are defined as "criminal behaviour where the perpetrator is motivated by hostility or demonstrates hostility towards the victim's disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity."

Scotland has taken an even stricter approach to England in regard to hate crimes, which has similarly garnered controversy.

In 2020, the Scottish Justice Minister called for people to be prosecuted for uttering hate speech in their own homes.