POLICE have decided no action will be taken against a campaigner and academic who was reported for an alleged hate crime against the Orange Order.
Professor Jeanette Findlay, a campaigner against anti-Irish racism and Professor of Economics at Glasgow University, was recorded making statements from a stage at an anti-racism demo in George Square during a rally in September last year.
Police have investigated and decided no criminality has been established, prompting a response from the Orange Order.
She was referring to counter-protesters at the rally when she said: "They're from the Orange Order. They're from loyalist groups, that's who they are.
"They're the people who swim in the same dirty water as the racists who're in Luton or London or anywhere else."
Findlay was reported with allegations of a hate crime and Police Scotland looked into the allegations and have now reached a decision.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A complaint was received in September 2024. It was assessed and no criminality has been established.
"Any further information received will be assessed.”
The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland issued a statement following the police decision and maintained its position that the comments were hateful.
It stated it was: “Extremely concerned by the decision taken by Police Scotland not to pursue a prosecution against Professor Jeanette Findlay as defined by Section 4(2) of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, in what many, including members of the general public and indeed members of our own organisation, consider a prime example of hate speech directed towards the Protestant community of Scotland."
It added that Finlay "specifically targeted the Orange Order for no reason whatsoever in what can be best described as a rant against a section of the very people she would have you believe she strives to protect and should be protecting by her own trade union duties – the Protestant working class of Scotland".
“In her speech on that day, this individual, in the eyes of the many members of the public who contacted Police Scotland, was clearly motivated by malice and ill will and displayed a vitriolic hatred specifically towards the Orange Order and effectively the Protestant community in Scotland.”
Professor Findlay was contacted by our sister paper the Glasgow Times but said she did not wish to comment.
