You know I was only half joking when I said if you need a policeman in the UK, call 999 and tell them that someone was saying bad things about Muslims.
Seattle police chief tells residents to call 911 if called racist names amid coronavirus pandemic
REALITY CHECK
From the article:
Hate speech is broadly protected by the First Amendment, meaning there is likely little the Seattle Police Department will be able to do if an incident of racist name-calling is reported. The department would be able to prosecute hate crimes, which under
Washington state law include "physical injury" to a person, "physical damage" to a person's property or threats that would put a reasonable person "in reasonable fear of harm to person or property."
The Washington state law on hate crimes clarifies that "[w]ords alone do not constitute a hate crime offense unless the context or circumstances surrounding the words indicate the words are a threat. Threatening words do not constitute a hate crime offense if it is apparent to the victim that the person does not have the ability to carry out the threat."