A mythical trans-blaming figure called “Jo,” whom children’s organizations claim is an unpleasant parody of JK Rowling, was invented by Police Scotland officers, it has emerged.
The federal army faced an investigation this week over a “scenario” presented at an established hate crime function in which “Jo,” a gender-important 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 crime principles’
Women’s groups said the discovery raised fresh doubts over the capacity of authorities to equitably maintain new love violence 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 such as Rowling have been radicalized.
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 radicalized 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 Feb 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 modeled on Edinburgh-based Rowling, whose first name is Joanne and is called Jo by her friends.
Trans activists have vowed to report 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 apologize, 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 organized 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 organization 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 mischaracterize 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.
