J Derbyshire (Letters, March 13) is spot on when he says that we are being subjected to more politically correct nonsense, time, and resource wasting by the police when they create a hate crime task force of dozens of officers in Bolton.

My dictionary tells me that ‘hate’ is ‘an intense dislike’ and being ‘hateful’ means ‘causing or deserving of hate’. I have intense dislikes (hatred) for groups of men from a community who target, groom, drug, and rape children, drug dealers, young men mainly from any community who stab other young men and women to death, mainly from their own community.

I have intense dislikes for communities which mutilate the genitals of girls, often children, for priests, who for decades used their religion as cover for the abuse of young girls and boys, for bankers who gamble and destroy economies, and for political anti-Semitism, and so on.

But under hate crime many of these hateful people can claim ‘protected characteristics’. There is strong evidence that this has deterred the police from taking action against the perpetrators (Rotherham, RC Church, communities who genitally mutilate).

Of course, my intense dislike should not turn in to violence or abuse against anyone, but the current police hate crime emphasis is aimed more at those who display an intense dislike of anti social and criminal behaviour, rather than those carrying out hateful behaviour.

Showing an intense dislike for anti social behaviour is I would have thought a normal human, and a proper community spirited response.

The police should be encouraging all communities to report hateful activity. However, the reality can be seen daily.

Today a woman reported a boy walking a street with an 8” bladed knife, the did not respond.

I worked with a Lancashire police force when a young man with a severe learning disability was stabbed 26 times in the chest.

We (a disability group) asked that it should be logged as a ‘hate crime’ when additional years could be added to the thug's sentence.

The police felt that the murderer had not shown an intense (hatred) of disability. The thug had 'protected characteristics’ naturally.

Harass, chase and lock up the sexual abusers, stabbers, molesters, mutilators, knife carriers, gun carriers, thieving bankers, abusive priests, pawing sports coaches, and the anti-Semitic, etc, and there will be nothing to have an intense dislike about.

Ron Shambley

Clough Avenue

Westhoughton