Campaigns running this Christmas and New Year reflect an Edinburgh reality many of us would prefer not to think about.
For the second year running, the Edinburgh Safety Community Partnership – involving the Council, voluntary sector and Lothian and Borders Police (LBP) – are targeting pubs, clubs and night-time premises to publicise the fact that race and ethnicity-related hate crime is not tolerated by the authorities and should be reported.
Hate crime offences are now punishable by prison terms of up to seven years and fines of up to £10,000.
Instances of abuse, harassment and assault on racial grounds often increase over the festive period, which is why the Partnership is now distributing information around the city.
Posters encourage victims to contact the police, explain what sort of questions they will be asked and how they can be helped by interpreters.
If you witness or experience hate crime of this sort, contact the police on 0131 311 3131 or www.saferedinburgh.org.uk. In an emergency phone 999.
In a parallel initiative, LBP and Rape Crisis Campaign are spreading the message that 'Drinking is not a crime. Rape is.'
The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act has, since 1 December, listed examples of when 'free agreement' to sex is not given. These include when a victim is incapable of granting proper consent due to the effect of alcohol.
A police statement says: '... to ply an individual with alcohol for the purposes of sexually exploiting them, or sexually exploiting them when they are already incapable of freely agreeing, may very well result in an investigation for serious sexual crime'.
Finally, as part of its Festive Drink/Drug Driving Campaign, LBP publicised on Friday the case of an Edinburgh man arrested and charged that morning with driving whilst having twice the legal amount of alcohol in his system.
Inspector David Milne, from the Road Policing Unit at LBP, said: 'The driver had been on a Christmas night out the previous evening, and was on his way to work when he was stopped by road policing officers. My message to people in this position is to leave the car at home, and make alternative arrangements for transport'.