In the UK two people were arrested for burning a Koran
Now I'm not a fan of burning anything, let alone books, but I seem to recall a lot on this board defending burning your flag as a right of expression. Well, I'm sure your Republican Government will soon have that as a hate crime.
Preacher locked up for hate crime after quoting the Bible to gay teenager
I'm also not a fan of religion, full stop, especially real conservative interpretations, but if we're going to use state raised money to arrest every religious person with shit views on homosexuality... £££ down the drain.
For some more insight into what a Conservative Government pushes for when it comes to speech/expression/privacy in the UK
Everything you need to know about the terrifying Investigatory Powers Bill
The UK has now entered a draconian era of porn prohibition
Now, incitement to violence/direct targeted harassment is something we can all sign off on for being illegal/arrestable, but using taxpayer money to arrest/jail for speech/expression is something that is not a simple "hey look at Europe!". Remember in politics whatever power the government has, it can be used by whatever government is in power. I shouldn't need to remind anyone nearly every country in the West has spells of right-leaning Governments in charge, and then left-leaning Governments. That can happen in a democracy, most of us aren't in dictatorships.
Thinking handing unfettered power to the Government/police forces will somehow stop racism/offence/verbal abuse is short-sighted.