From the Telegraph (UK):
District Judge Jonathan Finestein said the decision to prosecute the youngster—accused of calling a fellow pupil a “Paki” and a “nigger” – was “political correctness gone mad”.
He attacked the police for not “bothering” to prosecute more serious crime such as car theft but readily picking on a “silly” incident.
He added that he used to be called fat at school and said that in the old days the headmaster would have given the children “a good clouting” and sent them on their way.
Judge Finestein spoke out when the boy, from Irlam, Greater Manchester, appeared at Salford youth court accused of racially abusing a fellow pupil.
He called an 11-year-old boy “Paki”, allegedly referred to him as “bin Laden” and chanted: “He’s on the run, pull the trigger and shoot the nigger”. He is said to have made the comments in the school playground between July 1 last year and Jan 30 this year.
The 10-year-old denied the racially aggravated public order offence and said he was now friends with the boy.
He admitted calling him a “Paki” but said he did not use any other racist terms and claimed the complainant had called him “white trash”.
Judge Finestein said he thought prosecuting the youngster was “crazy” and urged the Crown Prosecution Service to reverse its decision. He said: “Have we really got to the stage where we are prosecuting 10-year-old boys because of political correctness? I was repeatedly called fat at school. Does this amount to a criminal offence?
—Well, if certain grievance groups had their way, yes, yes it would.
Of course, if certain other grievance groups had their way, there would be no fat children, as only a vegan sprout diet and water would be legal to “market” to minors.
A decade back, a six-year-old boy was removed from class for kissing a little girl and accused of “sexual harrassment.” Which, by itself, is clearly a ridiculous overreaction by uptight, zero-tolerance school bureaucrats—but more troublesome is that we have given the power to police “tolerance” to a bunch of petty tyrants who would accuse a six-year-old of such a “crime” for an innocent peck. Moreso, that we have even made these kinds of interpersonal conflicts the business of “tolerance,” politically interested identity groups (Patricia Ireland of NOW, if I’m remembering correctly, said the charge was justified), and the state in the first place, either by demonizing certain kinds of expression, or by demonizing certain classes of potential predators (the little boy was clearly a future misogynist and abuser of women, and may yet grow up to fulfill that potential by making the Duke lacrosse team)—is a clear example that we have allowed the First Amendment to fall victim to the slippery slope of nannystatism, as well as to the same view of “tolerance” that animates campus speech codes and editorial decisions to censor “South Park” or refuse to print Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed…
(h/t Tom Pechinski; via Volokh)
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update: In the comments, colossus points out that Theodore Dalrymple’s latest City Journal piece addresses similar themes. Be sure to check it out.
Jeff,
Don’t know if you’ve read Dalrymple’s latest in City Journal, but it touches on similar themes.
10 year olds should be eaten and not heard.
See what you’ve done to me!
Oh man, now I have to apologize to everybody.
NOW THIS IS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!
due to the climate of political correctness now pervading America,Kentuckians, Tennesseans and West Virginians will no longer be referred to as “HILLBILLIES.”
You must now refer to us as APPALACHIAN-AMERICANS.
And furthermore ….
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT WOMEN AND BE POLITICALLY CORRECT:
1. She is not a “BABE” or a “CHICK” – She is a “BREASTED AMERICAN.”
2. She is not a “SCREAMER” or a “MOANER” – She is “VOCALLY APPRECIATIVE.”
3. She is not “EASY” – She is “HORIZONTALLY ACCESSIBLE.”
4. She is not a “DUMB BLONDE” – She is a “LIGHT-HAIRED DETOUR OFF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.”
5. She has not “BEEN AROUND” – She is a “PREVIOUSLY-ENJOYED COMPANION.”
6. She is not an “AIRHEAD” – She is “REALITY IMPAIRED.”
7. She does not get “DRUNK” or “TIPSY” – She gets “CHEMICALLY INCONVENIENCED”
8. She does not have “BREAST IMPLANTS” – She is “MEDICALLY ENHANCED.”
9. She does not “NAG” you – She becomes “VERBALLY REPETITIVE.”
10. She is not a “TRAMP” – She is “SEXUALLY EXTROVERTED.”
11. She does not have “MAJOR LEAGUE HOOTERS” – She is “PECTORAL SUPERIOR.”
12. She is not a “TWO-BIT HOOKER” – She is a “LOW COST PROVIDER.”
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT MEN AND BE POLITICALLY CORRECT:
1. He does not have a “BEER GUT” – He has developed a “LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY.”
2. He is not a “BAD DANCER” – He is “OVERLY CAUCASIAN.”
3. He does not “GET LOST ALL THE TIME” – he “INVESTIGATES ALTERNATIVE DESTINATIONS.”
4. He is not “BALDING” – He is in “FOLLICLE REGRESSION.”
5. He is not a “CRADLE ROBBER” – he enjoys GENERATIONAL DIFFERENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS.”
6. He does not get “FALLING-DOWN DRUNK” – He becomes “ACCIDENTALLY HORIZONTAL.”
7. He does not act like a “TOTAL ASS” – He develops a case of RECTAL-CRANIAL INVERSION.”
8. He is not a “MALE CHAUVINIST PIG” – He has “SWINE EMPATHY.”
9. He is not afraid of “COMMITMENT” – He is “RELATIONSHIP CHALLENGED.”
10. He is not “HORNY” – He is “SEXUALLY FOCUSED.”
11. It’s not his “CRACK” you see hanging out of his pants – It’s “REAR CLEAVAGE”
I feel ambivalent about this piece. Granted, the freedom of speech et al… but anything which arrests 10 year old boys, I have trouble going against that.
Morons. Whadda ya gonna do? Shooting them is illegal for some stupid reason. Go figure.
Two words: home schooling.
As for the Dalrymple piece – an armed society is a polite society. So tell little Johnny to watch his ass.
BINGO?
I hear you can’t even defend yourself in Britain anymore. Shooting anyone (morons or ten year olds, not sure of mojo’s target) is out of the question.
Unless you’re a member of the Religion of Peace. Then bombs are OK. If you’re Irish, no bombs. I believe no shooting either.
Don’t say anything bad about anyone, because you can be sued.
I believe those are the rules.
I was repeatedly called fat at school.
Gah! What a creative juggernaut that school must have been. No blimpy? No lardboy? Texass?
Geez kids, mix it up a little.
I posted the piece above just to show how STUPID politically correct speech could be and could get. Europe has gone that far in their eagerness to “protect” all groups and all things from man’s unkindness to man. It all began after WWII with the guilt Europeans felt for giving tacit agreement to the Holocaust by refusing to acknowledge that it was happening. They outlawed any praise or denial of the Holocaust. Then every little group had their own sacred “No-No” to add to the banned speech until it became ludicrous. Our local schools are now planning to participate in the GLSEN Event, an action I oppose vehemently. I hate bullying and hate speech, but I hate anything that would limit free speech more.
Talk about unforeseen consequences. PC and Saudi repression of the boys-will-be-boys instinct are sisters under the skin. As The Religious Policeman said the other day re the Saudi soccer boys headed for the World Cup in Germany:
In the comments on my own post on the subject, Teresa of Technicalities said it all:
As for the Saudi boysâ€â€sounds just like what happens when an over protected kid (male or female) in America goes off to college and mom isn’t right there to tell them “noâ€Â. They never learned how to deal with life and then suddenly they’re thrown right in the deep end. No one should be surprised at the result
Kinda makes you want to cruise Amish country for a little rumspringah action, doesn’t it?
*chirp–chirp*
not really PC was it?
Someone posted the other day that a friend of his told a London cop that his horse was “like, totally gay” and was promptly arrested for a hate crime.
Upon reading this piece, I got the sudden flash that the school administrators and other species of PC police are a lot like the people that want to be on homeowners’ association boards.
They’re nitpickers who don’t have anything better to do than obsess about whether the new paint color exactly matches the old one, as opposed to being a shade darker (paint colors DO fade), or whether a plant that dies must be replaced with exactly the same kind, or (horror of horrors) people hanging towels over their deck railings for an hour or two after a trip to the beach or, (as one board member I recall–and he was a nice guy) prying bottle caps out of the asphalt in the street.
It’s gotten to the point where a minority of one can stop a benefit for the many in its tracks, and we all must kowtow so as not to offend the most hypersensitive among us.
Even worse, what used to be dealt with in the realm of “good manners” is now enforced by statute and ordinance, with the result that civility has suffered, because that which is not expressly forbidden is OK, which leads to a proliferation of new nitpicky laws. A vicious circle if ever there was.
I’m fed up with it all! A pox on PC and all its practitioners!
TW: Arms, as in “arms are for hugging”–unless you’re a six year old boy in PC first grade.
You know the problem i see with this is that, blacks, women,[im a black chick]whites, immigrants, all of us have been compartmentalized and pitted against each other, now every little difference is being used to stick us in a jail cell somewhere for every stupid little thing.
the kid is 10 he isnt running around in a white hood setting crosses on fire, these are excuses to take our freedoms, even our freedom to be a stupid jerk. im sick of it
by the way this isnt political correctness, minorities are being railroaded by the gov but the average jerk is now getting railroaded for doing .0000000000000001% of what the gov does
Does anyone remember the old adage, “sticks and stones may break my bones but name will never hurt me”? I remember this but I don’t think I’ve heard it said or have seen it in print since the 70’s. Suddenly, at this stage of human civilization we need to enact laws to make certain words illegal because they will hurt somebody’s feelings. Can someone tell where the right to never be insulted was written? Magna Carta? Declaration Of Independence?
We are just going overboard with political correctness. Wish there was an island to retreat to, with only animals, no people.