Final Word from Wednesday, September 15, 2004
There's a degree of "racism" in Justice Minister Pavel Němec's idea of lowering the age of legal responsibility from 15 to 14, but it's not politically correct to talk about it. Theft and other offenses against property are often committed by Gypsies and other minority groups, frequently under the direct supervision of a parent, and they'd be the ones most affected by the tighter rules. The Czech media, which used to highlight the disproportionate rate of criminal activity among the Romany population, have now gone to the other extreme and only give clues to a suspect's race when they show pictures. In the U.S., Afro-American comedian Bill Cosby broke a taboo by criticizing black parents for raising future school dropouts, illiterates and criminals. Little Gypsy boys and girls in the CR don't have a famous celebrity fighting for them. Instead, the trend now is to pretend that the problem of Gypsy criminality doesn't exist. crime