Sure, there may be such a case. But look at how the case is being reported, and how the police spokespeople have been talking about it. Whether there’s a case or not for abduction, the coverage and the police are showing a lot of racism.
A statement cannot be racist if it is both accurate and relevant. Is Dog factually incorrect when he says people who choose this lifestyle are more likely to commit crimes and shoot at police? Is he incorrect in implying that someone who chooses to associate themselves with a group that commits crimes and shoots at police has given people just cause to distrust them?
Or are you just bleating “racism” because a couple of criminals (I assume forging official identification is still a crime in Greece) aren’t white?
Folks who live in abject poverty because of systematic, centuries-old, and often lethal discrimination are less likely to follow the law and more likely to be hostile toward police than average. News at 11.
Also, a statement can be racist if it’s accurate and relevant, too, if the conclusions drawn from the facts are dumb.
:rolleyes:
Another group has also had similar stories told about it: they were known for centuries for their habit of stealing good Christian babies. If a Jewish couple were found with a child not their own, do you think the headlines would all trumpet “Jewish couple found with Christian baby”? Would it be international news? Or would people be careful not to play on old stereotypes?
The difference being that the Jews did not traditionally go around not just stealing, but stealing livestock and children historically, and there was actually some basis in historical child stealing.
Wasn’t there a deal about a boy stolen something like 20-25 years ago? Yup -Ben Needham, Isle of Kos, one blond boy in Greece turned out not to have been him, but there was a possible in Turkey that might have been him.
With the caveat that this is based solely on what the little information is available and could change, I think that the abandoned child scenario is the most likely. They do seem to have cared for her.
The facts seem to be that she is not related to them (DNA tests were carried out) and they can’t explain how they have come by her.
Under those circumstances cultural and ethnic considerations are irrelevant, how the alarm was raised is irrelevant, whether the initial concern was prompted through racism is irrelevant.
There is a serious anomaly here and the law needs to run it’s course.
Mind you I have to declare a prejudice here. I come from an area that was and is frequented by gypsies and travellers on their journey to Appleby horse fair.
Of course you try not to be prejudiced but when you live in crime-free peace for 11 months of the year and spend the other four weeks chasing gypsies and travellers out of your garden and greenhouses as they steal your lettuces, cherries, strawberries and one occasion a leaf blower, on another a whole patch of rhubarb…well it gets a bit wearing. Especially so when…face to face with them they hand back the swag and tell you it’s just a bit of fun or even worse, try to offer you cash.
But according to some these incidents don’t actually happen. They are a myth just like the mythical re-turfing and gate/fence repairs that was mythically done after mythical damage was done by a mythical temporary camp. The money that cost was anything but mythical.
I’m sure there are many travellers and gypsies who are law-abiding and hate what the minority do but unfortunately it only takes a small proportion to be criminally minded to cause havoc and give a bad name to the group as a whole.
are you sure you are not talking about rabbits? 
two case in Ireland that sound similar
Could be…can rabbits drive a Toyota pick-up? if so you may be on to something.
You’re making too much of those photos. They were taken after the parents were arrested and when the relatives were trying to show that the kid was not neglected. I would be surprised if that wasn’t set up for that specific purpose. There’s no real reason to believe they treated that kid any better than their other kids.
That said, I don’t know what evidence there is that the kid was actually kidnapped. It’s certainly a possibility, but the abandonment/illegal adoption are also possibilities. (If I had to guess, I would lean to the latter.)
What would really be news at 11 would be if officials who suspect “folks who live in abject poverty because of systematic, centuries-old, and often lethal discrimination” and who are therefore “less likely to follow the law and more likely to be hostile toward police than average” of some crime would not be reflexively accused of racism by politically correct racism hunters.
What “conclusions” do you actually disagree with? You’ve been carrying on about racism here, but have been very coy about specifying what exactly you think the racism is. Other than a very vague “how the case is being reported, and how the police spokespeople have been talking about it”, but neither of those things are “conclusions”.
Essentially some minority is being suspected of something, and you’ve moved into knee-jerk RACISM!!! mode.
I’ve noticed that the pro-Roma faction here seems to be ignoring the fact that the parants were engaging in welfare fraud. Not only can’t they provide a consistent story for how they acquired the girl, they also can’t seem to explain why they claimed to have 14 children, but in truth only seem to have 4.
Pro-Roma faction? Are you kidding me? Seriously? It’s pro-Roma to say that perhaps the story told by the couple is real. That perhaps it is not a kidnapping? Let’s say they had not been gypsies and we had raised the same concerns would you have accused us of being pro whatever the ethnicity of the accused?
Also, welfare fraud is a rather less serious crime than kidnapping.
The Irish cases were sparked by media frenzy over the Greek case. Frankly I’m embarrassed and angry that people succumb to mediaeval mode when it suits. I suppose the fact that the Roma are perhaps the least liked minority community in Ireland meant something like this was inevitable, anything to fan the flames of prejudice. In the case of the girl in Dublin she has been proven to be a member of the family and returned.
White people are learning that they don’t all look the sam. :rolleyes::smack:
I had been considering opening a pit thread over this.
ZPG Zealot you were right a few days ago. The current police theory is an arranged marriage when the girl was old enough to marry.
On the other hand, ZPG Zealot was putting a very family-friendly face on the idea of selling a four year old girl as chattel. She might have got the basics right, but seems to have missed that whole “slavery is bad” bit.
Roma are white.
The girl being a pale beacon in a sea of dark faces, hair and eyes is what drew the cops’ attention; different ancestry but not different race - please people keep track of the fact that the US is the only country where “white = WASP”.
It’s quite bizarre that anyone would consider it a point in their favor if it’s true that the girl had the only bed, bedroom, and cupboard in a household that included several other children.
Take a chill pill? Isn’t pretty much everyone against arranged marriages? you seem to be very blasé about it.
A question just so we are clear. Are you against the matching up of children at this age and the concept of arranged marriages?
A web site on Romani/Gypsies what-is-a-gypsy-exactly-and-where-do-they-come-from
and now we know what happend to the GRAPIST
but horrible site…using the "I don’t hate black people, only niggers " argument
As noted in this thread. ZPGZealot is a Roma - it’s her culture. Why are you surprised that she is “blasé” about something considered quite ordinary in her culture?
Actually, arranged marriages are more common than many mainstream Westerners realize. They occur not just among Roma but also among many from India, many Middle Eastern groups, some groups of Jews, and that’s just off the top of my head. We’ve had some threads on the topic. To characterize the typical arranged marriage as “slavery” is a mistake. It’s not that abuses can’t occur, but quite a few love marriages wind up a mess or exploitative as well.
I admit that for me the notion of an arranged marriage is alien and distasteful, but I also recognize that is my own cultural bias and to other people they’re seen as sensible and ordinary.