# Wise County Sheriff's Office, a belated 'fuck you' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 20, 2002, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689 "2002-09-20T00:49:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/41 "2002-09-25T15:11:47Z")
Check out (no pun intended) this Human Rights Watch report: “Roma in the Czech Republic: Foreigners in Their Own Land.” [http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Czech.htm](http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Czech.htm) It made me cry when first published, and still does… ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/42 "2002-09-25T18:42:27Z")
Yeah **Eva** , I knew of the situation in the Czech Republic before that report and it does make you want to cry. Something that you may not know about though is related to this line from that report: > [@](#): > > In May 1995, the Czech government unveiled a memorial in the town of Lety at the site of a concentration camp used to hold Roma during World War II. Nice of them wasn’t it? Pity that you’d have to stand in a pile of pig shit if you wanted to see the real site: Where the Lety concentration camp once stood is now a pig farm. Despite many protests made to the government, and the fact that they are breaking the Helsinki Agreements stating that death camps should be preserved as remembrance sites, they still refuse to remove the pig farm. You’ll find out more [here](http://members.tripod.com/lety_site/) ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/43 "2002-09-25T21:21:33Z")
A little more about Lety: > [@](#): > > Apart from legal and educational issues, the government could have been proactive in the issue of the Lety pig farm. This is the site of the World War II concentration camp in the Czech lands where thousands of Czech Roma were interned between 1939 and 1943 and 327 Roma were killed. The camp was closed in 1943 and its internees deported to Auschwitz. In 1974 the site began operating as an industrial pig farm. When activists tried to have the pig farm closed and the site commemorated they met with indifference from local and national officials. The government delayed making a decision on the fate of the farm in early 1999; it then considered but rejected as too costly the up to 700 million crowns required to buy the farm. (55) > Government indifference might have mirrored popular sentiments, as only 11% of those polled were willing to dedicate public money to the Lety site, although this view may be unsurprising because of the Czech economic downturn. In what may be seen by others as both a belated and frugal decision, the Czech government decided on 18 May 1999 to allocate 1 million crowns, or approximately US$ 25 000, to improve the Lety monument. While often expressing extreme views, the Republican Party’s attack on funding the monument might have found wider resonance. As Republican Josef Krejsa declared, ‘the government isn’t ashamed to raise prices at the present time, but it finds the money to build a monument to gypsies. It is simply rudeness and an insult to all white citizens of this state’ (56) From a very long article to be found [here](http://romnews.com/community/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=653) Kal - Who feels like he’s slowly turning into a Romani **december**. Help me! ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/44 "2002-09-26T12:20:39Z")
Lovejoy and Mick Foley… classic 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/45 "2002-09-26T12:44:42Z")
**LurkMeister** : Just saw your post in another thread and realised I’d not responded to you. I’ve never read that magazine, I don’t think we have it in the UK. Maybe you’d care to send me a copy, or point me to where I could read one of the stories online? Now for anyone who has even a passing interest in Romani culture, your Romani chum **Kal** has found the books for you: [University of Hertfordshire Press](http://www.herts.ac.uk/UHPress/Gypsies.html) They publish books about the following topics: [ul] [li]Scholarly accounts of research in Romani Studies[/li] [li]The History of the Romani People[/li] [li]The Language, Literature and Culture of the Romanies[/li] [li]The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe[/li] [li]The Romani Holocaust[/li] [li]The Gypsies of Britain[/li] [li]Flamenco[/li] [li]Education of Gypsy and Traveller Children[/li] [li]Reference books on the Romanies[/li] [/ul] **Twisty** : When **Washte** and I manage to get to a Londope, you’ll see the eerie similarity. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/47 "2002-09-26T19:25:37Z")
**Kal** , I did a quick search of the web and was unable to find any of Hoch’s stories available on-line. I did however, find out that Crippen & Landru (VA) are going to be publishing a collection of the stories under the title _The Iron Angel and Other Stories of Michael Vlado_. No publishing date was given, and [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) doesn’t list it. I’ll keep an eye out for it and let you know if I hear anything further. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can track down any back issues of the magazine with those stories. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/48 "2002-09-26T19:39:37Z")
Ooh, lookie here! I got’s me my own ickle troll. I’ll hug him and stroke him and call him George. From Span’s profile: > [@](#): > > Biography > Since leaving skool at the age of 14, I have been in and out of the slammer like a yo-yo. Still, mustn’t grumble. > > Location > On Your Property > > Interests > Caravanning, Stealing Your Car > > Occupation > Nomad Ain’t this khinner cute? ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/49 "2002-09-27T10:23:07Z")
I’d just like to thank whoever _cared_ enough to register with a profile full of racist, anti-Gypsy stereotypes and post a funny little drive-by asking if I’m a pikey - a very offensive term by the way - for the warm, fuzzy, feeling I now have. Kinda ironic that it would happen in a thread started to complain about bigotted, anti-Gypsyism\* in law enforcement. Maybe he ought to ask Wise County Sheriff’s Office for an application form. Or, seeing as I think he’s British, he could join the Met. Kal \*Yes, it is a real word. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/50 "2002-09-27T13:19:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*waiting to be asked if Gypsies _really_ steal babies. \*\* Well, since you asked, there’s this bit of family lore about my great-uncle Sam nearly being kidnapped by gypsies as a child. 😃 At least, that’s how the story was told by my grandfather Dave, who was one of the alleged rescuers. But that’s not how I perceived the incident when Dave described it to us, about 15 years back; it sounded more like an accidental thing. This would have happened outside of a village a few miles away from Warsaw, in the decade before WWI. Dave, Sam, and their brothers visited the gypsy camp one evening - drawn in by the music and dancing? can’t remember - and Sam, the youngest, apparently got tired and crashed out in the back of a gypsy wagon. When the brothers went home later that night, apparently not all together, they didn’t notice Sam’s absence. The next morning, when they realized he wasn’t with them, they ran back to the gypsy camp and rescued Sam from the wagon as they were pulling out. At least that’s how grandpa Dave told the story. Sam, who was at the table when Dave recounted the episode, recollected the incident more vaguely, but was of the opinion that nobody had tried to kidnap him. (Sam, who has outlived his older brothers, is still quite sharp at the age of 96; I’ll have to ask him about this again sometime.) Like I said, my reading of the event was that it was an accident all around. But given the context, I _had_ to share this family story. I hope nobody will take it as a slur on gypsies, because that’s certainly not how it is intended. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/51 "2002-09-27T19:52:38Z")
\*\*Hi Jack! \*\* I did a search for the abovementioned Edward Hoch’s Gypsy mystery stuff in Ellery Queen, and came up with what I think are two possible titles. # 676 Emperor of the Gypsies - Dec 1997 # 578 Funeral for a Gypsy - Jan 1991 If this sounds like some of the titles, let me know. I can check my local library and make copies. \*\*Bye Jack \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/52 "2002-09-28T00:32:59Z")
Hi Kal. People may want to read Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca -which I’ve read, despite my parents never allowing me to learn to read :rolleyes: Has its problems, but a pretty good book. Also, I’ve never seen numbers on how common it is in the US, but despite the reputation as an insular culture, my family has intermarried (and did so way back in the 1920s) so that my Romani is only a very small percentage of my ethnicity. That side “passes” as Romanian and seldom admits to what we really are. As far as I know, all my cousins on that side are law abiding people. Another side is Italian. All the stereotypes about them are true - need anyones legs broken?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/53 "2002-09-28T01:34:26Z")
Hi **Dangerosa** , I would say that Bury Me Standing had some major problems with it. However, it’s not a bad book for people just starting to learn about the Romani people. Outside of those areas that enslaved the Roma (for about 500 years, btw) there has always been a degree of inter-marriage in Romani society and the ‘passing off’ as being from another culture is very common in the US: Eastern European, Native American and Hispanic are the most common. As this thread has shown, given the anti-Gypsyism\* that pervades mainstream society, that’s a damn good idea. You should also remember that despite all the genocidal laws passed against the Romani people, that we have survived: There are now over 10 million of us around the world. I assume you were not raised in the Romani culture but the knowledge that you have some part of that survivor’s spirit in you should make you very proud of your Romani blood. As to your Italian relatives, well… You know my pet troll on page 1? 😉 Kushti bok, Kal \*Yes, it is still a real word. ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689/54 "2002-09-28T05:52:00Z")
Nice to see you again, Kal. I got your email and answered it. I live in the Central Valley in California where we have had and still have another set of travelers called Okies. The most popular book about them is **The Grapes of Wrath** by _John Steinbeck_. It is fiction, but based largely on Steinbecks’s travels with the Okies. Perhaps you’ve heard of it or read it. There’s also a film by the same name. Both do a credible job of showing the plight of the Okies. Non-fiction on the subject is probably best expressed by a fellow graduate of mine named [Gerald Haslam](http://www.geraldhaslam.com/bio_data.htm). Gerry has written a number of books on the subject. He now lives in northern California. Each year in October the annual [Dust Bowl Days](http://www.weedpatchcamp.com/) are held in Lamont near Bakersfield. I usually attend and try to take some of the grand kids along to show them what these people endured. It is a sad but true fact of life: People are discriminated against all the time, and any thing we can do to eliminate that discrimination is helpful. Peace. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wise-county-sheriffs-office-a-belated-fuck-you/128689.md?page=2)