Crime

[alexmac]

Watching bbc news 2 reports in one guy gets killed in liverpool in another guy gets killed on a bus. One is a racial crime and the other isnt. Please explain to me the difference folks. I really dont understand because this is both white and black people killing each other.

[londondave]

the guy in liverpool received racist abuse before he was attacked, the guy on the bus didn't

[alexmac]

thanks I hadnt heard that bit.

[twiglet4frog]

i back that up, the black guy was murdered for his skin colour, whereas the white guy was killed cos he argued about having food thrown at his girlfriends head and got in a struggle with the black assailaint.

One was Racially driven attack, the other a random attack over arrogance and attitude. Both very sad and unfortunate and both deserving the criminals caught and dealt with accordingly. My sympathies with the families of both!

[jno]

ideally I suppose all the killers in these two cases would end up having to share a cell...

[acw]

jno - but then one or the other or both would probably end up dead.  Mind you - from the capital punishment thread it seems clear that some users would be pleased about that. 

At least in these cases it seems clear that there WAS racial motivation in one and not in the other.  All too often it's just assumed by the media.  Here it sadly seems to be true (well, in the one case where it WAS racist.)

[londondave]

yep, put em both down with a lethal injection

[alexmac]

Confused ! What is racism anyway. What about Mugabe Is he one or is it just us? I cant get dinner till bf is back from the pub so I am reading all this. Do you have to shout something out first to make a killing racist or is it important to make something racist anyway just because it has to be racist because otherwise it wont get on to the bbc or chanel4. Is a racist killing much worse than another one?

[acw]

If we're going to be technical - racism:

1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

According to www.dictionary.com

I don't really know whether a racist killing is worse than any other.  At the end of the day, a young man is dead - that doesn't change with a label. 

However, racist killings are more telling of society than non-racially motivated ones. 

In line with the dictionary definition, any person is capable of beign racist.  I also think Robert Mugabe is racist. 

One big area of racism that the press tends to ignore is racism that doesn't involve white people at all.  E.g., Asian vs Black.  It's still racism after all. 

[magicbeatle]

And also where white people may be the victims of rascist abuse or murder, hardly gets mentioned in the press.

[jimmer]

It's obviously not important to the victims, being murdered is being murdered. It probably wont help the families of either man because both are senseless murders. However, it helps the police to know a motive when trying to catch the murderer. It helps policy makers to know the frequency and severity of say race hate crimes or crimes by the mentally deranged.It keeps us, the public, informed so we can make decisions and play a part in shaping our country.

 

jim

[Ivankafka]

I'm appalled by both killings - absolutely heinous.But I think what alexmac might be saying is that the one has received far greater coverage than the other, yet they are both petty mindless killings. Why? Political correctness is obviously a factor which is unfortunate. Unfortunate because, although racism has to be tackled for sure, just as important a factor is the eradication of this thuggish culture that is growing day by day.

[magicbeatle]

I agree with you there Jimmer. Being murdered is being murdered. It's a terrible thing whether it's black on black, white on black, white on white, or black on white. It makes no difference to the dead person.

[alli mac]

Im disscusted by it all and ashamed to be a part of this world we all live in why cant we all live as one it shoudnt matter what colour we are . Its as bad now as it was when the white people were against the black now its the the black against the white and then vice versa again and only worse its gonna get.