The 'racism' Word Rears It's Ugly Head Once Again, This Time At A Cost Of £100,000

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287219/MP-subjected-6-month-100-000-police-racism-probe-telling-man-unkempt.html

/// During the investigation, which is likely to have cost taxpayers up to £100,000, Mr Loughton’s staff were also interviewed and hours were spent trawling through archives for evidence before it was abruptly dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service last month. ///

Was this MP being racist by referring to this troublesome constituent, as 'unkempt'.

It was only after the constituent explained that he was of Romany Gipsy descent that the racist accusation came into action.

Does this mean that this would have been deemed a lesser 'crime' if he had not been of a Romany Gipsy descent, and how was the MP to know this fact?

[emmie]

a black burglar is committing a crime, that is all, it is how some might see it if it was directed solely at white folks, this is unlikely seeing as how burglars don't give a s hit who they burgle, me included..

[sp1814]

em10

Exactly.

I would love to hear back from Svejk though...if only to find out whether his/her comment was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek.

[emmie]

i have lost the will to live on this x bye

[bazwillrun]

@AOG

apologies, I didnt make it clear who my post was aimed at.

Certainly not you, I omitted the "@".

According to a select few on here i'm racist and homophobic so I dont want to also be labelled a grass although i'm happy to admit that i put in a complaint re the post !

you can probably work it out from looking at the posts again

[sp1814]

AOG

Leaving aside the side issues, to answer your original post - no, I don't think he was being racist, because surely he was making a personal observation about one particular constituent.

If he had made a generalisation about Romany gypsies, that might be different. I would also argue that if that were the case, he'd be pretty far off the mark too (but I'm only judging by what I've seen on 'Gypsy Weddings' etc). Their taste in clothes, whilst to my eyes is a bit extravagant, isn't really what I would call 'unkempt'.

Indeed, they seem very kempt...