“Polish immigrant accused of strangling and burying woman”… so ran a headline in the Western Mail today.
For those of you who don’t need to colour all incidents with racial prejudice, this translates roughly as “Man accused of strangling and burying woman”, though granted that is a little bit dry as a headline, so to take it a little more tabloid, and to give a feeling for what is contained in the article, how about “Man accused of strangling and burying lover”.
In any case, the fact that the man is a Polish immigrant is, I’m sure you’ll agree, irrelevant. His legal status as a British or Polish citizen was not the cause of, or result of, his alleged crime, and therefore should not be referred to in such a dangerously insinuating manner.
The fact that the man is Polish could well have been mentioned as an aside, while describing the backdrop to the story, but otherwise it should not feature.
In my opinion, this kind of unfettered scare-mongering does nothing but cause problems for immigrants trying to settle into the country, and does nothing but give ammunition to those extremists who already believe that immigrants are a special breed of dangerous troublemakers.
Am I over-reacting? Please let me know while I decide if I should lodge a formal complaint.
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The headline could equally have read “man murders Indonesian immigrant”. I wonder why that was not chosen?
It reminds me of the spin put on crime statistics and race. It is often stated that racial minorities are responsible for most crime in the UK. What is less publicised is the fact that, if you are a member of an ethnic minority, you are more likely to be a victim of crime than a “white” person.