Tulse Hill girl missing : Serena Beakhurst - missing since last Wednesday

[paragon]

> To start pushing the race hatred button and

> driving rifts through society, to undermine the

> confidence of the police, our social services and

> even our members of parliament was a reaction so

> extraordinarily out of proportion that we needed a

> bit of balance appled.

After re-reading the articule I think the above is a huge overeaction. The article quotes someone who has written on facebook that they think the police didn't prioritise this case relatively when compared with different skin colours. It also quotes the police refuting the claims it dismissed this one as a runaway and they were looking into it.

It also says that Tessa Jowell is looking into the issue. So I don't see where the above has come from at all.

[Fabricio the Guido]

The Police ( ....State,.... Church,... Dai Lama...I... interpose at will) are always right. Racism is a figment of the imagination. Everyone is equal and treated the same. It takes a nation of morons to hold one back.

[RosieH]

Not bold at all, quite right. I was surprsied the other day by RosieH's insistence that referring to someone as a lady doctor demonstrated prejudice. It's in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Ah, I thought you were unusually vehement in your rebuttal. That's not what I was insisting at all, but that the word lady signifies an awful lot more than simply 'female', and the connotations that the word carries can help propagate prejudice. Like the word 'hoodie' implies more than just someone who wears a hooded top.

Anyway, as to this question, I really don't think it was racism. The two cases were completely different, as Huguenot pointed out. I do worry that we're so sensitive to racism (a fear of recognising prejudice within ourselves perhaps?) that we cry foul at the drop of a hat. I'm put in mind of Cheryl Cole putting one black and one mixed race girl through to the X Factor finals and being decried as racist.

I just don't think the facts stack up.

[paragon]

I do worry

> that we're so sensitive to racism (a fear of

> recognising prejudice within ourselves perhaps?)

> that we cry foul at the drop of a hat.

Hopefully we would agree that this is preferable states of affair to the other end of the scale, but a happy medium would be welcome.

[Fabricio the Guido]

The issue is about the media and the way certain stories are reported or under reported. It is astounding that in 2011 these well established, researched, facts, are still being disputed. It was a simple point made by someone that the under reporting of her disappearance may have been connected to her ethnicity. I made the connection between this particular case and well known sociological facts which rendered this a possibility. A possibility on that basis of which I was prepared to accept it as a proposition.

I supposed if I was of another persuasion, I could easily have made another assumption.

What is unbearable is the smug assumption that x & y were the case because the girl was found, therefore, it was not racism. The issue was about under reproting of the girl's disappearance an d the only reason why the amount of publicity around the case increased was because of the highlighting of this fact and the celebrities who attached themselves to the case.

In America, attitudes such as those exhibited by members of the forum often leads to the imposition of the death penalty. Fortunately, in Britain, we dont have the death penalty even if we get such "reasonable" people serving on juries.

[paragon]

Fabricio the Guido Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The issue is about the media and the way certain

> stories are reported or under reported. It is

> astounding that in 2011 these well established,

> researched, facts, are still being disputed. It

> was a simple point made by someone that the under

> reporting of her disappearance may have been

> connected to her ethnicity. I made the connection

> between this particular case and well known

> sociological facts which rendered this a

> possibility. A possibility on that basis of which

> I was prepared to accept it as a proposition.

>

> I supposed if I was of another persuasion, I

> could easily have made another assumption.

>

> What is unbearable is the smug assumption that x

> & y were the case because the girl was found,

> therefore, it was not racism. The issue was about

> under reproting of the girl's disappearance an d

> the only reason why the amount of publicity around

> the case increased was because of the highlighting

> of this fact and the celebrities who attached

> themselves to the case.

>

> In America, attitudes such as those exhibited by

> members of the forum often leads to the imposition

> of the death penalty. Fortunately, in Britain, we

> dont have the death penalty even if we get such

> "reasonable" people serving on juries.

I agree with some of your points here but I think you undermine your rant hugely by saying Forum members would be racist when on jury service.

Can you point me to some researched facts as I had a look for some to support my view that the media is bias but couldn't find any.

[citizenED]

I tend to get my news through the BBC and the Guardian and, naturally, the EDF - but lots of people don't. The campaign to find Serena was conducted through Facebook and Twitter - with many celebrities highlighting her case. Were these not just the most appropriate media to use in this case?

[RosieH]

Fabricio, I think that's a WHOLE HEAP of supposition on your part, and frankly, pretty fucking offensive.

Do you actually know whether the police wanted a lid keeping on it and were doing their job, or are you just guessing, and pandering to your own prejudices?

[Fabricio the Guido]

I will come back on the research.

I did not say they are or would be racist. I am just saying reasonable people make mistakes especially when it comes to race and when the person at the receiving end of the mistake is different from you. See the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence,( all men are created equal) and the small matter of the slaves.

As a juror you are presented with certain facts and required to make inferences based on those facts. The inability to hold two opposing thoughts or differing strands of a story whilst sifting through the evidence is a bit of a disadvantage in jury service. In my opinion. The comments made in dismissing the allegation of racism in the media can be summed up (a) the may be other factors at play in the under reporting, what factors we 're are not told, just leave it up to the police because they know what they are doing, they deal with this all the time; (b) it is not always about racism.

All "reasonable" assumptions. If you are...

[Fabricio the Guido]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-dyNGaCWQo&feature=related

[Emerson Crane]

Fabricio the Guido Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> As a juror you are presented with certain facts

> and required to make inferences based on those

> facts. The inability to hold two opposing thoughts

> or differing strands of a story whilst sifting

> through the evidence is a bit of a disadvantage

> in jury service. In my opinion.

So are you suggesting the abolition of trial by jury, which has been suggested in some quarters. Very dangerous in my view.

[david_carnell]

RosieH Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm put in mind of Cheryl Cole putting one black and one

> mixed race girl through to the X Factor finals and

> being decried as racist.

>

> I just don't think the facts stack up.

I would imagine accusations of racism against Ms Cole are more to do with her racially abusing a bathroom attendant at a bar/nightclub early in her career. But these facts are easily glossed over with the help of a pretty face and hair extension ads. Poor Ron Atkinson just can't get a break though.

[RosieH]

An allegation she was found innocent of David, so why do you still choose to think of her as racist?

[DJKillaQueen]

That's a very good point Rosie and demonstrates how media hype blinds people to truth. They believe what they want to believe irregardless of the outcome.

[RosieH]

Yes. I have to be honest, I don't know the ins and outs of this case, so I've no idea why it wasn't better publicised. It could have been because the police and media are institutionally racist, or it might have been because it wasn't in the best interests of the missing girl, or it might have been because resources meant they had to prioritise the highest risk cases.

Nobody else on here knows either, and the knee-jerk leap to racism, even when utterly unproven, makes me uncomfortable.

[DaveR]

If you look back to the very beginning of the thread, two quite different things were being suggested.

The more serious was that the police were not investigating properly because of the race and/or class of the missing person. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that this was true, and it was an unhelpful and divisive accusation to make.

The other point was about media coverage. The police were also criticised for their approach to this, and again that doesn't seem to me to be well-founded or helpful. In any case the police will have to decide whether the investigation is best served by a high media profile or not, and it is difficult to criticise their approach in this case. I note in the Bristol case the wide media coverage has not been encouraged by the police.

As to the approach of the media themselves, they are driven by news values that generally bear no relation to fairness, equality, or any other noble idea, and I'm surprised that anyone expects any different.

[Fabricio the Guido]

It is never too late to jump on the bandwagon. Gosh. Maybe i should just draw diagrams. I think I've made my position clear in my earlier posts. If you read it very slowly it might become clearer with time. I'm glad we are all in agreement that racism is a very bad thing. Indeed.