What I don't want
Oct. 24th, 2013 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
underthewillowsWhen the investigations have been completed, the reports finally issued, and the press conferences held, here is what I do NOT want to happen:
- Junior or lower-level members of the police and/or health services carrying the can for this
- Scapegoat thrown to the wolves to appease public disquiet
- After the showtrial, move along folks, business as usual
What I DO want:
- An in-depth look at this legislation and any forthcoming legislation, and some concrete definitions on what the hell is a reasonable belief or grounds for suspicion; when can you take children away; when do you leave them with parents; nail it down and don't leave the people working at the coalface dangling in the wind when they have to make decisions on wording that has Supreme Court judges doing fine hair-splitting as to what it means
- Newspapers and television all taking a good hard look at themselves and their responsibility in this (and all of them, not the broadsheets being sniffy about the redtops: they all in their various manners spread around the story of the Greek Roma alleged child abduction)
- Serious consideration of racism in Ireland, not the same old head in the sand approach. This means also recognising that some complaints about certain members of minority groups are valid and not motivated by racism or discrimination. Sometimes person X is a criminal or a risk to the neighbourhood. We need to get a balance between "All X are cheats and thieves!" and "Any X is blamed unfairly because of generations of prejudice!"
- That is going to be one hell of a tough conversation and there will be bad blood on both sides. But we need to have it
- Government and politicians looking at their own part. If you're peddling the notion of "We're pro-business, pro-employment; we want to help you help yourself" and that means making budget cuts, which you then justify as "We're only clearing out the false claimants and the cheats - did you know, by the way, most fraud is carried out by immigrants?" in order to attract the votes of the middle-class/white working-class - then you are part of the problem. You don't get away with dismissing it as over-zealous police when you're the guy or gal with the power of making policy
- Junior or lower-level members of the police and/or health services carrying the can for this
- Scapegoat thrown to the wolves to appease public disquiet
- After the showtrial, move along folks, business as usual
What I DO want:
- An in-depth look at this legislation and any forthcoming legislation, and some concrete definitions on what the hell is a reasonable belief or grounds for suspicion; when can you take children away; when do you leave them with parents; nail it down and don't leave the people working at the coalface dangling in the wind when they have to make decisions on wording that has Supreme Court judges doing fine hair-splitting as to what it means
- Newspapers and television all taking a good hard look at themselves and their responsibility in this (and all of them, not the broadsheets being sniffy about the redtops: they all in their various manners spread around the story of the Greek Roma alleged child abduction)
- Serious consideration of racism in Ireland, not the same old head in the sand approach. This means also recognising that some complaints about certain members of minority groups are valid and not motivated by racism or discrimination. Sometimes person X is a criminal or a risk to the neighbourhood. We need to get a balance between "All X are cheats and thieves!" and "Any X is blamed unfairly because of generations of prejudice!"
- That is going to be one hell of a tough conversation and there will be bad blood on both sides. But we need to have it
- Government and politicians looking at their own part. If you're peddling the notion of "We're pro-business, pro-employment; we want to help you help yourself" and that means making budget cuts, which you then justify as "We're only clearing out the false claimants and the cheats - did you know, by the way, most fraud is carried out by immigrants?" in order to attract the votes of the middle-class/white working-class - then you are part of the problem. You don't get away with dismissing it as over-zealous police when you're the guy or gal with the power of making policy
