
In his latest blog for Infologue.com, Chris Cully, Managing Director for Dilitas Ltd, discusses political correctness. Chris writes: “On Wednesday 27th August, the United Kingdom awoke to find it was not the country that it was. We refer of course to the appalling situation in Rotheram; where it appears that as many as 1400 girls, some as young as 11, were abused between 1997 and 2013. Reports from Rotherham indicate that this may be a conservative figure.
“The inquiry into this horrific manner and the subsequent report, written by Professor Alexis Jay, identified that the females were serially abused, abducted and trafficked by men, the majority of whom were described by the victims as Asian. When trying to report these offences, the victims were treated with contempt by the local police and social workers.
“The report details that the victims and their families were stopped from going to the police by threats of violence, ranging from being threatened with firearms and threats of being doused with petrol and ignited. Several of the victims turned to self-harm and attempted suicide at the lack of this support.
“The report details that in many cases, the agencies in place to help in such events were obstructive and, indeed, in one case the police arrested the parents trying to rescue their daughters from the houses in which they were being abused and assaulted.
“As an example, Professor Jay’s report details the matter of a child, referred to as Child H, who was 12 when she was found in the rear of a taxi; drunk. She was with a man who had indecent images of the child on his phone. South Yorkshire police were informed and the parents co-operated fully with the police, regarding the allegations made by Child H, who claimed to have been abused. Police failed to act!
“This phenomenal failure to do their job was surpassed by further officers from South Yorkshire police who found the same child in an empty house with a group of men. The child was arrested for being drunk and disorderly with no action taken against the men.
“Whilst we are all fully aware that the police no longer know how investigate crime nor deal with the matters presented to them, being supported by an incompetent and unfocussed Crown Prosecution Service, they are not alone in this horrendous tale.
“The men and women of the Labour-controlled Rotherham Council must shoulder an equal amount of the blame. Despite being fully aware of the size of this problem, the Council and specifically the Social Services, appear to have demonstrated a complete paroxysm of inaction. There are allegedly reports that the council suppressed the real extent of this problem and staff were allegedly told to play down the ethnic dimension.
“One victim reported to the BBC last night, in reference to one of the attackers, ‘Police were aware, social services were aware and they still didn’t stop him. It almost became like a game to him. He was untouchable.’
“In 2010, a gang of British-born Pakistani men from Rotherham went on trial at Sheffield Crown Court. Umar Razaq, then aged 24, Adil Hussain, then aged 20, Razwan Razaq, then aged 30, Zafran Ramzan, then aged 21, and 21-year-old Mohsin Khan, were found guilty of a string of sexually related offences against the girls. Ramzan was jailed for nine years, Umar Razaq was jailed for four and a half years, and Razwan Razaq received 11 years. Hussain and Khan, a mortgage adviser who owned a BMW, both got four years.
“You may well be asking, “How can such enormity as this happen in England in 2014”. The answers are many and varied and no doubt will be discussed at length, by many. Leaving aside the continual and on-going incompetence of the police and the social services, neither of whom are really providing any support to those whom they should serve, the problem is, we would suggest, more ingrained.
“The one point in this whole matter, which seems to repeat the same refrain is that the council employees were warned to stay away from the “Racial Aspect” of the matter for fear of being branded a “Racist”. A point that will no doubt have been driven home like a stake through a vampires heart, by those who worship at the alter of political correctness.
“The time has come to undo the terror that has and continues to be spread through organisations and businesses by the word “Racist”. Interestingly, after the UKIP successes in May 2014, Trevor Phillips, OBE the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was on the Andrew Marr show on the 1st June 2014 and commented that “there is now a problem with the use of the epithet “Racist”. It is beginning to be a problem in depriving the word of its moral force”.
“An interesting comment that followed hard on the heels of UKIP’s successes.
“We believe Mr. Phillips is right. The term racist is over used, misused, misapplied and thrown around with gay abandon on a day-to-day basis at any opportunity. When this pernicious word is applied with such frequency and tenacity with the implied authority of political correctness, we create a society where people are frightened to voice their fears and concerns, for fear of being labelled in such a way.
“What damage can such a status quo cause? Look towards Rotheram, then turn and look to Syria, Afghanistan and indeed Woolwich, where holders of British Passports who assert themselves as British, commit crimes and atrocities for the simple reason, as a society, we have tied our own hands, in preventing such individuals behave how they choose.
“Remember, political correctness is the biggest weapon in the arsenal of our enemies and it is a weapon wielded with intense ferocity by our friends and colleagues, who do not even realise they are using such a weapon with which they have been surreptitiously provided.”
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