O.T. Veil 730

It was an unpleasant but not especially vicious street attack from what I've read. The race card seems to trump common sense and makes people come out with all sorts of kneejerk bullpoos remarks. The snag is that if words like 'despicable' are bandied around in this instance then such exaggeration renders strong words like that worthless. To be frank- was she stabbed? loveually molested? Slapped? Punched? Left to die? Nope, she had a piece of cloth, one which has become a rather contentious symbol in Western countries, pulled from her face and she was called some nasty names.

I think the attacker is a thug and should be punished, and I do feel sympathy with the victim who no doubt found the experience humiliating and scary, but let's not get carried away. I wonder if the Asian copper who coined the word 'despicable' would have used that word had it been an Asian woman who'd attacked a white woman for *not* wearing a veil? I think not.

society we may find covering one's face outlawed before long. How long do you think it would take the government to act if everyone decided to start

Bad analogy IMO. T-Shirts are an accepted dress in this country and much of the world. It is not for many a symbol of exclusivity or representative of what may be perceived as a repressive, loveist culture. Nor does it hide one's idenbreasty. The 'Islamic' veil (it's not even really an Islamic item at all IIRC) is unfortunately for many people a contentious symbol of isolation from British culture, one of seperation and a statement of belonging to what is, let's face it, a culture which often sets itself out to be completely at odds with the values this country is supposed to stand for.

Nope, more prosecutions for personal abuse and buttault are needed, period. The racial factor should not make any difference to the decision to prosecute, or how hard plod work to trace the criminal. Personal abuse is unpleasant regardless of the racial factor, and this relatively modern lefty notion that racial abuse is worse than any other personal remark is pure bollocks. It might give some people a personal ego boost to jump on the 'racism is the worst form of abuse' bandwagon, and they might not want to look bad in front of their trendy, right-on uni friends by arguing the point, but it's still bollocks nonetheless.

If he'd attacked her because she was butt ugly or disabled and the remarks completely destroyed her sense of self worth, would that be a lesser offence than a 'racial' hate crime? I don't think so, do you?

Morse