{"id":1707,"date":"2014-04-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/23-04-2014-le-progres-publishes-racist-article-about-delinquent-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:50:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:50:46","slug":"23-04-2014-le-progres-publishes-racist-article-about-delinquent-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/de\/23-04-2014-le-progres-publishes-racist-article-about-delinquent-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"23.04.2014 Le Progr\u00e8s publishes racist article about delinquent Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several French \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnewspapers report on an article, published by the regional newspaper Le Progr\u00e8s<\/em>, which assigns different \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttypes of offenses to various nationalities, including the Rroma. These are named \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdirectly in connection with petty crimes, prostitution, scrap metal theft and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tburglary offenses. That the Rroma are not a nationality but an ethnic group, Annie \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDemontfaucon (2014), the author of the article, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tseems to have forgotten. In France, statistics based on national origin are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tallowed, but not those that capture ethnic membership. Therefore, Le Progr\u00e8s<\/em> makes itself liable to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprosecution with the infographics, as the attorney of La Voix des Roms<\/em> confirms. SOS Racisme will file suit against the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnewspaper for illegal, ethnic profiling of Rroma. The same will be done by Licra<\/em> (Ligue internationalle contre le racisme \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tet l’antis\u00e9mitisme), which stated that even the mention of national identity in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe context of crime is far from unproblematic. A third lawsuit will be filed \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby the Movement against Racism MRAP (Mouvement \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcontre le racisme et pour l’amiti\u00e9 entre les peuples). MRAP also raises the question of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhether the sources of the article can be traced back to racist police \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstatistics. But this question cannot be clearly answered: \u201cFor their sources, explains the chief editor, they simply contacted \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe offices of the police, the gendarmerie, and the customs authority, who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcommunicated them the general trends, based on their observations and the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tarrests. The general trends therefore, but no official figures\u201d <\/em>(Metro News \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014). Christophe Soullez, head of the national observation post for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdelinquency and criminal justice (ONDRP), decidedly questions the quality and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\torigin of the sources. While the ONDRP itself publishes statistics based on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnational affiliation, these only list perpetrators sentenced by the court and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot conjectures on the membership of the actors. A link between ethnicity and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcrimes committed is clearly racist and illegal, he states. La Voix des Roms<\/em> filed a complaint against an illegal, ethnic file a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfew years ago, with the name \u201cMinorit\u00e9s Ethniques Non S\u00e9dentaires (MENS). Not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsurprisingly, on the side of the Front \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNational,<\/em> one praised the article of Le \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProgr\u00e8s<\/em>. Florian Philippot, vice-president of the National Front, announced \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat he thanked the newspaper that they showed the negative effects of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\timmigration. The fact that this is a deeply biased and racist interpretation of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe facts, the conservative nationalist politician cares little about (compare Conxicoeur 2014, Metronews 2014, Le \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFigaro 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Le Huffington Post 2014).<\/p>\n