24.01.2014 Rroma convicted of Geneva court to long prison terms

Le Nouvelliste (2014) reports on the judgment of the Geneva court against a group of Rroma who had committed a series of violent robberies against elderly people between August to October 2011. All participants were sentenced to long prison penalties: „Une bande de Roms qui avait commis des vols violents chez des personnes âgées a été condamnée plus sévèrement en appel à Genève. La peine de chacun des quatre protagonistes a été majorée de deux ans en moyenne. […] La bande a agi entre août et octobre 2011. Une dame alors âgée de 86 ans qui vivait seule dans sa maison de Lancy (GE) est leur première victime. Ils s’en sont aussi pris à un homme de 76 ans endormi sur son canapé. Il a été frappé et étouffé avec un coussin jusqu’à en perdre connaissance.”[A group of Rroma which committed violent robberies on elderly people was condemned more severely on appeal in Geneva. The sentence of each of the involved persons was upped on average by two years. The group acted between August and October 2011. A woman, 86 years old at the time in Lancy (GE), was their first victim. They also attacked a 76 years old man asleep on his sofa. He was beaten up and suffocated with a pillow, and lost conscience.] The otherwise objectively written article seems not aware that mentioning of ethnic membership is highly problematic, as it suggests connections between matters that have nothing to do with each other. Rroma are not more criminals as people of other ethnic groups (compare Focas 2014).