{"id":1685,"date":"2014-03-21T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/21-03-2014-reference-to-pickpockets-and-gypsies-results-in-internal-investigation\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T13:50:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:50:48","slug":"21-03-2014-reference-to-pickpockets-and-gypsies-results-in-internal-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/21-03-2014-reference-to-pickpockets-and-gypsies-results-in-internal-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"21.03.2014 Reference to \u201cpickpockets and gypsies\u201d results in internal investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several British \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnewspapers report on a racist announcement in a train of the London Midland \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrains. The train was carrying many fans of an afternoon soccer game. The train \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tspeaker is said to have tried to entertain them at every stop with a witty \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tremark. This didn\u2019t stop the speaker from making a racist remark about Rroma: \u201cTelford Central \u2013 Please be aware of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpickpockets and gypsies\u201d,<\/em> he announced when the train was entering Telford \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstation. London Midland Trains stated that they would fully investigate into \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe incident. The Youtube video recorded using a mobile phone shows a group of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmostly laughing passengers, in response to the announcement. This raises the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tquestion of how socially acceptable racism against Rroma still is in the UK. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLes Walton from the BBC relativises this interpretation: people looked at each \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tother in disbelief and laughed out of bewilderment that the train conductor could \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmade such remarks. A spokeswoman for Midland Trains announced: \u201eWe are deeply sorry to anyone who was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toffended by the announcement. We do not tolerate comments of this nature being \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmade by anyone on a London Midland train, and a full internal investigation is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbeing carried out\u201c <\/em>(BBC News 2014, Bartlett 2014, The Independent 2014, Wells \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014).<\/p>\n