Friday - June 12, 2009

Judge in racial slur storm .  Naughty, naughty judge hasn’t yet learned PC Speak.

I did a post yesterday and in the comments were the following from GrumpyOldFart and Drew.

Grumpy said:
Hmmm… I can’t say “The ‘N’ Word"(tm) and other racial slurs cos that’s basically projecting my own ignorance onto you, using my own wilful ignorance as an excuse and justification for my insults. Okay, I get that part. Now you can’t insult a German the way another German would cos that’s somehow racially insensitive as well.

Does anyone sell scorecards for this kinda stuff? How do you keep track without one?

And Drew said:
This is only the beginning. The wurst is yet to come.

Well Sir Drew, it came sooner then we thought. Grumpy will keep score.
Get an eyeful of this.

Judge in racial slur storm for telling fraudster he ‘gypped’ eBay customers in online scam
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

A judge has been accused of using a ‘racial slur’ against gipsies when sentencing a conman.

Judge Christopher Elwen told the fraudster he had ‘gypped’ a student out of money on the eBay website.

The slang verb ‘to gyp’ means to defraud or steal. Experts suggested there is ‘scholarly consensus’ that it is derived from the word gipsy.

Romany gipsies also claimed the word began life as ‘gypsied’ and is an insult.

But the judge insisted there is ‘no evidence to connect it to any racial group’.

Judge Elwen used the word at Truro Crown Court while sentencing bogus eBay electrical goods trader Lee Scott-Major to three years’ jail.

He said that the harm the conman had done was not reflected in the sums involved, whether in the case of those ripped off for thousands of pounds or ‘the young student who was gypped out of £169’.

Travellers Times editor Jake Bowers said: ‘Gypped is an offensive word.

‘It is derived from gipsy and it is being used in the same context as a person might once have said they “jewed” somebody if they did an underhand business transaction.

‘Basically what Judge Elwen has done is ascribed thievery to an entire ethnic group.

‘Of course there are criminals in the gipsy community, but there’s no evidence there is a higher level of criminality than in any other community.

‘I’d say his comment reflects the amount of ignorance that there is, from the bottom of society to its top in the judiciary, about gipsies, and the idea that it’s okay to have a go at the gipsy or traveller community without thinking about it.

Romany activist Maggie Bendell-Smith said: ‘I would have been right up on my feet if I’d heard that in court, asking the judge to justify his choice of words.

‘It is derogatory and I think an apology is called for.’

A spokesman for the Judicial Communications Office defended the judge’s choice of words, saying: ‘Gyp is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as an act of cheating, nothing more.

‘There is no evidence to connect this term to any ethnic group and this is certainly not how it was used in court.’

The OED defines gyp as a late-19th century verb of unknown origin that means to cheat or swindle someone.

Its principal etymologist Dr Philip Durkin said: ‘The consensus of most people who have looked at this word recently is that it does indeed derive from “gyp: thief”, which itself derives (as a racial slur) from gypsy.’

But he added: ‘The main problem with the “gyp: thief” explanation is that there seems to be very little evidence for this use of gyp as a noun, either in the 19th century or later.’

It is not the first time Judge Elwen, recently appointed presiding judge in Truro, Cornwall, has come to attention for outspoken comments related to nationality.

Last year the judge said Britain had ‘lost control of its borders for the first time in 1066.’

He made the remark while sentencing asylum seekers who rioted at Harmsworth Detention Centre.

His latest gaffe came as he was sentencing cocaine-addicted conman Scott-Major for a six figure EBay swindle in which unlucky punters were duped into buying non-existent phones, hoovers and other items from ‘Cornwall Electrics’.

The 29-year-old’s two-year con was run from his two-bedroom flat in Penzance while he was still serving probation.

Judge Elwen told Scott-Major: ‘Whether the sum was £100,000 or £200,000 does not reflect the harm done to your victims, whether that be Mr and Mrs Andrewartha, Mr Kingshott, or the young student who was gypped out of £169.

He then sentenced him to a three year jail term.

The row over the judge’s latest comments may only finally be resolved with the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Etymologist Dr Durkin said: ‘One other suggestion - given by the Dictionary in an entry published in 1972 - is that it derives from “gyp” “pain” (as in to “give someone gyp").

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 06/12/2009 at 12:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Racism and race relations • UK •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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