Howls of rage because a senior police officer, speaking about a new documentary series " Gangs of Oz ", commented that " Middle Eastern crime gangs " have perfected crime " !
The objection is to the naming of criminals as belonging to an ethnic group
It is no longer politically correct to refer to suspects of crime by terms such as " of Middle Eastern appearance ", " Aboriginal " or " Asian ".
Purists consider that using such terms infer criminality on all people who broadly fit that description. Taking such an attitude to the extremity of political correctness it would be necessary to ban words such as " tall " or " short " in describing suspects - and of course " male " or " female " could also be considered denigrating to innocent members of that particular sex !
What an interesting exercise in constructing a " wanted " poster to alert the public if such nonsense became accepted procedure.
These days it seems we are breeding an army of nit pickers who mull over every aspect of life in an attempt to neuter black and white - and reduce everything to a shade of gray.
If the authorities need to alert the public to look for a person it helps if specifics narrow the criteria. It could be argued that such a specification absolves those not of that appearance of being suspected of the crime !
Critics maintain that using terms such as " of Middle Eastern appearance " tend to suggest that all people of that nationality are criminals - because it is used often when referring to perpetrators of crime.
This ignores the fact that a percentage of such are people are criminals - just as a percentage of every race, colour and religion engage in criminal activity.
Appearance characteristics differ sharply between many races and they are a legitimate means of narrowing the description of the wanted person.
The danger is that political sensitivity may result in racial characteristics being barred by police and the media, resulting in the loss of help from the public because no reasonable description can be given to allow identification of a suspect at large.
If that happens, criminal elements have won a major battle in the war against crime !
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