Headless news

Today, 140 police and staff in the UK were reprimanded over an email.

This email showed footage from the US showing a man being decapitated on some railings after a pursuit by the police.

The reason for the reprimand was, as a senior officer said, "the image could be perceived as racist and offensive."

The man being decapitated was, in fact, black.

What?

Has the world gone utterly mad? I don't particularly care what colour the unfortunate person is, but I do have an issue with the fact that he's getting his head chopped off!

Why are the police making this an issue of racism? Does political correctness veto good taste? Would we have 140 slapped wrists if it was only a whitey being lynched?

Something's gone horribly wrong somewhere….

One Response to “Headless news”

  1. alison Says:

    Without being familiar with the issue, I think we can logically say:

    1. Distributing videos in order to laugh at guys being nastily decapitated is sick and bad.

    2. Distributing videos in order to laugh at guys being nastily decapitated *because they are black* is sick and worse.

    So racism should not trump good taste, but in this case, seems to make worse what is already a pretty horrible reaction on the part of the police officers. I should hope that a reprimand would have been issued in any case.

    I also think the officer had his words in the wrong order. Offensive, first and overall. Racist — also, and potentially deeply.