Apart from there being no statistical evidence for the above; "more confidence" is purely subjective, in all my years on the bench I detected no bias from white colleagues at any time towards those of ethnic minority status. Some will say; ah.......but you would have had unconscious bias against black people. To that I would answer........bollocks. Now my experiences were not unique. I will admit that amongst the coterie of 29,000 magistrates as was there probably was a small minority who might have exposed their inherent discrimination but they would have been swiftly brought to order by their colleagues.
It is people like Lammy who spread the discord. They forever preach of discrimination where it exists only in the mind of the accuser. It is just another sign of objectivity in the CJS being driven by so called "victims" such a term often in my experience being used by CPS and others prior to conviction when the correct term is "complainant". Similar processes are at work when university chancellors agree with the concept of "safe spaces" for those who fear being offended by opposing ideas. Truly my fears of approaching 1984 in some previous posts are being realised quicker than I can comment upon them.
I used to wonder what BME was. (I knew really) Now I know thanks to this self serving politician David Lammy. If you give a mouthpiece to a man like this you will get this sort of tosh and of course it has been picked up and regurgitated by the usual news outlets BBC and Sky News and discussed at length by those that should know better. People are dying from hurricanes in the americas and that needs reporting - not this sort of drivel. And what about all those from a white background? They should be entitled to be included in exactly the same approaches and given the same chances as those from BME. Had a report been commissioned to address issues facing white only miscreants it would have been branded racist before it hit the presses. Shame on all those involved in perpetuating this nonsense particularly MP David Lammy who should know much much better. But he won't of course.
ReplyDeleteIt is a pity that D Lammy's well considered report is so readily dismissed when the author of the blog has not yet taken the trouble to read it! Even a cursory familiarity with the literature from Prof R Hood's Crown Court 1992 study on Race, the late Barbara Hudson's estimable research on the influence of race in sentencing to Hindpal Singh Bhui 'Race & CJ' ( 2008) would serve to acknowledge that rather than peddling facile ad hominem comments , some thoughtful insights on how effective & fair-minded justice & reducing the risk of discriminatory practice in sentencing ( recall the insertion of the anti-discrimatory clause- Sec 95 CJA 1991 ) can be better achieved! - that said I often find the blog's blistering observations on some of the sillier excesses of HMCTS/MOJ policies worth a sneak viewing!
ReplyDeleteIt is a pity that the author of this comment has never heard the adage "Garbage in, garbage out."
DeleteI would draw his attention to this 2010 study of UK schoolchildren which found that children of Chinese ethnicity averaged around 110 IQ while those of African, Caribbean and Pakistani ethnicity were in the 90-95 range.
We already have equality of opportunity. If outcomes aren't equal, that's down to the individuals involved: smart people don't do dumb things.
"Some will say; ah.......but you would have had unconscious bias against black people. To that I would answer........bollocks." Great. I think this sentence tells us all we need to know about the author. Black people are four times more likely to be in prison than white people, the incarceration rate rises to nine times more likely for those under the age of 18. Clearly we have a problem here.
ReplyDelete