Commentary: Violence in Duchov and Teplice, superficial media are worsening coexistence

This commentary was originally published in Czech on 29 May 2013.

Recent criminal cases in the Czech Republic are good examples of the strange approach taken by some media and some parts of the general public toward Romani people, as well as the nasty approach taken by some Romani people towards those around them. In the town of Duchov a group of five Romani assailants has committed a very brutal attack on a non-Romani married couple, and in nearby Teplice, a man has been stabbed to death – but in this case the media did not report that the murder victim was Romani. Under normal circumstances the ethnicity of crime victims is not relevant, but there are strong suspicions that the Teplice case was one of brutal, racist murder. 

Arrogance and inhumanity

The assault in Duchcov can be considered one of the most lurid to have taken place in this country in the realm of our deteriorating coexistnce. I cannot find one word of excuse for something like it and I hope the case will be tried as soon as possible and that the verdict will be proportionate.

The behavior of the assailants cannot be excused by anything that preceded the attack, and who started it is irrelevant. To brutally beat an unarmed woman who was doing her best to prevent conflict is pathetic irrespective of any other considerations. 

According to sources of information from within the Romani community of Duchcov who prefer not to be named, the assailants are from a wealthy Romani family who own three buildings in the town and recently returned from living in Great Britain. "That family is closed and doesn’t communicate with anyone in the neighborhood. Some of them have long been arrogant and inconsiderate of everyone else," one source told news server Romea.cz. For the time being we have been unable to confirm this assertion from other sources. 

The group of five Romani people roamed the town that night and, according to our source, sparked as many as four arguments or conflicts in different places. Two of the five, for example, attacked a motorbike rider and tried to take his bike. When he defended himself, one of them broke his hand. Then the five of them argued with the married couple who were passing by and brutally beat them.

All of the assailants participated in the beating and kicking of the victim, with one Romani woman in particular dealing most of the blows. The entire incident was started by a 16-year-old boy brandishing a stick. CCTV footage captured him jumping on the prone woman and stomping here. (For video of the incident, please see http://www.romea.cz/cz/zpravodajstvi/domaci/utocniky-z-duchcova-se-behem-napadeni-snazili-zastavit-jini-romove).  

Tarred with the same brush

The behavior of some media outlets and some members of the public includes the problematic tarring of all Romani people with the same brush and a lack of interest in any details which contravene such generalizations. Let’s start with the inhabitants of Duchcov and the mayor.

A demonstration "against Romani aggressors" will take place this evening [29 May] on the main square in Duchcov. As has become the current fashion in this country, whenever one or more Romani people perpetrate a crime, some of the public take a stand against all Romani people.

"The demonstration was convened by individuals," Mayor of Duchcov Jitka Bártová has said. She herself intended to hold a public meeting where she and the police would inform locals of the measures adopted by the town hall after the incident, but these other people announced their demonstration first. The mayor warned against stirring up anti-Romani passions.

However, Mayor Bártová has in fact assisted with the incitement of such passions. On the home page of the town’s website she has posted the following generalizing statement (please note that the term "inadaptable" is regularly used as a code term for Romani people):

"In the late evening hours of Friday 17 May, a married couple was brutally assaulted in Duchcov on Batří Čapků Street. The perpetrators were detained and the Police of the Czech Republic are investigating. The town leadership is sending an unequivocal message to all inadaptable, lawbreaking persons. We are prepared to use all options to protect the health and property of our citizens and to prosecute aggressive, inadaptable individuals. Municipal police patrols will be enhanced and all other municipal departments will take a common, uncompromising approach toward such persons. Members of the regional riot police will support the Duchcov police officers."

The town has also launched "inspections" of every Romani household on its territory irrespective of whether they were involved with this incident or not. "That neighborhood is now being inspected to a much greater extent by the social welfare department, the Building Works Authority, field social workers and fire inspectors. We want to make it clear that we will not tolerate such behavior," Bártová said.

The municipal police video also shows that two other Romani people did their best to stop the assault, first a woman and then a man who arrived at the scene while the attack was underway. Surprisingly, this fact was noted and reported on only by TV Nova (which normally reports things with an anti-Romani slant). TV Nova even gave room to the intervening Romani man to comment on what happened. "I ran over there, you can see it on the clip, I pulled the young guy off of her and threw him in the other direction," the man told TV Nova.  

Most of the other media returned to the kind of "reporting" that directly incites anti-Romani passions. This is precisely how the media behaved prior to the unrest in the Šluknov district or the anti-Romani events in Břeclav.

It must be added that the youngest assailant has publicly apologized:  "I regret it. I was drunk. I would like to apologize for what I did and for what the others did… You know, I’ve ruined my own life now. I’m expecting a child. My parents are unhappy, I have to get it together. They won’t let me outside now."

Naturally, this apology cannot in any way justify the violent spree engaged in by this youth and his relatives. However, we should notice that once again, only one media outlet reported it, this time iDNES.cz.

"Thief of two bratwursts slain during brawl"

Some Czech media have once again distorted their reporting of a case from the northern Bohemian town of Teplice in which the victim was Romani. According to Blesk and TV Nova, the man, who was almost 50 years old, was slain by a non-Romani stallkeeper during an argument about two bratwursts he had allegedly wanted to steal.

According to a relative of the murdered man, however, the affair was about something else entirely. Vratislav Gorol, a nephew of the murdered man, says his uncle was killed because he dared to stand up for some Romani youths who were being assaulted for racist reasons.

"The Czech racists were selling bratwurst and hot dogs, and they were strongly under the influence of alcohol. They noticed some young Roma walking past who weren’t bothering anyone and they started shouting ‘Gypsies’ and ‘Black mugs’ at them. They chased them all the way to the town hall, where they attacked them brutally. When my uncle saw that, he ran to help them. One of the racists started to stab him with a knife and got him in the back. He just kept stabbing, a total of 21 times. The death blow was to the heart," Gorol told news server Romea.cz.

There are, therefore, at least two versions of this case. Not only have no other media taken this second version into consideration, they have not even tried to find out how the whole scandal took place. TV Nova was simply satisfied with the claims made by one side of the conflict (those of the bratwurst seller) and began broadcasting them as the truth.

Once again:  Not just TV Nova, but the vast majority of the Czech media in general have done this many times. For example, they have done this when reporting on cases that later turned out to have been fabricated. 

A 15-year-old non-Romani girl in Liberec and a non-Romani boy of the same age in Břeclav invented tales of having been assaulted by Romani people which the media, led by TV Nova, published as the truth based on their one-sided "testimony". It is precisely this kind of "reporting" that leads to anti-Romani sentiment and worsens the social atmosphere.

Police are maintaining a dour silence about the Teplice case, which is symptomatic. When a Romani person perpetrates a crime, the police report on it immediately to the fullest extent, but when a Romani person is the victim of a crime – and when, moreover, there is the suspicion of a brutal racist murder – an information embargo is imposed on the case. 

Even the town, led by Mayor and Czech Senator Jaroslav Kubera, is persisting in ignoring this scandal, most probably because the spa season has just opened in Teplice. The last thing they want is a sensation of this kind. Or could it even be because the person murdered was "just" a Romani man?

Are we covering it up?

Neither the media nor the police are reporting that this could have been a racist murder, or that the murder victim was Romani. They are most probably doing so in the foolish belief that they will somehow succeed in covering up that fact. What does Jozef Miker of nearby Krupka, one of the most famous Romani activists today, believe is going on?

"None of the media outlets reported that the victim in this case is Romani. but whenever a perpetrator or a suspect is allegedly Roma, they almost always report that – and many people immediately apply that to Roma as a whole. In my view this is crap. Some media do their best to stir up hate against Roma and unrest targeting them. They do this on the basis of an artificially created atmosphere implying that majority-society people always behave decently in all ways, while people from the Romani minority always behave badly or are even the enemy in all ways. This is the same thing that happened in Rumburk before the unrest in the Šluknov foothills or in Břeclav before the anti-Roma demonstrations there," Miker told news server Romea.cz.

The essence of the matter is this:  Some members of the public are creating a world of their own in which Romani people as a whole represent evil. The way in which most media outlets here are "reporting" corresponds to this world view more and more – instead of fulfilling their normal role in society, the media are fawning all over this "public demand".

Since this part of the public is not interested in anything that will refute their generalizations, inventions, and lies, the media does not report such facts. A virtual world is being created which confirms to itself that racism, violence and xenophobia are not only acceptable, but entirely correct.

As we can see, to a certain degree this also concerns some Romani people who do not know how to engage in discussion or identify with the problems and standpoints of others, and who therefore choose to resolve situations with violence. If society wants to escape this vicious circle, the hard road awaits us of re-acquiring empathy, respect, and tolerance for one another.