Czech police use dehumanizing terms if incidents involve Romani people, the media parrot them - and then pogroms begin

The regional network of the Deník.cz news server has held a stable position as one of the most-read publications in the Czech Republic, and when it reports about Romani people, it goes as far as it can in the use of stereotypes, including publishing content that baits them. This "tradition" has now been upheld by the Přerov edition, which has published an article about two men who scuffled in public there on 15 July (the article was headlined "Romská bitka na přerovském náměstí, potyčka se strhla u cukrárny" - "Romani battle on Přerov square, skirmish breaks out near confectioner's").
Local police response, understandably, has to be mentioned by this coverage. "At our operations center we received several phone calls about a brawl among inadaptables outside a confectioners' in the center of town. The permanent staff on duty aimed the CCTV cameras there and began to deploy patrols," Miroslav Komínek, Deputy Director of the Municipal Police in Přerov, described their intervention to Deník.cz.
"The presence of the patrols again enraged the quarrelling clans, whose members attacked each other, causing a great ruckus. After the patrol members used tear gas, the two parties separated and the situation gradually began to calm down," the Deputy Director told the daily, adding that the patrol members remained at the scene for several dozen minutes afterward until it was entirely calm.
What basically happened was that two individuals got angry with each other and fought each other physically. A third person did his best to separate them.
Can you imagine how the Czech media would report on a brawl between two men - and there are many such incidents here, day in and day out - if they had not been Romani? Or rather, "inadaptables", if we are to remain faithful to the Přerov edition's description?
By using that term, the Deputy Director of the local police is sending a message to the news consumers that the brawlers were "inadaptables", not "decent" people, and the journalist willingly parrots that vocabulary. Information about a brawl between two ethnic Czech men would not be worth reporting, but an altercation between two darker-skinned people - which, for the journalist and the local police, is automatically evidence that they are "inadaptables" - is too tempting to ignore.
This kind of baiting of the Roma is a tried-and-true tactic for increasing readership, and has been for years. If you say and write that this was allegedly a clash between "clans" (without providing evidence), then that's even more eye-catching.
"Look at this, wow, two cikánské gangs just beat up all of Přerov," is how the gossips will embellish this news to "improve" upon it. Not long ago, in that very same part of the country, such "information" was a component of an anti-Romani campaign that drove ordinary citizens into the streets who did not hesitate to demonstrate alongside neo-Nazis and to shout anti-Romani slogans together with them.
Many people even invented accounts of having been mugged by Romani people which, in that upset atmsophere, resulted in more mass demonstrations and another dosage of hate against Romani people. Do we actually want those times to come back just so a media company can turn a higher profit?
Don't miss:
- Czech Internet users fall for ultra-right disinformation parody - and instead of laughing, they lash out
- Commentary: Romani actors should boycott Czech cop show over antigypsyist content
- Chair of the Pirate Party in the Czech Republic stands up for Romani activist assaulted by hateful attackers
- Czech racists physically assault Romani activist Jozef Miker while shouting antigypsyist abuse
- Commentary: CNN Prima begins its Czech-language broadcasting with stereotypes about Romani people
- Czech media falsely accuse Romani mourners of breaking the law after cemetery employee calls police
Related articles:
- Romanian court hands down a scandalous decision: Roma woman who was beaten up by a minibus driver has to pay a fine
- German MEP of Romani origin Romeo Franz: The situation for Roma in Ukraine is shocking, I could not believe Roma live in such conditions in Europe
- CNN: Czech Republic has discriminated against Romani refugees from Ukraine, updated data refute the myth that they all hold dual citizenship
- Czech research finds one-third of Romani refugees from Ukraine have experienced discrimination here, most children are not in education, dual citizenship has not been "abused" by them
- Hungary's Jewish Community protests PM Orbán's racist speech in which he said Hungarians don't want to become a "mixed-race" nation
- Czech volunteers say second-largest city has broken its agreement by closing camp used by Romani refugees from Ukraine near Grand Hotel
- New handbook describes how to intervene against daily hatred and racism in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands
- Czech local candidates who quit the "Mayors and Independents" party have secured enough signatures to run as independents
- All candidates for the "Mayors and Independents" party in Czech town are quitting to run as their own group after mayor is told not to run for espousing racist violence
- Czech mayor must either withdraw his candidacy today or be delisted as a candidate by his party ahead of local elections for his racist advocacy of violence against Romani people
- Czech party calls on mayor to withdraw from local election over racist approval of violence against Romani people
- Ukrainians are not the same as Syrians: On double standards for refugees, Czech aid, and breaking the rules while doing good