Watching TV3 news last night we saw Mt Albert Labour candidate David Shearer putting his foot right down his throat inferring that growing unemployment in migrant communities would lead to more crime emanating from them. He was appearing on an Indian TV programme. Initially the remark is directed towards the people of the interviewer, but Shearer swerves and instead directs it to Pacific people. You can see the brief item and ensuing comments over at Whale Oil.
Some seem to think Shearer was right. Trevor Mallard comments, Looked pretty good to me. Certainly more articulate than monday's postcabber.
I think he was wrong. I think his comments were thoughtless and ill-considered. Pacific people do have disproportionately high unemployment rates and Shearer's recent data was correct. But they do not commit crime at a rate disproportionate to their share of the population.
Convictions for all crime in 2006 had the following ethnicity breakdown;
NZ European 45 %
Maori 43
Pacific 9
Other 3
Shearer's was the typical laziness of thinking that lumps all brown people, especially polynesians, together. Some ethnicities do better at supporting each other through unemployment. Some ethnicities have stronger families. Rising unemployment does not automatically lead to more crime.
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2 comments:
It is silly to call Melissa Lee "racist" and it is just as silly to claim that David Shearer is "bigoted".
How about some rational political discourse about the real issues we all face and the policies to deal with them.
Or is is that asking to much of our political elites and their hangers on.
You know what Andrei, I think you are probably right. His comments were thoughtless and ill-considered. I don't know enough about him to label him bigoted. I have changed my wording.
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