Don’t Call Me Ginger
A man has been jailed for breaching the peace by singing Spiderpig from The Simpsons Movie at police officers.
David Mullen was sentenced to three months for the incident and calling an officer “ginger” in a police van.
Now, while I can understand that the man was in a police van because he’d been involved in a fight, and he was also sentenced for assaulting a police officer and breaking a bail curfew, so it’s not like he was a complete innocent in all of this, but this still seems a little odd to me.
I can understand that the ‘pig’ may have been intended as a reference to the police, and therefore they may have been upset by this (note: if your knowledge of slang terms for the police is taken from public information films, this may surprise you as you probably expect criminals to say “Blimey! We’d better scarper quick! It’s the Old Bill!”), but ginger?
I am presuming the officer in question was ginger, in which case, ‘calling him ginger’ might be disrespectful but hardly seems to warrant a custodial sentence. If the officer wasn’t ginger then maybe the man was just an escaped surrealist…
I am aware that in this country we have laws to prevent discrimation/ abuse on the grounds of race, age, sexuality, religion, gender and things like that, but up to now I was unaware that this also applied to the colour of someone’s hair.
Brian says:
November 26th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Well, I would suggest that laws against abuse of someone’s race would cover ginger hair as it’s a distinct racial characteristic, and if they don’t, they should. Abusing someone for a genetic trait they were born with is odious whether it’s skin colour or hair colour in my book. There is no real moral difference.
It’s only the weight of the past that makes us think of one as being abhorrent and not the other.
That all said, I don’t really think someone should be locked up for just saying something offensive as a throwaway remark…
Jay says:
February 16th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
I dont want to get into the politics of the race issues of discrimatory laws.
People who dont know me will call me “GINGE” if they think even at a mature age of 30 something they may get a laugh from someone. But people who do know me can if i like them call me GINGE ,GINGER i dont really mind i do consider myslef as a ADULT to have a good sense of humour.As a child i as most redheads grown up with verious abusive comments about my hair colour it has made me a strong character. Just a note from a previous comment posted i do consider at some level abuse about hair colour to be predudice or discrimatory but i do not consider in this day and age to be a differant race therefore not a racist comment………..Where does it all stop?
Chris Walledge says:
January 12th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
This story reminds me of Not The Nine O’clock News.
The policeman who arrested a man and charged him with “looking at me a bit funny.”
Or the officer in court who said “he was found to be in possession of a brown wooden table – Sorry, Sarge, it was all we had at the station!”
It all sounds like revenge to me.
test says:
September 20th, 2011 at 3:22 am
What’s Mandatory When Choosing Women…
[...]To have good skills you can be successful at at a lot of jobs and making no bad decisions.[...]…
dates of 2012 olympics says:
December 13th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
dates of 2012 olympics…
[...]F*ckin? remarkable things here. I am very satisfied to look your article. Thanks so much and i am taking a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?[...]…
london olympic dates says:
December 13th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
london olympic dates…
[...]F*ckin? amazing issues here. I?m very glad to peer your post. Thanks a lot and i’m looking ahead to contact you. Will you please drop me a mail?[...]…
london 2012 game dates says:
December 13th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
london 2012 game dates…
[...]Hello, Neat post. There’s an issue along with your site in internet explorer, would check this? IE still is the market chief and a large element of people will omit your great writing due to this problem.[...]…
london olympics dates says:
January 27th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Great blog here! Also your website rather a lot up fast! What web host are you the use of? Can I am getting your associate hyperlink on your host? I want my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol