Police probe "racist" Lord Sugar tweet

[klr]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-me ... e-24421453

Police probe "racist" Lord Sugar tweet

Lord Sugar has been investigated by police after he was accused of posting a racist message on Twitter.

The businessman and star of The Apprentice posted a photo of a child apparently of Chinese origin crying.

He wrote: "The kid in the middle is upset because he was told off for leaving the production line of the iPhone 5."

Merseyside Police said it had investigated a complaint but said "no criminal offences" had taken place.

Lord Sugar's spokesman said he would not be commenting on the complaint.

Liverpool shop owner Nichola Szeto had taken offence about the reference to the Asian factories where the mobile phones are produced and complained about the "racist tweet" to the Metropolitan Police.

She was then contacted by Merseyside Police and went to a Liverpool police station to make a statement about the tweet, which was posted on 30 September.

A police spokesman said: "Merseyside Police can confirm officers received a complaint in relation to the tweet sent on the evening of Sunday September 30.

"The communication has been examined by the force's specialist hate crime investigation team and at this time it has been recorded as a hate incident and no criminal offences have taken place.

"Officers from the specialist team will be contacting the person who made the initial complaint to discuss this."

Maybe I'm a bit slow on the uptake here, but since when does a comment that is clearly about factory working conditions in another country become "racist"?

[JimC]

If he'd added "the sooky little chink", perhaps...

[Seabass]

First "Lord Sacks", and now "Lord Sugar"?


Your Lords sure have some funny names.

[cronus]

He's outta order and besides my wife don't like him and she's got a nose for the famous types who get in the papers for the wrong reasons one day.

[mistermack]

First "Lord Sacks", and now "Lord Sugar"?


Your Lords sure have some funny names.

Both Jewish, I believe.
Anyway, Lord McAlpine was first. As that's my name, I can reveal that it means, '' son of a hill ''.
Weird but not hilarious.

[Audley Strange]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-me ... e-24421453

Police probe "racist" Lord Sugar tweet

Lord Sugar has been investigated by police after he was accused of posting a racist message on Twitter.

The businessman and star of The Apprentice posted a photo of a child apparently of Chinese origin crying.

He wrote: "The kid in the middle is upset because he was told off for leaving the production line of the iPhone 5."

Merseyside Police said it had investigated a complaint but said "no criminal offences" had taken place.

Lord Sugar's spokesman said he would not be commenting on the complaint.

Liverpool shop owner Nichola Szeto had taken offence about the reference to the Asian factories where the mobile phones are produced and complained about the "racist tweet" to the Metropolitan Police.

She was then contacted by Merseyside Police and went to a Liverpool police station to make a statement about the tweet, which was posted on 30 September.

A police spokesman said: "Merseyside Police can confirm officers received a complaint in relation to the tweet sent on the evening of Sunday September 30.

"The communication has been examined by the force's specialist hate crime investigation team and at this time it has been recorded as a hate incident and no criminal offences have taken place.

"Officers from the specialist team will be contacting the person who made the initial complaint to discuss this."

Maybe I'm a bit slow on the uptake here, but since when does a comment that is clearly about factory working conditions in another country become "racist"?

Since Twitter. I would not be surprised if the whole Arab Spring was started by a bunch of islamic social justice warriors deliberately misreading an innocuous tweet by Tunisia's Ben Ali.

[klr]

I am more interested in the thought processes (if you can describe them thus) of the person who reported the tweet. She obviously felt strongly enough about that she made a trip to the police station.

If she's a store owner, then there's a very good chance she's selling goods manufactured in Chinese factories.

[Audley Strange]

Racism=anything negative said about anyone or any part of another culture. Now commonly prefaced with OMG!

[HomerJay]

Sugar tweets are the best.

The lady concerned reckoned that she thought she'd made a complaint but the filth hassled her to make a statement, they then pursued it.

[mistermack]

They've recorded it as a hate-incident, and no criminal offences have taken place?

There's so much wrong with that, I don't know where to start.
The joke about kids working long hours in sweat shops is as old of the hills. You hear it all the time on comedy shows.
So it's now a hate-incident?

And if it's a hate incident and no criminal offence has taken place, then we need to tighten up the law further.
Basically, any joke is a hate crime of some sort, so we might as well ban the lot.

[klr]

They've recorded it as a hate-incident, and no criminal offences have taken place?

There's so much wrong with that, I don't know where to start.

Yup, I can't figure that out either. It's a typical piece of muddled bureaucratic verbiage, raising more questions than answers.

The joke about kids working long hours in sweat shops is as old of the hills. You hear it all the time on comedy shows.
So it's now a hate-incident?

And if it's a hate incident and no criminal offence has taken place, then we need to tighten up the law further.
Basically, any joke is a hate crime of some sort, so we might as well ban the lot.

If it was made on Have I Got News For You? or Mock the Week, it certainly would not be a problem.

And there's a very serious issue at the core of the joke: Working conditions in China. Is referring to such an issue in jest wrong?

[mistermack]

I suppose he was stereotyping a race, if you can call Asian a race.

Maybe Alan Sugar might bleat, if you made a joke about money-grabbing jews? I have a feeling he might.

Jews are not meant to be made fun of, except by other jews. That's only because Hitler went and killed six million of them, and if we joke about them, we might do the same. So now we are in the position where it's ok to make a stereotype joke about asians, but not jews.
Sad but true.

[Audley Strange]

I'm beginning to think Twitter is like something out of 1984. Chat with your friends! Express your thoughts! Be investigated for crimethink!"

[Pappa]

I'm beginning to think Twitter is like something out of 1984. Chat with your friends! Express your thoughts! Be investigated for crimethink!"

Twitter's more public than anything you say down the pub.

[Audley Strange]

I'm beginning to think Twitter is like something out of 1984. Chat with your friends! Express your thoughts! Be investigated for crimethink!"

Twitter's more public than anything you say down the pub.

Yeah and it does seem to attract the perpetually offended who act like a voluntary Stasi.