A ten-year-old in Manchester, England, has been arrested and charged with a racially aggravated public order offence.
District Judge Jonathan Finestein said the decision to prosecute the youngster – accused of calling a fellow pupil a “Paki” and a “nigger” – was “political correctness gone mad”.
He attacked the police for not “bothering” to prosecute more serious crime such as car theft but readily picking on a “silly” incident.
He added that he used to be called fat at school and said that in the old days the headmaster would have given the children “a good clouting” and sent them on their way.
Judge Finestein spoke out when the boy, from Irlam, Greater Manchester, appeared at Salford youth court accused of racially abusing a fellow pupil.
He called an 11-year-old boy “Paki”, allegedly referred to him as “bin Laden” and chanted: “He’s on the run, pull the trigger and shoot the nigger”. He is said to have made the comments in the school playground between July 1 last year and Jan 30 this year.
The 10-year-old denied the racially aggravated public order offence and said he was now friends with the boy.
He admitted calling him a “Paki” but said he did not use any other racist terms and claimed the complainant had called him “white trash”.
I don’t know about the “good clouting” part, but surely a ten-year-old calling calling an eleven-year-old names shouldn’t be a criminal offense, and, if it is, the prosecutor should be exercising some discretion.