Commentary: Romani actors should boycott Czech cop show over antigypsyist content

The Czech TV station TV Prima and its program “Police in Action” (Policie v akci) are being discussed on Romani-related Facebook pages in the Czech Republic. Once again, the channel is not exactly getting rave reviews.

“Today, after a long time, I once again saw the Police in Action program on TV Prima – and I was absolutely horrified. I’ve only seen it twice, but both times, Romani people  have been depicted there as animals stealing mobile phones, mugging a women at knifepoint, etc.,” posted the anonymous administrator of the Facebook page called “The Roma of the Czech Republic Vote” (Romové-České republiky-volí).

The Facebook critic is not doubting whether such things actually happen, but is of the opinion that almost all such cases are due to “Romani junkies who are addicted to drugs, which the rest of us Roma are naturally not proud of at all! HOWEVER, there is a ‘but’ here! What is the purpose of this program? To spark even more animosity among the majority society against us? Are there too few drug addicts, murderers or pedophiles from the majority society for TV Prima to show them? The purpose is clear, it is to constantly confirm to the majority society that we Roma will never improve, that we are just criminals.”

According to the Facebook critic, TV Prima is not thinking at all about the kind of hatred they are feeding in those members of the population who are either brainless or racist – a hatred so great that from time to time these wretches pick up a Molotov cocktail and set a Romani home on fire. The commentator tells an anecdote about actors boycotting such productions from the world of film: “I heard or read somewhere that when the film RAMBO II was being made with Sylvester Stallone, and Rambo was meant to be killing people in Vietnam, the Vietnamese refused to perform in it, out of pride, and the director had to look for actors in Cambodia and the Philippines to play the Vietnamese characters. In this country, all it takes is an execrable mini-fee, a couple of hundred dirty crowns, and a Romani person loses his ROMIPEN and plays the role of a social case or a degeš while thinking he’s a star, shaming his mother and father, his family, and all Roma.”

For that reason, the Facebook critic said he believes anybody Romani who performs in this program on TV Prima is betraying his fellow Roma.