Stanislava Ondová: The Czech courts use a double standard for non-Roma and Roma, I may emigrate
The other night I was watching “Braveheart” on television, my favorite film about fighting for freedom, and during the advertisements I took a look at Facebook. I saw a commentary from one of my friends, clicked on it and read that the court has fined perpetrators “a mere EUR 4 for death threats and racist insults”.
I immediately remembered the recent incident in which a young Romani man was murdered – and yes, I do actually believe he was murdered – in a pizzeria in Žatec, after which somebody who most probably knew the victim personally got angry on Facebook and posted something in the style of “I would burn that pizzeria down”, using terms like “white swine” (or something similar, but just as strong and threatening). That person was prosecuted and, if I am not mistaken, he was imprisoned for that post.
Before that man went to serve his sentence, I read somewhere online the apology he made, where he explains the entire situation and says he is sorry for it. He wrote that he was absolutely fed up (let’s recall that the owner of the pizzeria invited several skinheads to protect the place) and that the entire situation had angered him terribly, but that he never seriously meant that he would be committing violence himself.
Now the courts have addressed another such case with an absolutely inverted sort of punishment. White people have threatened a Romani man, writing that they will kill him, that his grandparents should have died in a concentration camp, that they will burn down the ROMEA organization, and they have posted “You black swine”, “nigger”, “Die!”, “To the gas with the nigger!”, “Kill all you black swine!”, etc.
Here I would draw your attention to the fact that the names of all the authors of those remarks are publicly known. What sentence has the court given them?
They handed down a CZK 100 fine (EUR 4) for this remark: “Black dick. If he wasn’t a singer, he would be on welfare like all the black swine. They should have killed his grandparents in that camp. Then today he wouldn’t be [here to be] such a goody two-shoes.”
All of the other punishments are in a similar vein, the highest is a fine of CZK 500 (EUR 20) for posting: “Did I piss you off, nigger? Here’s an axe. Kill yourself.”
What does this mean? To me, it means the courts use a double standard.
It means that justice for black people here is not the same as justice for whites. It means that this country, instead of progressing, has taken 10 steps back.
These verdicts mean that now, if you are black, other people can abuse you, insult you, threaten you – and maybe even kill you, as we see here in Chomutov, where a white man killed a Romani man in the summer and now we are hearing nothing more about it. The moment the court gives two diametrically opposed punishments for the same crime like this, it is no longer safe here for blacks.
A friend has written to me that it has not been safe for blacks here for some time. Until these verdicts I did not think that was true, I believed the court would deliver justice in such cases.
Today I am reflecting about which country I should emigrate to, because I do not like this extremist new Czechia. Hitler would have been glad of these events, because step by step this country is approaching a new era full of hate, injustice and violence.
There is one scene from “Braveheart” still in my head, where at the end Wallace shouts “Freedom!” with his last remaining strength. I have exactly the feeling that somebody is stealing my freedom here, step by step…
