NSW: Police won't be "politically correct" - Carr

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2001
NSW: Police won't be "politically correct" - Carr

SYDNEY, Aug 23 AAP - NSW Premier Bob Carr has labelled calls for police not to use
ethnic descriptions of offenders as a "paroxysm of political correctness".

Responding to anger expressed today by ethnic leaders at his insistence for police
to use the descriptions, Mr Carr refused to tell police not to describe offenders by their
ethnicity if it helped make a fast arrest.

"I am not going to tell the police they can't make a description that helps them more
quickly make an arrest," he told SBS tonight.

"That is a lather of political correctness.

"But at the same time I am not allowing anyone to slur an entire community or to promote
stereotypes."

Ethnic and community leaders today demanded an end to links between ethnicity and crime,
claiming it had caused racial tensions and death threats.

The call came at an emotion-charged forum where representatives of up to 30 ethnic
and welfare groups gathered at Parliament House to vent their anger at the recent publicity
on ethnic crime.

But Mr Carr said he had never attributed crime to ethnicity, rather that gangs around
Sydney were recruiting from certain ethnic groups.

"I have never said that crime is caused by ethnicity - that would be a stupid remark
- nor have I said it's caused by migration," he said.

"I put it this way; there is a pattern, unavoidable to talk about, of recruitment of
gangs from specific ethnic communities.

"I don't think I've been over ready to use (the term ethnic gang), but I am not going
to resile from using it where it is the best shorthand description of the phenomenon."

Mr Carr denied the descriptions drew a connection between particular ethnic groups
and crime, saying it was simply telling the truth.

"That is the truth ... I did not say this is the totality of our crime problem," he said.

"I am saying it is a fact of life that there exist gangs which recruit their membership
exclusively from a specific ethnicity.

"We are not going to get into a paroxysm of political correctness here, where the police
are banned from making an accurate description that leads to what we all want, and that
is the speediest possible arrest of a suspect."

AAP kp/cjh/de

KEYWORD: ETHNIC CARR

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.