Dirty cops worked with the gangs
The cops raped the rape victims.
Five women who were exploited by grooming gangs in Rotherham as children say they were also abused [by] police officers in the town at the time.
One says she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officer in a marked police car. He would threaten to hand her back to the gang if she did not comply, she says.
If only she had thought to idennify as a man.
We have seen written accounts from these women, plus testimony from 25 other victims of grooming gangs, with some of them saying that corrupt police officers worked alongside the gangs or failed to act on child sexual exploitation.
At least 1,400 girls in Rotherham were abused by gangs of men, identified by victims as being of mainly Pakistani heritage, between 1997 and 2013 – the landmark Jay Report concluded in 2014.
And by “mainly Pakistani heritage” the Beeb means “mainly Muslim.” Allah despises women. Any woman not in a niqab is a slut and fair game.
A new criminal investigation into the involvement of police officers in the Rotherham grooming scandal is now being led by SYP’s major crime unit, under the direction of the police watchdog.
Prof Alexis Jay who led that independent inquiry into abuse in the town has told the BBC she is “shocked” that SYP is investigating its own former officers and says the criminal investigation should be handed to another force or independent body.
In response, Hayley Barnett, SYP assistant chief constable said: “We know how hard it must be for a victim or survivor, who has been so badly let down in the past, to put their faith into the South Yorkshire Police of today.”
But she added that victims and survivors were “at the heart” of the investigation, with all actions being taken in their best interests.
Ah well that’s fine then.
It’s possible that a child abuser is right now participating in the investigation. One of the reasons the gangs (and this wasn’t limited to the North, let along to Rotherham) got away with it – and continue to get away with it – is that police officers are involved, to this day.
This is horrifying and heartbreaking.
But not surprising.
That it is somehow more acceptable to describe the perpetrators as being of “mainly Pakistani heritage” rather than “Mainly Muslim” is actually horrifying. Not as horrifying as the actual events, but still.
Do we know the actual religious beliefs (if any) of these guys, though? As I have commented on once before, as much as I truly despise religion in general and Islam in particular, I don’t blame religion for every bad thing ever done by a religious person; I only blame religion for the things people do specifically for religious reasons. E.g. I don’t think a Catholic priest has ever raped a child because he thought it was the will of God, that it was mandated by Jesus in the New Testament etc. You can find justification for plenty of awful stuff in the Bible, but probably not that. These are opportunistic predators exploiting their position to live out their baser impulses at the expense of vulnerable women and children. To the degree that religion plays a role, it’s of a more indirect nature, e.g. giving religious leaders an authority that they should never have had in the first place, creating a stake in shielding the church from negative attention etc.
On the same note, although I know there are things in the Quran that can be (and have been!) used to justify sexual abuse of children (like the Aisha story), I seriously doubt that many of these groomers honestly believe they are doing the will of Allah. Once again, to the degree that religion enters into it at all, it’s in a more indirect way, e.g. normalizing general misogyny, creating a stake in defending the “community”* etc. The fear of being accused of racism, or “Islamophobia” obviously also factors into it, but it’s not obvious to me why that would make people less reluctant to talk about “Pakistanis” than “Muslims” (unless, of course, it’s the idea that Muslims are more likely to respond with violence). I do think things like suicide bombings, the murder of blasphemers and apostates, stoning of alleged adulteresses etc. are mainly motivated by Islamic doctrine, but probably not the grooming scandal. Not that this makes it any less of an atrocity, of course…
* As some of us still remember, atheists and skeptics are hardly in a position to throw any stones in this regard.
Bjarte, no, we don’t know the actual religious beliefs (if any) of these guys, and neither do the cops, but my point is that the police as an organization don’t want to take the risk. Islamophobia is second only to transphobia as a cop-deterrent.
Fair enough. It’s telling that being accused of “phobia” against Islam (a set of abstract, philosophical ideas about theology, metaphysics etc.) is considered worse than being accused of phobia against Pakistanis (i.e. actual people).
Yes it is. It’s a very clumsy mistake, in fact, because rejection/dislike of a religion is very different from hatred of a set of people.
Bjarte, while I definitely agree with what you are saying in #4, I do think the hatred of women that is bred by not only Islam but many religions (and, to some extent, by science in its totally good old boy form of yore, and some today) does definitely play a role. Would men hate women without religion? Some would, yes, and would possibly pass that on to their sons. Does the constant teaching that women are inferior, and seductresses to boot, lead to this sort of behavior? Of course it does. They don’t see women as legitimately people, and therefore they can do as they please.
I think religion is relevant, though not as relevant as the whole rape culture as a whole.
Are we really going to go to the ‘no true Muslim’ notion? Religious abuse and violence doesn’t depend on the depth of education. The nuns at Tuam or the Jesuits in rural Canada represent a range of theological knowledge, but the motivation is religious to the bone.
If you scroll on down, you’ll see that just three cops have been arrested. Only one has been named: C Hassan Ali. The accompanying image shows him in full Taliban beard and Kufi.
Well, ok, since you push me, I will say that while the grooming scandal may not be directly motivated by Islamic doctrine, it doesn’t really need to be, because Islamic doctrine is so marinated in hatred of and contempt for women. Judaism and Christianity were already bad and then Mo came along and said hold my beer.