http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1865533_2,00.html
CANDID CONFRONTATION
THIS is an extract of a verbal exchange between police and estate teenagers near Lyons, shown on the TF1 television channel.First a boy addresses a police officer who has demanded the boy’s papers in rough terms — using the disrespectful “tu” instead of a formal “vous” — and told him to “shut your face”
First boy: “You (Vous) tell us to ‘shut your face’ and we haven’t done anything, Monsieur”
Policeman: “You want me to take you into an electricity sub-station?” (where two teenagers were electrocuted)
First boy: “Sorry Monsieur, you are being rude and I haven’t spoken to you, M’sieur”
Policeman: “In that case don’t talk. We’re telling you to get back, so get back”
First boy: “Listen Monsieur, we are using ‘vous’ with you but you and your colleague are using ‘tu’ with us. We are respectful . . .”
A second boy insults a bald policeman, saying: “Good for you, you’ve got cancer, you’re all bald”
Second policeman: “So you want to go and fry with your mates? You want to go into the transformer? Shut your ugly mug, we’re going to give you a going over”
First boy: “If that’s the way it is, do you think that the estate will calm down?”
Third policeman: “We don’t give a shit if the estate calms down or not. Actually, the more it gets f****d up, the happier we are”
Note: It appeared that the polite boy knew that the television camera was there — but the police did not
Once again, I am amazed at how easily the word "racism" gets thrown around. The title of the article at the top of this thread is "Police racism caught on tape." Reading that exchange you posted, nobody used any racial slurs. Race isn't even mentioned. (Bald people were explicitly insulted though!)
We must infer, then, that the simple act of being rude to someone of another race qualifies as racism now.
I don't know any cop who would have answered differently. How are they supposed to respond? Beg?