But the question that hangs over Rotherham -- and which even the latest independent review could not answer -- is why so many people got away with these crimes for so long. It was left to a few intrepid journalists and four private citizens to uphold the law.
"It appears inevitable that Mr. Rahman will denounce this judgement as yet another instance of the racism and Islamophobia that have hounded him. ... It is nothing of the sort. The law must apply fairly and equally to everyone. Otherwise we are lost." — Judge Richard Mawrey QC.
Bad people do bad things, but when all the institutions of state fail to stop them, that is a problem for us all.
A veteran of the 1968 protest movements of 1968 once confided what, looking back, troubled him about his generation's rebellion. "All young people rebel." he said. "What is strange is that our parents' generation gave in." It is a sentiment that could just as easily be applied to modern Britain, if not the West. It is not surprising that people do bad things. What is surprising is that so many institutions and authorities allow them to get away with it.
Take the Rotherham child sexual abuse scandal. This is just one of a large number of cases around the UK where groups of men -- whom the media identify as "Asian" but who are almost entirely Muslims of Pakistani origin -- have been found to have selected young non-Muslim white girls, often in care
HOMES
, and subjected them to multiple rapes. It is sadly to be expected that there will always be people seeking to prey on the young and vulnerable. But the question that hangs over Rotherham -- and which even the latest independent review could not fully answer -- is why so many people got away with these crimes for so long. Certainly part of the reason, as the latest report explains, was that the police were terrified of being accused of racism. But even this remains only a partial explanation. How could grown men and women have so feared being called a name (in this instance, unjustly) that they were willing to allow literally hundreds of young women to be raped and gang-raped?
