Pogroms, Yet Again.

The New York Times writes today that:

"On Saturday, several hundred Italians attacked a camp of Roma, or Gypsies, on the eastern outskirts of Naples brandishing sticks and throwing homemade incendiary devices, after a 16-year-old Roma girl was accused of trying to steal a baby. The police were called to restore order and no one was injured, but the episode led national news programs."

Pogroms, the lynchings of Europe. I'd have hoped that we'd moved past this, but we hadn't.

My favorite part of this is the accusation of baby stealing. It's one of the standard accusations, along with cannibalism and incest for hated ethnic or religious groups. It's truly impressive to me that in 2008 we're making the same accusations that were levelled against the earlier Christians, Jews and later witches. Fantastic.

Human nature doesn't change and we've got a set number of things that are triggers for mob violence. Accusing someone of one of those crimes affects not just the individual (who may or may not be guilty) slanders the entire group and affects the entire group. Note also, there's no mention of a baby who was actually kidnapped, or a Roma girl who was arrested.

I hate this.

I really, really hate this.

Human nature doesn't change, but human experience, human knowledge do, I'd thought...I'd hoped that it had been enough to stop this, at least in the European Union.

I was wrong.

Damn.