Thought-provoking article story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7352244.stm 

"The parents of a Down's syndrome teenager accused of a racist assault have called for changes in how the law deals with people with special needs."

The case was dropped but the parents say they out up with eight months of misery waiting for it to go to court. 

What do you think? Should the law make exceptions or go softly softly; or is a learning disabiity, or any other disability, no excuse for racism. 

Keefer:

What do you think? Should the law make exceptions or go softly softly; or is a learning disabiity, or any other disability, no excuse for racism. 

 Do you really think it's quite that black and white? 

I have mixed feeling here. On one hand the case does seem a bit out of order considering the gentleman has "the mental age of a five year old" on the other hand no one can be allowed to insult or assault another person. It would appear from the parents perspective that nothing happened but obviuosly someone was upset about this. Presumably the asian student. But was it assault or was it an accidental push? Who knows.?The case has been dropped.

Individuals with intellectual/learning disabilities have the same rights as any other memeber of our society. With rights come responsibilities. The law is there to protect the innocent and punish wrong doers. If you want to be treated as an adult there is quite rightly an expectation that you should behave as one. Maybe Police involvement was inappropriate but on the other hand we have someone who believes he has been the victim of an assault.It does not indicate wether the other person also had learning disabilities.If so, why should his well being be threatened ? If not,did he even realise that the pusher had a disability? Does it matter? If the charge had been more seriuos i.e. theft, sexual assault etc etc would the parents expect no action to be taken because of the mans mental age?

the news article says very little about the actual incident so it is difficult to take a view on this particular case however I would expect the age and level of understanding of the 'perpetrator' to be taken into account along with that of the 'accuser' (who after all might be displaying another form of prejudice against someone who is 'different') and whether or not the incident is a repeated action, in which case where was the action learnt and what is reinforcing the learning

anne_m123:

I have mixed feeling here. On one hand the case does seem a bit out of order considering the gentleman has "the mental age of a five year old" on the other hand no one can be allowed to insult or assault another person. It would appear from the parents perspective that nothing happened but obviuosly someone was upset about this. Presumably the asian student. But was it assault or was it an accidental push? Who knows.?The case has been dropped.

Individuals with intellectual/learning disabilities have the same rights as any other memeber of our society. With rights come responsibilities. The law is there to protect the innocent and punish wrong doers. If you want to be treated as an adult there is quite rightly an expectation that you should behave as one. Maybe Police involvement was inappropriate but on the other hand we have someone who believes he has been the victim of an assault.It does not indicate wether the other person also had learning disabilities.If so, why should his well being be threatened ? If not,did he even realise that the pusher had a disability? Does it matter? If the charge had been more seriuos i.e. theft, sexual assault etc etc would the parents expect no action to be taken because of the mans mental age?

In this case 7 months went by and the parents solicitor to the Procurator Fiscals office was ignored. It would appear that in this case the "perpetrator" was dealt with in a way a normal suspect wouldn't be; i.e. poorly. In addition the suspects mother was sent a letter detailing that the PFO had sufficient evidence to charge-presumerably the lockal Sheriffs Court was going to see the thus charged accused in the dock, charged with what? Common assault?

Obviously for those working in adult mental services, such a case if pursued would've have somewhat far-reaching consequences. Indeed it is hard to say where it would have ended; with a mental age of 5 why stop there? Every playground in the country sees some pushing and shoving by five-year-olds. Why not remove the age of criminal responsibility and go hell-for-leather at these felons? 

The question is, what was the PFO doing for seven months? In there statement they reckon some important enquiries had to be made, presumerably they took what 20 working days per month, that 140 days of investigating at say what, 1/2 hour per week? That's just 14 hours spent on the investigation.  Hey, with that kind of efficiency we can expect the PFO to stamp-out the increase is rapes, honour killings, marital violence and the ever-increasing threat posed by sanctioned child rape gangs (a la West Yorkshire.)

Well that is if they can get to grips with vicious Downs's Syndrome adults and children.