Image: Robert Huffstutter
Yesterday due to scheduling (yes we have a schedule, what?) and general fatigue from Thatcher coverage, we didn't write about the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. However yesterday in amongst the coverage of Thatcher's death, her funeral, her legacy was the news that teen czar, or Youth Police and Crime Commissioner, Paris Brown had stepped down from her czaring.
It was always going to be a tough job. Defending giving a teenager a 15,000 salary to generally teen about and update the police on teen stuff. Any job with czar in the title is traditionally difficult to defend or define. Unless you're heading up Russia in a past century.
It was always going to be a tough job. Defending giving a teenager a 15,000 salary to generally teen about and update the police on teen stuff. Any job with czar in the title is traditionally difficult to defend or define. Unless you're heading up Russia in a past century.
Usually czars appointed to peculiar roles are middle aged and well established with a reality TV show in which they either or bark orders at people or jiggle stranger's boobs (has Gok Wan been appointed a czar of anything yet? If not WHY NOT? The Coalition needs a Bangers Czar) and don't have the inconvenience of a veritable goldmine of online quotes online from their early teen years.
Usually it is a well known fact job seekers are told time and again that potential employers will use the power of Google on you. Meaning either you monitor your Facebook security settings with the 'attention to detail' you boast of on your CV or take care not to post compromising pictures or tweets. For some reason it appears Kent Police or Ann Barnes, the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner did not do a Google of Paris Brown before appointing her teen czar. Maybe they really did need a teen on board.
Usually it is a well known fact job seekers are told time and again that potential employers will use the power of Google on you. Meaning either you monitor your Facebook security settings with the 'attention to detail' you boast of on your CV or take care not to post compromising pictures or tweets. For some reason it appears Kent Police or Ann Barnes, the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner did not do a Google of Paris Brown before appointing her teen czar. Maybe they really did need a teen on board.
| I realise Kent Police do not have the resources of, say, CSI. Perhaps to promote better efficiency at work social sites such as Facebook and Twitter is blocked at Kent Police station... it's unlikely but it is the only explanation for this incident. The idea a teen czar wouldn't attract media scrutiny and have interns scrolling down, down, down on Brown's Twitter feed searching for something scandalous is absurd. | It strikes me as peculiar to hound one young woman out of her...job for unwise comments and call for a state funeral for a champion of Section 28 |
On her appointment Paris Brown said: "There's lots of stereotypes about young people, but I'm not like that at all and I've always been hard-working. It doesn't matter how much education you have as long as you are committed and determined." Unfortunately on Twitter a few years ago she said...well she said some things I am not going to quote here. Because she was 14 and because some of the tweets are particularly nasty and it doesn't do anyone any favours to re-quote them now they are public. Sadly Brown revealed herself to be the stereotypical teen the Daily Mail warned us about, drunk on alcopops, anti-immigration and rather homophobic. Things I know said publication feels super strongly about.
On her resignation Brown tearfully stated: "As I made clear over the weekend, I accept that I have made comments on social networking sites which have offended many people. I am really sorry for any offence caused. I strongly reiterate that I am not racist or homophobic. I have fallen into the trap of behaving with bravado on social networking sites. I hope this may stand as a learning experience for many other young people."
Whether or not Brown had continued in her job, whether or not she had aired her quite nasty little views, I highly doubt the Youth Police and Crime Commissioner would have made much of a dent in the lives of Kent's teenagers. Just a tiny dent in taxpayer's pocket (I know how the Daily Mail worries - FYI Brown lives with her parents in a 250,000 house - I know you like to be au fait about such things) and Ann Barnes's pay cheque, Barnes planned to pay 5000 of Brown's salary herself.
It strikes me as peculiar to hound one young woman out of her, admittedly gimmicky and inconsequential, job for unwise comments on Twitter and call for a state funeral for a champion of Section 28 (interesting fact in the name of balance, Thatcher initiated afree needle exchange programme for drug users to prevent the spread of HIV). To pour bile on a living very young woman and simultaneously make arguments regarding speaking ill of the dead and quoting Martin Luther-King: "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy."
I made my feelings on Thatcher's policies and feminism clear on XOJane.co.uk. Dead or alive I feel the same way and it would be rather insulting to both my values and her memory for me to change them in death. I haven't planned any bus trips to go dance upon her grave and I don't plan to express smugness over a silly young product of Thatcher's Britain.
Squeamish Kate
On her resignation Brown tearfully stated: "As I made clear over the weekend, I accept that I have made comments on social networking sites which have offended many people. I am really sorry for any offence caused. I strongly reiterate that I am not racist or homophobic. I have fallen into the trap of behaving with bravado on social networking sites. I hope this may stand as a learning experience for many other young people."
Whether or not Brown had continued in her job, whether or not she had aired her quite nasty little views, I highly doubt the Youth Police and Crime Commissioner would have made much of a dent in the lives of Kent's teenagers. Just a tiny dent in taxpayer's pocket (I know how the Daily Mail worries - FYI Brown lives with her parents in a 250,000 house - I know you like to be au fait about such things) and Ann Barnes's pay cheque, Barnes planned to pay 5000 of Brown's salary herself.
It strikes me as peculiar to hound one young woman out of her, admittedly gimmicky and inconsequential, job for unwise comments on Twitter and call for a state funeral for a champion of Section 28 (interesting fact in the name of balance, Thatcher initiated afree needle exchange programme for drug users to prevent the spread of HIV). To pour bile on a living very young woman and simultaneously make arguments regarding speaking ill of the dead and quoting Martin Luther-King: "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy."
I made my feelings on Thatcher's policies and feminism clear on XOJane.co.uk. Dead or alive I feel the same way and it would be rather insulting to both my values and her memory for me to change them in death. I haven't planned any bus trips to go dance upon her grave and I don't plan to express smugness over a silly young product of Thatcher's Britain.
Squeamish Kate
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