The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Italy football attack stokes fears of neo-fascist violence Posted: 23 Nov 2012 08:14 AM PST  Police in a damaged pub after a fight in downtown Rome, during which 10 Spurs supporters were hurt and one seriously injured. — Reuters pics Italy's capital has been rattled by increasing militancy by the extreme right since October, with weekly demonstrations by the neo-fascist youth group Blocco Studentesco often ending in clashes with police. Local media initially blamed yesterday's attack on hard-core fans or "ultras" supporting Lazio, who Tottenham had travelled to the capital to play in the Europa League. But two supporters of AS Roma, Lazio's bitter city rivals, were among the 15 detained for alleged involvement in the mass attack on a downtown bar, suggesting a possibly different motivation. Tottenham have a large contingent of Jewish fans and witnesses told Italian media that masked men armed with knives and baseball bats shouted "Jews, Jews" as they laid siege to a pub where the Tottenham supporters were drinking in a district popular with tourists in an old quarter of Rome. Ten people were injured in the attack, which left 25-year-old English fan Ashley Mills in a serious condition. He underwent surgery for a severed artery in his leg today and was being monitored by doctors, the Rome hospital where he is being treated said.  A knife left on a street after the fight. Israeli ambassador to Italy Naor Gilon told reporters the attack on Spurs supporters, stemmed from "a new trend of anti-Semitism in Europe". The World Jewish Congress called yesterday for Lazio to be suspended from European football if they failed to take action against hard core anti-Semitic supporters. Media reports said Lazio fans chanted "Juden Tottenham, Juden Tottenham" at the match yesterday. Danger to Jews The violence has sparked a row about the safety of Jewish people in Rome. The head of the city's Jewish community, Ricardo Pacifici, said the attack showed Jews were not sufficiently protected. Police commissioner Giuseppe Pecoraro rejected the accusation, which he called a provocation. "The police do more for the Jewish community in Rome than anywhere else in the world," he said. Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno announced €21 million (RM82.6 million) in funding for a Holocaust Museum "to give an immediate response to the many signs of anti-Semitism that have occurred recently in our city". Alemanno is himself a former neo-fascist youth leader who was greeted with fascist salutes and cries of "Duce! Duce!" — the term adopted by Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini — when he was elected mayor in 2008. The European far right has gained increased support as the continent's economic crisis has deepened, especially in the debt-laden south. Its most startling rise has been in the worst-hit country, Greece, where the anti-immigrant Golden Dawn group has flourished. Italy is no stranger to the trend. Last week police arrested four people for allegedly inciting racial hatred through the website of the white supremacist movement Stormfront, confiscating a variety of weapons and neo-Nazi propaganda, after the group published a list of prominent Jewish citizens. Teenagers carrying neo-fascist flags stormed a high school last month, tossing smoke bombs into classrooms as lessons were being taught, in a raid interpreted in Italy as an attempt by Blocco Studentesco to assert control over its turf. Shortly afterwards a school due to host a meeting with local authorities about the "neo-fascist resurgence in schools" was daubed with swastikas, Celtic crosses and the word "Hitler". There is no suggestion the Blocco is linked to the attack on the Tottenham supporters. "We are proud to be fascists," the 18-year old Rome leader of the Blocco recently told Reuters in a suburban cafe, where swastikas had been scrawled across walls and furniture. The movement venerates 1930s Italian dictator Mussolini but says it does not agree with his racial laws, which stripped Jews of Italian citizenship and barred them from holding government positions in 1938. Racist chants Israeli flags are a common sight among Tottenham supporters at matches, and fans refer to themselves in chants as the "yid army". Lazio have long had fans with extreme right-wing sympathies, notorious for making Nazi salutes, unfurling anti-Semitic banners and chanting racist insults against black players. At the game yesterday, which ended in a goalless draw, Lazio supporters unfurled a banner reading "Free Palestine". The English Football Association plans to send a report to European football's governing body UEFA following alleged anti-Semitic chanting by Lazio fans during the match yesterday. Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas has demanded an investigation. Lazio was fined €40,000 (RM157,290) for racist chanting against black players in another match against Tottenham in London in September. — Reuters |
| US top court to consider workplace harassment rules Posted: 23 Nov 2012 07:55 AM PST MUNCIE, Nov 23 — The US Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a case that could determine when a company is liable for harassment by its employees. The case turns on the definition of a single word — "supervisor" — under a federal civil rights law that prohibits racial, religious or sexual harassment in the workplace. Under previous Supreme Court rulings, an employer is automatically responsible if a supervisor harasses a subordinate. The employer is not liable if the harassment is between two equal co-workers, unless it was negligent in allowing the abuse. Since those rulings, a rift has developed between federal appeals courts over exactly who is a supervisor. On one side, three circuits say supervisors are those with the power to hire, fire, demote, promote or discipline. Three other circuits have adopted a broader standard, one that also includes employees who direct and oversee a colleague's daily work. In the current case, Maetta Vance was the sole black catering worker at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. After filing numerous complaints with the university over racially charged incidents at work, she sued the university in federal court in 2006. She claimed that several white co-workers used racial epithets, references to the Ku Klux Klan and veiled physical threats against her. In trying to hold Ball State liable, Vance's lawyers argued that one co-worker, Saundra Davis, was a supervisor because she had the power to direct her day-to-day activities. Davis did not have to record her time, like other hourly employees, Vance argued. But the district court dismissed the case before a trial, finding Davis lacked sufficient authority over Vance. It also found that Ball State had taken corrective action and had not acted negligently. The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, reached the same conclusion, reasoning that Davis did not have the power to change Vance's employment status, and therefore the university was not liable for Davis's conduct. Vance petitioned the Supreme Court. Before deciding whether to hear the case, the Supreme Court asked the Justice Department for the government's position, as it does in some cases. US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli agreed with Vance that the 7th Circuit's narrow interpretation was wrong, but also argued that this wasn't the best case to decide the issue, given what it saw as weak facts that Davis was Vance's supervisor. Vance presented no evidence of tasks or instructions Davis gave her and even said she was uncertain whether Davis was her supervisor, the government's brief said. The Supreme Court accepted the case anyway. Ball State has made the same argument as the government. Davis "would fail to qualify as Ms. Vance's supervisor even under the broader interpretation of that term applied by certain courts of appeals," university spokesman Tony Proudfoot said in an email, citing the Solicitor General's brief. But Daniel Ortiz, a lawyer for Vance, said that under the broader standard there is evidence Davis was a supervisor. Davis, who Vance believed was her supervisor, "taunted her with racial epithets, slapped her at one point and made her life a living hell," Ortiz said. Business groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, have filed briefs supporting the narrow definition of supervisor used by the 7th, 1st and 8th Circuits. Adopting the narrower definition allows employers to easily identify employees who would trigger automatic liability so they can be screened, trained and monitored, the business groups argue. The open-ended definition, used by the 2nd, 4th and 9th Circuits, offers little guidance or incentive to undertake prevention efforts, the US Chamber said in its brief. Camille Olson, a lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw who represents companies, said if the Supreme Court adopts the more expansive definition, employers will be potentially liable for the conduct of a much larger pool of employees. "The expanded definition of whose conduct binds the employer will significantly increase litigation for employers," said Olson, who is not involved in the latest case. Employees may also have less incentive to report harassment promptly and to get any immediate issues fixed, opting instead for litigation, she said. The broad definition of supervisor would also conflict with a narrower one used in the Fair Labor Standards Act and National Labor Relations Act, creating confusion, she added. On the other side, plaintiffs' lawyers say the stricter standard ignores the practical reality of the workplace and allows discrimination and harassment to go unpunished. "The ones most likely to engage in harassment are the ones who deal with their coworkers day-to-day but may not have the special power to hire, fire, promote or demote," said Matthew Koski, an attorney with the National Employment Lawyers Association, a group for lawyers who represent workers. Supervisors who make final employment decisions may be in a different office or a different state, he said. The case is Vance v Ball State University, US Supreme Court, No. 11-556. — Reuters |
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