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Home / New Zealand

First NZ Christmas tarnished by racial abuse

NZME.
25 Dec, 2014 04:05 AM3 mins to read

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File photo / NZ Herald

File photo / NZ Herald

A South African couple's first Christmas in New Zealand has been tarnished after an online racist attack and death threats were made against their teen son.

Hawera police has launched an investigation after the family, who moved to the Taranaki town from Durban only in July, made a complaint.

They took action on Monday after their 17-year-old son complained of cyber bullying from another student in his year at Hawera High School who had taken a dislike to him.

When his parents saw the Facebook messages they found more than just bullying.

"Shut up you dumb f***ing n*****. I will hang you from a tree like your ancestors you dumb slave c***. You black f*** go back to Africa," the boy commented during the exchange.

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The victim's mother said that even in her childhood she had not experienced such a vicious attack.

"I never experienced something like this," she said. "It's a threat on his life."

On the afternoon of the complaint police visited the boy whose name was on the account the messages came from.

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It is understood he was given a warning after telling police it was from a fake account and the abuse had not been sent by him.

The account was deleted shortly afterwards.

A police spokesman said the inquiry was not closed yet and there had been no decision made on whether criminal charges would be laid.

"Police have taken this complaint seriously and an investigation is under-way to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident," he said.

"[Cyber bullying] is not currently defined in law and the potential for police to become involved will always be dependent on the particular circumstances of each case. What might be taken as bullying and upsetting by some people may not necessarily be an offence in law."

Before approaching police, the concerned mum tried to find out where the other boy's family lived so she could confront them but was warned by locals they were "a very well-known and very dangerous family".

As a result she bundled her son on a bus to Auckland to spend Christmas there, and she and her husband followed the next day.

But she was adamant she would not back down.

"I don't take kindly to threats. You don't threaten my children and think it's ok," she said.

"I'll go through every channel I can in order to sort this out."

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She said her son had been incredibly resilient since the threats were issued but she was concerned about how he would react when February rolled around and he had to return to school.

The teen's parents said they were keen to sit down with the school principal before that happened and they hoped to hear from the other boy's parents before then.

"It's their duty to come and knock on my door and set the record straight," she said.

POLICE ADVICE

- If you are subject to harassment on the internet which is of a physically threatening nature, or contains racial, sexual or religious overtones, then you should report this to police.

- Keep a record of what happened by taking screen shots of abusive pages.

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- Report abusive behaviour to the administrator of the website the messages appear on.

- Think very carefully about the information you put online about yourself. Ensure the appropriate security settings are in place on social networking sites to ensure only trusted people have access to your profile and can post comments.

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