student safety in St Petersburg

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Shlomit Gorin wrote:

> I'm not so sure that "many" hate crimes - high-profile or not - have
> turned out to be fabrications or distractions. I think it's more
> likely the case that a negligent percentage of them have. In any
> case, I can't really think of many things that are entirely safe from
> the possibility of distortion, and I can't really see how including
> this type of caveat is necessary or productive unless the distortion
> is so frequent or severe that it warrants mentioning. Moreover, I
> think it's safe to say that when we're talking about hate crimes -
> regardless of where or to whom they occur - the assumption can be
> made that there are many more that are committed than reported, which
> significantly lowers the percentage of those that turn out to be 
> distortions.

Typically, those who tell us everything's hunky-dory latch onto the 
occasional fabrications and use them to "prove" (доказывать, а не 
доказать) that we have nothing to worry about, it's all made up. On the 
other side, those who demand action latch onto the occasional extreme 
examples and use them to prove how bad things are.

Only an impartial observer who has taken the time to sample widely and 
measure accurately can tell us just how good or bad things are. We need 
robust statistics.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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