Failing Paris Brown

I think Paris Brown was set up to fail.

I clearly don't condone her racist, homophobic tweets. However, I'd like to suggest that Paris has been failed by Ann Barnes and her team who, it strikes me, didn't think through the implications of giving a very young woman a high profile local job that was likely to come under scrutiny on a national level, not least because of the desire of many to see the new system of PCCs fail.

Given that Mrs Barnes has already been involved in legal proceedings over a tweet sent by a rival PCC candidate during her Police and Crime Commissioner campaign she can't even argue that she doesn't understand or, presumably, use Twitter. At the risk of indulging in Daily Mail-style sweeping generalisations, everyone knows that young people spend their lives online - why did no-one think to check her Twitter and Facebook feeds, regardless of whether this is normal practise for police appointments?

It strikes me that despite her teaching background, Mrs Barnes doesn't really understand young people. I'd suggest that the best indication of this came when she implied that all young people routinely write the kind of tweets Paris Brown has been castigated for. This is simply not true, and for Mrs Barnes to suggest that it's just part of a phase young people go through is an insult to the vast majority of young people whose online presence is fun, creative and positive.

I also suggest that Paris has become yet another victim of a print and broadcast media that would rather sensationalise and destroy than celebrate and encourage. In today's Daily Mail, columnist Melanie Phillips describes her as a 'silly little girl' with nothing to contribute to developing policing strategy above and beyond any other 17-year-old. Interestingly, she comments on claims of showing off by suggesting that:

Such verbal exhibitionism is hardly surprising, since Ms Brown is at an age when teenagers are still negotiating the transition from childhood to adulthood.

But rather than choosing to cut Paris some slack, Ms Phillips uses this as a stick to beat her with.

When I started writing this post I had no idea the story was broken by the Mail on Sunday, although given what I've experienced of the Daily Mail over the last week I really should have known better. The more I read, the more appalled I am. What really angers me is that the Mail on Sunday must have gone looking for a story on Paris - I can't believe that by some astonishing co-incidence there's a reporter at the Mail who follows her on Twitter.

Clearly, Paris Brown has made a huge mistake, but it's a mistake for which she has apologised and I think it's fair to say that if she was given the benefit of the doubt she'd never make it again. I imagine that she'll get to the point where she decides that continuing as Youth PCC isn't an option, but if that's the case I'll blame the adults who have failed her - Ann Barnes, the politicians who have criticised her and called for her resignation, the Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail who have vilified her, and the rest of the print and broadcast media who have jumped on the bandwagon.