The real enemy in this case is hysteria

The panic over a suspected transnational tendency among the Roma population to kidnap blond children has been replaced over a panic about racial profiling by the gardai­. It is hard to know which is the more idiotic.

The real enemy of both sensible policing, and of child protection, is hysteria. We have seen plenty of it in the last week, fanned and facilitated by a media that is good at raising public alarm, ...