We read:
"Chief Magistrate Ian Gray says any offence caused to a man who complained his 19 letter Greek surname was mocked was "sincerely regretted".
Fifty-year-old Spiros Chryssanthakopoulos complained he had been humiliated and racially vilified after a magistrate, clerk and police prosecutor laughed while discussing his name.
Mr Chryssanthakopoulos discovered the comments after he requested a court transcript and recording of a proceeding involving a traffic infringement notice which he thought was not proceeding and did not attend.
Mr Chryssanthakopoulos has written to Mr Gray complaining that at one point a man can be heard on the recording making the comment "I can't pronounce that sh--". Its not clear on the recording who made the comment.
But the clerk can be heard laughing while struggling to pronounce Mr Chryssanthakopoulos's name, before magistrate Jack Vandersteen says: "No wonder we can't find him ... he would have been a hard name to recite 25 times. There's 19 letters in it."
Mr Chryssanthakopoulos complained to Chief Magistrate Ian Gray, but has gone public because he is concerned the matter has been swept under the carpet. "I feel humiliated, I feel like the court and police are ganging up on me. The ticket, the racial vilification, the bungles, the vindictiveness, it's all been a nightmare," Mr Chryssanthakopoulos said yesterday.
Source
I knew an Australian-born Greek guy once whose surname was originally "Drakakis". Early on, he changed it to "Drake". He said that "Drakakis" sounded like something you stood in and couldn't get off your shoe. He was wiser than the guy above.
9 comments:
I've often noticed such unprofessionalism by employees of one sort or another within earshot of customers or the public. I hope they wouldn't claim "free speech" as an excuse much less a right.
I do wish certain people would stop using Monty Python skits as instruction manuals.
2:59 makes a very good point.
True story,
My wife was processing a State application for scholastic financial aid from a "Lenape" indian lady in a Southern state.....
*First Name: Asshole (pronounced, Asolay)
*Last name: Shithead (pronounced, schiteed)
They arrested this wacko who tried to smuggle these birds into america from vietnam tied to his legs the guys nake is SUNY DONG
This has got be in Melbourne, Australia. Given the size of the local Greek population, one of the biggest outside of Athens.
While this person might feel irked it is hardly racial vilification. His case would go nowhere because he is neither Aboriginal or Muslim. Yes I know Islam is not a race but our idiot state government thinks it is.
Actually, compared to some of the Greek names I've seen, this one didn't look that hard to pronounce at all.
We used to have a student who went to our local HIGH SCHOOL he played football and was a weight lifter and his name was SPARROW TANG
Australia itself has some places with real fun names MINDAROO and WAGA WAGA
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