definitely won't say you love Gypsies."

Roma residents contacted by Czech Television protested the mayor's remarks. Štefan Mital, a Roma entrepreneur, responded to the mayor's generalizations as follows: "One person raped that girl. I condemn that, and you cannot tar all of the Roma with the same brush." Mital was born in Nový Bydžov; now 33, he runs a construction business. He and his friends believe the mayor's remarks have harmed the majority of Roma people who are law-abiding - and not just in Nový Bydžov.

Czech Television facilitated a meeting between Mayor Louda and the local Roma and filmed the results. "I work in a factory where that petition is being passed around... How do those people see me now?" Roma resident Miroslav Oláh asked at the meeting.

"I believe,person committed the illegal behavior." Crime statistics on the ethnicity of suspects have not been kept since the 1990s.

During the meeting with local Roma, the mayor expressed amazement that (in his view) there were many new Roma residents in the town whom he had never seen before. "Where are they coming from, who is bringing them here?" the mayor asked, raising his voice, and turned to the Roma entrepreneurs present: "You're all in business...don't you know you need people? Who are you employing?" Zdeněk Mital responded that he employs all kinds of people, "black, white" and invited the mayor to come see for himself.

Petr Suchánek, the initiator of the petition which has taken aim at all Roma without exception, then challenged the local Roma to "keep order among