Saturday, August 25, 2007

"Law And Order"

The Guardian has some interesting background to the murder of Liam Smith, which took place exactly a year before the murder of 11 year old Rhys Jones.

His funeral last September saw scores of shops and businesses on the estate close for the day amid fears that they would be attacked if they failed to show sufficient "respect". Even at St Teresa's, the infants' school next door to the church where the funeral was held, children were prevented from playing outside, according to the local newspaper.

A police helicopter hovered overhead while officers in bullet-proof vests watched, from a distance, as the funeral procession wound its way through the streets of the 1930s-built council estate. Lining the streets were fellow gang members, all wearing ski caps and black T-shirts bearing the slogan "Smigger - Nogzy Soldier". The only shop to remain open posted security guards on the door.


We can all see who controls the streets of Norris Green then - and who doesn't. Some interesting background on the state of our prisons too.

The court heard how Smith had died after visiting a fellow gang member who was being held on drug charges at Altcourse prison, which was opened in the area 10 years ago and now holds large numbers of youths from Croxteth, Norris Green, and other parts of Liverpool and the north-west.

Another inmate, Ryan Lloyd, a member of the Croxteth Crew, spotted Smith in the visiting area and an argument immediately broke out. Lloyd ran back to his cell and grabbed a contraband mobile phone. The jury was told that he was overheard shouting: "Quick, quick, give us the phone, I'll get the boys up here to pop 'em."

By the time Smith emerged from the prison, gang members had arrived from Croxteth and were crouching in bushes next to the car park. One witness said that among the group he saw a 15-year-old boy armed with a shotgun. Smith was shot moments later.

The court was told that a number of Altcourse inmates helped the gang by smashing up Lloyd's mobile telephone and swallowing the Sim card.


Words fail me - almost.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We can all see who controls the streets of Norris Green then - and who doesn't"

time to call in the army?

oh wait - no we cant. they're all in iraq and afghanistan.

Anonymous said...

the political elite pat themselves on the back:

http://www.weekofpeace.org.uk


somehow i dont think it will make a blind bit of difference to the 257 gangs in London.

Anonymous said...

The Kray twins and the Richardson brothers seem benign and even benevolent compared to this lot.

Anonymous said...

In the comments on this Daily Mail article

"I have been a member of Victims Support for almost 15 years, just trying to be there for people when they may need someone. I am sure I speak for millions of decent people, when I say for every decent law abiding citizen's sake get the policemen out there on the streets, employ more, pay decent wages to them to be out ther. Stop fighting everybody else's war, we have one going on here, but who is listening?, you travel round from town to town, you never, never see a Policeman, we need one on EVERY corner of every town, if it needs 500.000 extra get on and provide it, spend our taxes on our streets, make them safer, so those of us who are law abiding can go out and enjoy our British homeland."


At the rate we're going if something isnt done , we'll be begging for the army to declare martial law.

Anonymous said...

"At the rate we're going if something isnt done , we'll be begging for the army to declare martial law."

If they shoot a load of liberal bastards as well I will be delighted.

There should be a pogrom starting with Guardian CIF

Anonymous said...

So, you can walk over hot coals. Big deal, - I never doubted it.
But you took so long to do it!
My plan, from an interlocutor you couldn’t handle, requires better.
I’ve done with dancing. Finished.
Your freeholds look emaciated. Jam tomorrow doesn’t cut it anymore.
Interlocutor techniques could resuscitate third and fourth world states. Jam now.
Well?

Anonymous said...

very here

quote:
Conservative leader David Cameron promised an end to Britain's "social decline" and broken society as it emerged that only one in five of those caught with a gun is sentenced to a mandatory five years in jail.

Anonymous said...

Two doormen shot in Penny Lane

By contrast the Penny Lane the Beatles wrote about seems to be an utterly alien world.

"In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know.
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello."

Anonymous said...

Read this

Guardian interview a 17 year old Liverpool gang member:

"You can get a gun practically anywhere here, in a shop, in a newsagent even. It's so easy - Mach 10s, Mach 11s [submachine guns], they would probably cost up to £400."

Looks like banning handguns hasnt worked so. Its resulted in disarming the law abiding. The criminals meanwhile are getting "tooled up".

Anonymous said...

from that guardian article:
"I got two years for assault on a police officer and criminal damage for smashing a police van up."

"I've had charges since I was 10 or 11, all different assaults and that"


with U.S. style "three-strikes-and-you're-out" justice, that criminal scumbag would have been locked up for the rest of his life.

now , he is free to get tooled up and possibly shoot someone.

Anonymous said...

so what is the Home Office's answer to dealing with criminal scum in Liverpool?

sending the the troops?
stringing them up from lamp posts?
rounding them all up and shipping them off to a South Georgia island gulag?


nah.
its a "gun amnesty".

woooo - scarey Home Office. thats really going to frighten them

Anonymous said...

P.C. Copperfield blogged about Liverpool gangs around this time last year:

see here

Laban said...

I linked to it last year as well :

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2006/09/strange-how-potent-cheap-rhetoric-can.html

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed he got two years for assault. Oh, it was against a copper, that explains it. I assume the copper wasn't at the station - what on earth was he doing away from his desk?

Anonymous said...

"Guardian interview a 17 year old Liverpool gang member:

"You can get a gun practically anywhere here, in a shop, in a newsagent even. It's so easy - Mach 10s, Mach 11s [submachine guns], they would probably cost up to £400.""


It's MAC, not 'Mach' - that's the speed of sound!

Tut, don't these rags have editors... ;)