"Mob" of 24 get lots of media exposure

I can't get too excited about this.

Muslims burned the flag of St George and called for the Queen to 'Go to Hell' in a furious rally held in London over Salman Rushdie's knighthood. Angry Muslim extremists rallying at Regents Park Mosque said that anger over the award could match the fierce reaction to publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark in 2006. Organisers of a protest outside the mosque claimed several hundred demonstrators were denouncing the decision to reward Rushdie, whose novel "The Satanic Verses" led to a death threat from Iran in 1989.

Apparently 24 protesters constitute a furious mob. For once I think the BBC are right not to cover it.

I liked the caption on the picture though :



"The Rushdie row shows no signs of abating as the bounty on his head continues to rise"

I know he's short, but the bounty's not actually on his head. And that's quite a scar on her right arm. Not bionic is she ?

Another loony pushing people under Tube trains

A mental patient who pushed a rush hour commuter to his death beneath a tube train because he was angry at losing £150 at the bookies was jailed for life today. Mehmet Bala, a 20 year old voluntary patient at a mental hospital, was furious at losing the cash on a bet on the World Cup, and took his anger out on 52-year old John Curran. The 52-year-old construction worker was shoved to his death from the packed north-bound platform of the Victoria line at Highbury and Islington underground station in north London.

Irishman Mr Curran was standing at the edge of the platform as the train pulled into the station at around 35mph while Bala was standing just behind him. As the train approached Bala barged Mr Curran in front of it and onto the tracks. Mr Curran was hit by the train around 6pm on July 7 last year and died as a result of his injuries. Bala was chased out of the station by fellow passengers, but escaped into the crowd. He was arrested the next day at Homerton Mental Health Hospital in east London as police showed nurses and staff CCTV footage of the murder.



Staff identified the killer as Mehmet Bala who was a voluntary patient, but allowed out unescorted. When woken up Bala asked the officers "Is the man dead?" and was immediately arrested. Officers asked: "What man?" to which Bala responded: "The man I pushed off the platform." At the Old Bailey Cypriot Turk Bala was sent to prison as psychiatrists could not agree on whether he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Judge Ann Goddard QC said she had no powers to impose a hospital order under the mental health act as Broadmoor's psychiatrist believed he was not suffering from a mental illness and any treatment would be useless.

According to the BBC he could be out again in less than five years. Nice to know.

She said the hospital had offered to see him again in the next six months but he must serve a minimum of four-and-a-half years before being considered for parole.

This sort of thing seems to be a habit with London's loony community. In 2002 one of those violent-multiple-drug-user-spider-web-on-face types who are best avoided, Stephen Soans-Wade, pushed Christophe Duclos under a train. With its traditional concern for the victim, the Guardian headed its story "Tube killer wanted to go into care".

The good news is that there were two enquiries into the care of Mr Soans-Wade.

On 27 August, weeks before the murder, he warned a GP about his condition. "I feel like I'm going to do something," he said. "I'm going to push somebody under a bus or a train unless I get help. I'm not safe."

On 24 August Soans-Wade told a nurse: "I may throw your husband under traffic or a train - how would you feel then?" Police were called.

He repeated the threat to push someone under a train. He was readmitted to St Clement's for 10 days but doctors again could find no psychotic problems which would warrant keeping him in.

Naturally the procedures have been put in place to prevent such warning signs being missed again.

The panel criticised the lack of joined-up working between the different health agencies looking after Soans-Wade. This, they said, prevented mental health workers from getting the full picture about the potential risks he posed.

"Stephen's threats and actions gave sufficient indication that his violent behaviour might escalate, but this was not recognised," their report said.

The panel recommended the creation of a specialist personality disorder team and a review of the strategy for dealing with those with a "dual diagnosis" - a drug problem combined with mental illness. Carolyn Regan, managing director of NHS London, said: "In the three years since this incident, a greater understanding of the needs of people like Stephen Soans-Wade has been developed."

(en passant, the NHS report has a strain of black humour.

"Mr Soans-Wade had a complex range of needs including personality disorder, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependence."

I would have thought his needs included a good shoeing and being locked up for the public protection, but what do I know ?)


Anyway, at least the structures have now been put in place to ensure action is taken if a mental patient starts threatening to push people under trains. Haven't they ?

Oh dear.

The doctor added Bala carried out the killing because he was annoyed that he had lost money gambling on the World Cup. He told nurses he was going to push someone under a Tube, and dreamt of tying up and stabbing a woman.




PS - amazingly, here we see a psychiatrist actually facing action for letting a loony out to kill.

Dr Chattree denies gross misconduct arising out of his decision to discharge Harrington and allegations that he failed to properly monitor and manage him in the community.

In October 2001, Dr Chattree had authorised Harrington's release from a mental health section order back to his Blackburn home. Before his release Harrington had physically attacked a nurse, apparently taken delight in the suffering of fellow patients, and told medics that he would refuse to take anti-psychotic medicine if allowed home, the hearing in Manchester has been told.

But Dr Dziobon, questioned by Dr Chattree's counsel Jane Mischon, said that a multi-discipilinary mental health team was behind the decision to formally discharge Harrington. "If anyone had expressed concern then Dr Chattree would have listened to them," he told the hearing.

Say what you like (and I have) about trick-cyclists, at least their professional body is capable of taking some action. When was the last time a probation officer took the rap for letting a killer out on Early Release ?

Another liberal myth bites the dust ...

I have on the shelves Max "I counted them all out and I counted them all back" Hastings' "The Battle For The Falklands" as well as "The Sinking of the Belgrano" by two other journalists whose names I fail to recall . The Belgrano book seems to me to imply on the flimsiest evidence that the peace-loving Argentinian cruiser, sailing outside the "exclusion zone", away from the Falklands and no threat to the British Task Force, was sunk in order to torpedo any prospect of a negotiated settlement. This certainly has been the view of the left for the last 25 years.

I noticed the other day that the Belgrano's captain, perhaps understandably, disagreed with this view. Sam Tarran noticed too. Let's hope his drama teacher reads it.


UPDATE - It wasn't Mad Max counting them in and out. Twas the BBC's Brian Hanrahan.

Don't Mention The War !

Telegraph

The Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski got the meeting of European leaders off to an acrimonious start by complaining that Poland would have a far bigger population on which to base its EU voting power if it had not been for the German invasion in September 1939 - the start of the Second World War.

It's true that WW2 cost them about 20% of the population. I think we should remember that as the Wehrmacht swept East, held up only by the heroic flank attack of the Bzura, the former Soviet Union also invaded, accounting for a fair few of those victims themselves.

Given that a million or so of the survivors descendants are now in the UK, they'd have a far bigger population if they'd not joined the EU, too.


UPDATE - Martin Kelly remembers an earlier conflict in that neck of the woods and has some wise words on integration, noting how commanders of Scottish descent served on both sides. Our WW2 army was full of generals with names like de Guingand and Carton de Wiart, Pierre de Villiers, LeQuesne Martel, Gott and Wernher.

Hey ! Iraqis !

Seen any allied troop movements you'd like to tell us about ?

Wikipedia - The Memory Hole

Gone - Gavin Hopley, Christopher Yates, Charlene Downes, Mary-Ann Leneghan, Richard Whelan. Was Ross Parker there before ?

Charlene Downes entry was deleted by a chap called Srikeit, an Indian national who discovered Wikipedia in January and became an administrator in July. I have to admire his self-confidence in feeling able to chop an item on an English murder - I'm sure I wouldn't feel myself competent to pronounce on murder cases in India.

How long can Kriss Donald's entry survive ? Or Isiah Young-Sam's ?

I don't think we have to worry yet about Anthony Walker. But don't tell them about the Zebra Killings.




(Hat-tip and stolen logo - the Dumb One)

Charlene Downes Update

As not seen in Wikipedia.

Blackburn Citizen 11/6/7

A MURDER trial jury has heard how police installed secret recording equipment at the home of a man accused of helping to dispose of a schoolgirl's body. Charlene Downes, 14, from Blackpool, disappeared in November 2003 and Blackburn man Iyad Albattikhi, 30, the boss of Funny Boyz takeaway, Dickson Road, in the resort at the time, denies murder.

Mohammed Reveshi, 55, is accused of assisting an offender. Preston Crown Court was told that as well as at his home, a Fiat people carrier vehicle owned by Raveshi was also bugged. The covert recording devices picked up conversations between the defendants and others between late February and late March 2005. The devices were placed in the Hornby Road flat in Blackpool and vehicle belonging to Reveshi. Detective Sergeant Jan Beasant told the court how police used a total of 52 digital audio tapes during the covert surveillance. Twenty-four hour round-the-clock surveillance took place at a room in Blackpool police station. Det Sgt Beasant had sole responsibility for the recordings and later went through all of the tapes to ascertain the nature of the conversations.

The officer said the conversations were mixed. Some included talk about business premises, but there was quite a lot in relation to the police inquiry. Passages from the tapes are to be played to the jury, over a system at court.

The court has been told that Albattikh was said to have lived in Blackburn at the time Charlene disappeared and commuted to Blackpool to run the takeaway.


Blackpool Gazette 2/7/7

A CHIP shop owner told a murder trial he was "gobsmacked" after hearing a missing Blackpool teenager had been murdered. A clearly distressed Michael Kearns took to the witness stand at the murder trial of Charlene Downes and told the jury of his "total shock" at being told a fellow takeaway owner had allegedly killed the youngster.
The 14-year-old disappeared from her home on Buchanan Street in Blackpool in November 2003 and has never been seen since. Mr Kearns owned the Moby Dick takeaway, next to Funny Boyz, which was owned by Iyad Albattikhi – the accused. Albattikhi, 29, of Dickson Road, denies killing the teenager while Mohammed Reveshi, 50, denies disposing of her body.

Mr Kearns told the court he was told of the murder by another witness, David Cassidy, who had earlier told the jury he was told of the killing by Albattikhi's brother, Tariq. Under cross examination from prosecution barrister Tim Holroyde QC, Mr Kearns said: "Mr Cassidy came into my shop one night and told me there was something he had to tell me that was really serious. He said Tariq broke down and that his brother had murdered a girl and had chopped her up in the kitchen. I could tell by Mr Cassidy's body language he was deadly serious. I was totally gobsmacked. It took me back. I can't actually recall what I said to him. I asked him the question where it had happened and Mr Cassidy said he did not know."

The witness, who has lived in Blackpool for 20 years, said he knew Iyad Albattikhi – who was known to him as Eddie – and a few members of staff at Funny Boyz. John Bromley-Davenport QC, defending for Reveshi, asked Mr Kearns if Mr Cassidy told him that Jordanian men had been using Charlene "for sexual purposes". Mr Kearns replied: "He did say that, yes."

Earlier, the court heard Mr Cassidy, a former work colleague of Albattikhi and Reveshi, denied he was trying to set up the two defendants by telling a "pack of lies". Mr Holroyde asked Mr Cassidy if he had it in for either of the defendants.
Mr Cassidy replied: "I don't have it in for Eddie. I did not tell lies to the jury or to the police."

Miss Downes was last seen by her mother Karen on the night of November 1, 2003, who kissed her and said goodbye. Despite a massive police investigation her body has never been found. The prosecution alleges Jordanian-born Albattikhi had a sexual relationship with the teenager and murdered her before Iranian-born Reveshi disposed of her body.

(Proceeding)

Daily Mail 31/5/7

A mother ran from court today as she heard how her daughter was strangled before being chopped up.

Iyad Albattikhi, 29, known as Eddie, had sex with 14-year-old Charlene Downes, before killing her and joking her body had been put into the kebabs at his shop on Blackpool Promenade, Preston Crown Court has heard.

Today David Cassidy, a former friend of the accused, told Preston Crown Court how the defendant's brother confessed to him about the murder - and that the youngster had been throttled to death. Mr Cassidy, 40, who ran an amusement arcade in the town, told the jury Tariq Albattikhi had rowed with his brother and, upset and in tears, told him about how the schoolgirl had been killed. "He was crying," Mr Cassidy said. "He said there was a lot of blood. I was only getting a bit of the conversation through the tears. "He told me that she was strangled." At this point Charlene's mother, Karen Downes, sitting in the public gallery, gasped and fled the court in tears.

Charlene, from Buchanan Street in Blackpool, disappeared on November 1, 2003, after kissing her mother goodbye to go off with friends. Expelled from school, she spent most of her time hanging around the shops on the Prom, where Albattikhi owned and ran Funny Boyz kebab shop. A missing persons inquiry began after she vanished but police later launched a murder investigation after information "leaked out".

No trace of Charlene's body has ever been found. Albattikhi, a Jordanian immigrant, is charged with murder and his co-accused, his business partner and landlord, Mohammed Reveshi, 50, originally from Iran, is accused of helping to dispose of the body.

Both deny the charges and have told police they never knew Charlene. Ian Goldrein QC, defending Albattikhi suggested Mr Cassidy was telling the court a "pack of lies" and suggested the conversation never took place. He said the witness had a long criminal record for dishonesty stretching back to the age of 17 - and could not be relied upon to tell the truth. Mr Goldrein asked the witness why he waited months after the conversation with Tariq before he told police. Mr Cassidy said, "Because I did not know if what was being said to me that night was true. I had to determine whether it was hearsay or gossip." The trial continues.

Blackpool Gazette 31/5/7

A TAKEAWAY owner accused of murdering Blackpool teenager Charlene Downes gave food away to girls who "had pretty faces and short skirts." Witnesses say Iyad Albattikhi knew Charlene who disappeared in November 2003. Despite a massive police search the 14-year-old from Buchanan Street has never been seen or heard of since.

Witness Kimberley Stratfull told a jury at Preston Crown Court Albattikhi - who owned the Funny Boyz takeaway on Dickson Road and was known by the name "Eddie" - used to give away free food to "anyone he took a fancy to". Under cross examination from prosecution barrister Tim Holroyde QC, Miss Stratfull, who worked at Funny Boyz, said: "Charlene used to get free food from the shop. "Eddie used to give free food to girls who had pretty faces and short skirts. He used to do it all the time to girls he liked the look of."

Albattihki, 29, is accused of murder, while co-defendent, Mohammed Reveshi, 50, is charged with disposing of Charelene's body. Earlier in the trial, a witness said she saw Charlene and another girl, Dawn Turner, get into a number of different cars outside takeaways.

Miss Turner told the court she considered Charlene to be her best friend and often went to visit takeaway workers at an alleyway at the rear of Talbot Road. She said: "We went there between 5pm and 7pm quite a few times. "We used to get free food from the people who worked there. We also used to hang around the arcades too." But when prompted by defence barrister, Ian Goldrein QC, about a statement she made in November 2003, she admitted she vaguely remembered saying Charlene used "to snog some of the takeaway owners" and gave them sexual favours in return for free food.
Miss Turner also told the jury she and Miss Downes were friendly with a number of Asian men in the area, one of who was Albattikhi.

Witness Cheryl Sutcliffe, who used to work at Funny Boyz, told the court that she remembered seeing Charlene in the takeaway, but never saw her speaking to Albattikhi.
Kirsty Fletcher, who worked at Heat takeaway, on Church Street in Blackpool, told the court Albattikhi was present at a conversation where people were laughing at what had allegedly happened to Miss Downes. She said: "They were making a joke about her (Charlene). There were nasty comments about her and something about kebab meat.
"Eddie made lots of sexual comments about her saying she was small and kinky and little. "They were talking about having sex with white girls." Tim Holroyde QC, prosecuting, asked Miss Fletcher who was present at this conversation, which took place in the office above the Heat take-away. She replied: "Yes, Eddie was there."

The prosecution alleges Albattikhi of Dickson Road befriended Charlene before killing her on the night, or days after, her disappearance. Reveshi of Hornby Road, Blackpool, is alleged to have disposed of her body. Both men deny the allegations.
(Proceeding)

More Siblings Slaughtered

The mighty Aaro joins the "yer mum killed yer baby brother" club.

"When, in the mid-1960s, with four children already, after several miscarriages and with little money, my mother took herself to an illegal abortionist for a termination, she was not in my view committing a moral abomination. In fact what she was doing was morally right."

I know not if Mrs Aaro is still with us, hopefully so, but if so I hope he checked if it was OK to wash the bloodstained linen in public. At least Caitlin Moran fessed up to a deed of her own.

Hmm ...

"This is a mental health issue. I think our community is going stark raving bonkers and I think the children are expressing it."

Decima Francis in evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System.

The Commission for Racial Equality has privately warned the government that its mental health bill unlawfully discriminates against ethnic minorities, correspondence leaked to the Guardian has revealed. MPs vote at the bill's report stage in the Commons today without being warned by the commission of its concern. It told Rosie Winterton, minister responsible for mental health, she was not being frank with MPs about how new powers for compulsory treatment would be used disproportionately on black people. - Guardian today.

Undercover Black Man ...

Interesting, eclectic blog, a bit reminiscent of a transatlantic Clive Davis. Alas I can't remember which blogger led me to it. When the blogroll gets fixed it'll be by Booker Rising and Co.

Two posts here - debating rap music with posters from white nationalist site American Renaissance, and on the right to bear arms.

While we're on "black culture" and "white culture", the evidence presented to the Home Affairs Select Committee is a right riveting read, if somewhat depressing at times. It certainly isn't going to reverse the flight from London of every English family with kids who can afford it.

"This is a mental health issue. I think our community is going stark raving bonkers and I think the children are expressing it."

"The price of firearms at street level has gone down. You can actually now put your hands on one for £30–£50. There is also a mechanism of lending firearms. I think that is really a big issue."

"The growing levels of unemployment and educational failure amongst Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims in this country indicates that they have an Afro-Caribbean type future ahead of them if government does not intercede to prevent the growing levels of alienation and descent into criminality that we are now witnessing in the Muslim
community."

"The Caribbean children commit a lot of street robberies and they will hang more with more of the other communities. The African communities have recently come in ...the Africans — I find in Peckham we have the largest number — they are fairly new and they have come in with different issues. Some of them have been boy soldiers, some have been in war torn countries, so they have a completely different attitude to socialising. They are brought over and they are put into a school... the Africans have a different mindset. They also are thinking about what is happening in their own country. For example if they are from Sudan, they are dealing with issues of war, or their families at home, if they have families at home—those are the two differences — but you will see a much larger increase of crime within the African community, we are starting to have to deal with it right now, as they settle into the country much more."

So the Afro-Caribbean community are mentally ill, guns are cheap, and just you wait till the Muslims and Africans get going. Hmmm.

Potted guide to the issues as seen by the witnesses :

Family disaster zones/ absent fathers - everyone except Lee Jasper
Rap music/street culture - everyone except Lee Jasper and the various DJs
White racism, lack of black history lessons - Lee Jasper, both the Reverends, Ken Barnes, Gus John.
Sixties liberals and benefit culture - Shaun Bailey
Asians are affected too - Sukhvinder Stubbs

There was a tension between "we're just like you - please treat us as you'd wish to be treated" and "we're not at all like you".

Decima Francis : "We have to parent our children because we are black and we know how to, and that power has been taken away from us. We have to get it back. Our children are large, boisterous and very, very different from yours and we need to now bring
them back. We think differently, we behave differently, we are from different cultures and different history and we have to have the responsibility of looking after our children and we must have it back, but first the men have to work."

A couple of witnesses (Decima Francis, Neil Solo) seemed to be under the illusion that smacking your kids for misbehaviour (something with which they were, if not supportive, certainly sympathetic) was something totally alien to Native Brits. I suppose they only come into contact with white Guardianistas.

We Call Our Indoctrination Education

2006 Citizenship Studies GCSE paper.

The United Kingdom Government takes equal opportunity very seriously and has set up special agencies to promote people’s rights. The Commission for Racial Equality provides advice on racial matters while the Equal Opportunities Commission promotes equal opportunities for men and women. More recently, the Disability Rights Commission started work to promote the rights of disabled people.
In spite of this, discrimination sometimes takes place. This is where one person is treated differently simply because of their gender, religion, race, ethnic group or disability. If you have been the victim of unfair discrimination, you can get help from your Citizens Advice Bureau, Law Centre or trade union. They will be able to advise you what to do. You can use civil law to object to unfair discrimination.
All of us have responsibility for treating people fairly whatever their race, sex or disability. We can also make it clear to others that unfair discrimination is unacceptable. Some people have formed pressure groups to campaign for changes in the law and support victims of unfair discrimination. Groups representing disabled people, such as the Disabled Parents’ Network, have been very successful in doing this over the last 10 years.

This looks like standard Guardian stuff to me - I'm not at all sure how this will promote social cohesion. Interestingly there's one area of discrimination law which the paper slides past - that of discrimination against homosexuals. Perhaps they decided class discussions in places like the new forced-integration Burnley schools would be too divisive. After all, if one community thinks they should have their heads kicked while the other thinks they should be thrown off tall buildings - well, that kind of disagreement can escalate.

A Titan Passes ...

We shall not look upon his like again ...

Absent Fathers Day

OK, so Home Affairs Select Committee chair John Denham is an idiot.

"Committee chairman John Denham said there was no evidence young black people committed more crime than other groups."

(I think he's an idiot, anyway- but in fairness, he's following in the train of researcher Marian Fitzgerald, who seems to think that self-reported surveys - asking young people how many crimes they commit - is a more accurate measure of criminality than the conviction statistics. Apparently by this measure, when asked by the comedians at the Youth Justice Board, 37% of black schoolchildren admitted to committing a crime as against 26% of whites and 20% of Asians. In another survey by the Home Office, black respondents were significantly LESS likely than whites to say they had offended. I've written to her to ask if that's really how one measures criminal activity or if I've got the wrong end of the stick. The stats, the report, and the evidence - fascinating stuff - are all here - and the website has a disgusting feature by means of which right-clicking, as well as left, automatically loads the pdf.)

But at least some commentators are wondering if there could be a connection between the dire shortage of daddies in black communities and high crime rates.

Figures cited by the committee indicate that 59 per cent of black Caribbean children and 54 per cent of mixed race youngsters are looked after by a lone parent. In the white British population, the figure is 22 per cent.

The Rev Nims Obunge, an evangelical pastor in north London, said that ''an acknowledged breakdown in the social fabric of many black families is most typically exemplified by the lack of a strong father figure in the home".

Well, yes. Take a look at this tragic City Journal piece - the Father's Day card marketed to black children with no fathers.

for My Mother ON FATHER’S DAY

You hear a lot of talk
these days about
children growing up
without a father—
without this
and without that.

You hardly ever hear
About the mothers who,
In spite of everything,
Raise their children to be strong,
To believe in God, to work hard
To make their lives worthwhile . . .




That’s the story
I’d like to tell
Because that’s
How you raised me.
In spite of it all,

it’s our story . . .
I made it because of you.
Have a wonderful day.

As Heather MacDonald says, "Hallmark provides a darn good barometer of social breakdown — transformed, with all the cheerful non-judgmentalism of capitalism, into a business opportunity".


I did wonder if John Denham's own domestic arrangements have anything to do with his reluctance to call a spade a bloody shovel when it comes to fatherhood or lack thereof.

There's a graphic on the BBC website :



If his wikipedia entry is correct, his eldest children fall under "lone parent" and his youngest under "cohabiting couple". His website skates neatly over this fact by mentioning his three children but not their two different mothers.

More Dhimmitude ...

I read this Iowahawk piece and thought it was well over the top - a crude caricature of white liberal grovelling to Islam.

Then I read the original, by Time Out Editor-at-large Michael Hodges. Blimey.

(via Tim Blair)


UPDATE - Michael Hodges, the man the BBC call when they want to know about moobies, was the proud (jointly with one Rebecca Taylor) recipient of a Commission For Racial Equality RIMA ("Race in the Media") award for 2006, alongside the massed ranks of BBC and Guardian staffers. I wonder when he came round to thinking that the burqua might be a good idea ?

The entire world and his three wives have blogged this piece. Just a few samples :

"Tell me this is a joke"

"Michael Hodges of Time Out London is definitely a glass half full kind of guy"

Now, it appears to me that Hodges is writing in all seriousness, in which case we are dealing with a psychologically and morally sick cretin on a par with Madeleine Bunting. On the other hand, the article is so extreme that we could be witnessing the emergence of the greatest satirist since Swift.

"you really do have to read this to believe it"

Time Out readers seem a little stunned too.

Apparently ...

The BBC are biased.