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)

Early Release - Scotland Special

Three of Kriss Donald's murderers were sentenced today.

Mr Stewart revealed that all three had criminal records - including serious violence in the case of Huddersfield-born father-of-two Imran Shahid.

He was jailed for four-and-a-half years at the High Court in Glasgow in May 1995 for serious assault and was sentenced to 30 months in February 2003 for assault to danger of life and dangerous driving.

Mushtaq's record, mostly for road traffic offences, also includes assaults.

Zeeshan Shahid has served an 18-month sentence for culpable and reckless conduct and reckless damage.

So Imran Shahid was sentenced to 30 months in February 2003. Unbelievably he was released in December 2003 - just eight months into his 'thirty-month' sentence. Is the Scottish system even less sane than the English ? It's not as if he had no previous - he'd been given 'four and a half years' in 1995. What made them think he'd be suitable for release after a QUARTER of his sentence ?

Less than three months later he was driving his mates around Glasgow, looking for a white victim "to cut them up and take out their eyes". If he'd served his time Kriss Donald would be alive today.



It's been a cracking week for Scotland's Criminal Justice System.

Jack Roy was just 15 when he raped and stabbed Janet Maddocks before throwing her body off a train. He's an old man of 37 now, obviously no threat to anyone. Let him out on licence. Blimey - he's done a runner from his 'close supervision' !



Difficult one, this. You've got Vasilica Potolinca, an illegal Romanian immigrant who's been charged with rape. He's been on remand for a whole two weeks. Surely we can trust him to turn up for his trial of we release him on bail ? Well I never - he's legged it !



Or how about this - "Inmate hid heroin in prison cell".

British understatement is not dead. 53 grams of the stuff, worth a fair bit on the street and a lot more inside.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how prison officers also found steroids, electronic scales, syringes and mobile phones in Ian McLaughlan's cell.

Sounds like a cushy little number - literally a captive market to sell to.

Mr McLaughlan's home, Castle Huntly, seems a bit of a comedy prison. It was also host to Alan Wright, who broke out at night to rob a nearby house before returning to his cell. He said he needed the money 'to pay drug debts'.

To Ian McLaughlan ?

More Racist Murder ?

Adloyada reports on the kidnap, torture and murder of a young Jewish man in Paris by a gang from the notorious Paris suburbs.

There are echoes of the death of 15 year old Kriss Donald in Glasgow, who was held and tortured overnight before being stripped, stabbed and set ablaze. The Pakistani street gang who kidnapped him had been driving around looking for a white person to attack.

Ilam Halini was imprisoned and tortured for THREE WEEKS before being dumped, dying, near a train station last Monday. The kidnappers used an attractive woman, who asked him out on a date, as bait. This wasn't, as Kriss Donald's death may have been, a spur of the moment operation. This was planned and deliberate.

The French State prosecutor says they may have attempted six or seven other kidnappings.

Hat tip - Stephen Pollard - whose Blunkett biog I'm currently reading.

BBC Feeling The Heat

"In hindsight, it was a mistake not to report the case of Ross Parker more extensively."

One name glares from this report by its absence - Kriss Donald. Doubtless there were some other, more interesting cases that week of fifteen-year-olds being kidnapped, tortured, stabbed and burned alive because of their race.

Hat-tip - the Dumb One.

"Most Racist Murder Victims Are White"

Slowly, the MSM (always excepting the BBC of course), are waking to the possibility that racism may not be a disease only affecting people with white skin.

Sean O'Neill in today's Times.

A Home Office report reveals that of the 22 homicides classified as racially motivated between 2001-04, the majority of victims (12 cases) were white.

When you consider that a non-white killer practically has to sign a confession of racism witnessed by a bishop, a magistrate and a GP before the police or courts will accept it, those figures are remarkable. Christopher Yates' attackers weren't racist, were they ? After all, a white judge has said so.

The similarities between the two murder cases (of Anthony Walker and Christopher Yates - LT), and the differences in their outcomes, has left the Yates family feeling that it has been treated unequally. “I understand what Mrs Walker and her family are going through. We are going through exactly the same thing,” Rose Yates, Mr Yates’s mother, told The Times.

“But it appears to me that we have experienced a different measure of justice than they have experienced.”


O'Neill's report considers the possibility that the gentrification of East London is leading to attacks on whites 'moving into Bengali neighbourhoods'. I'm pretty sure we used to call such people racist thugs - when they were white, that is. It also mentions Kriss Donald, Ross Parker, and the almost unknown Gavin Hopley, a lad who got lost in Oldham after a night out (he was not from Oldham) and was killed when he looked for a taxi in the wrong area of town.

Killer (le mot juste) quote :

The Commission for Racial Equality, asked about anti-white racism, said that there was little, if any, research on the issue. The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, where Mr Yates lived, said its community cohesion unit did not want to comment.

UPDATE - compare the police and local authority response to the murders of Johnny Delaney and Peter Stone.

Soggy Puddles From The Curate's Paddock

Broadband still bust - seems to be the router or cabling rather than the connection, so I'll be at Gloucester Screwfix (that well known networking supplies store) for some patch cables come 8 am tomorrow.

As a result I haven't browsed the Web much and am out of touch with what's going on, having only BBC news to listen to - most of which has been seemingly devoted to the Anthony Walker verdict. The contrast between the coverage and that given to Kriss Donald (see this First Post piece) is so infuriating that I have to keep reminding myself that Anthony Walker was a decent guy, foully killed by evil men, that his family are better Christians by far than I am (I'd be happy for the killers to be executed whereas his mum's forgiving them) - and that it isn't the Walkers' fault that the BBC don't cover white victims the same way - or even black victims who aren't killed by whites. Isiah Young-Sam was a young black Christian killed in a racist attack - but we didn't get live coverage of his memorial service. The wrong guys killed him.

Incidentally I note the murder weapon (ice-axe) had been stolen by our Scally killers from a mountain shop in Snowdonia, in line with the great Scouse tradition in which the A55 is full of Transits taking heroin in one direction and returning with antiques and garden statuary in the other.



Elsewhere ... Fiona Pinto flags up an interesting event.

On December 6, at 6.30 in Committee Room 11, in the Palace of Westminster, Gianna Jessen, a young American woman who survived saline abortion at 7 plus months, and now campaigns against abortion, will be the guest speaker at an event hosted by Mr Joe Benton MP, on behalf of our own new campaign Alive and Kicking (of which CORE is a member).

Gianna will be running the London Marathon next April for S.O.S ;a charity which supports children born with cerebral palsy. Gianna herself suffers from this condition as a result of her traumatic and premature birth.

The day before (Monday 5th December), get down to the LSE if you're in London.


The Big Debate
National Security vs. Political Expression: Where do we draw the line?
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
6.30pm 5th December, 2005
Room D602

ALL WELCOME!!!

Chair
Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky, Baron of Tilton (Warwick)

Panellists
Peter Hitchens (Mail on Sunday)
Brendan O'Neill (Deputy Editor, spiked)
Alasdair Palmer (Public Policy Editor, Sunday Telegraph)

There is no doubt a line must be drawn since a shift too far in either direction imperils the other position; however the precise position is clearly a matter of contention.

Prime Minister Blair's first 'whipped-vote' defeat in the Commons on Bill 55 - The Terrorism Bill 2005 (despite the support of The Sun Newspaper) highlighted a deep and divisive faultline in British politics about how to deal with an entirely new security paradigm.

With the gruesome and horrific London bombings of 7/7 fresh in our hearts and minds the nature of the threat must be addressed so that together we may plot the way forward.

Some questions are procedural (i.e. what rights should a potential terrorist have, 28 days or 90?) but others go far deeper into the collective British psyche. Should support for resistance movements be criminalized? Should non-violent political parties be banned? Is habeas corpus dispensable? Shoot-to-kill? Does it truly matter that we will have to impinge on the right to protest to save lives? What should be the role of the judiciary in this new environment? Does Western civilisation face an existential threat from Al-Qaida cells or is that assessment overblown? Have British Muslims integrated?

These are in addition to more pivotal philosophical questions. How central is the right to political expression in a secular, liberal democracy? Do the needs of the many outweigh the rights of the few? What is it we truly value: life or liberty? Does there really have to be a trade-off between the two?

As the War on Terror continues to escalate from Bagram to Bali, Grozny to Gaza City, Tashkent to Tal Afar, once again the LSE SU Comparative Ideologies Society takes on the complex issues and tackles the tougher questions. Join us…

Sounds like a belter and I hope a few people will be blogging it.



I can't believe the naivety of the Christian 'Peace Activists' who thought Iraq was a good place to hang out in. Having spent their time campaigning for the release of detainees in Iraq, they are now detainees in Iraq themselves. "Committed to reducing violence by getting in the way" is their motto. They must be thanking their lucky stars that they're not in Nazi Bush's Gulag but in the hands of the struggling and oppressed Iraqi people.

The only cheerful thing about this whole sorry story is that the 'resistance' don't seem to be that media-savvy, if the desire to kill Westerners is greater than their need for good publicity from useful idiots. Nothing like attacking people who are on your side.

Interesting story on the Belgian bomber oin the Guardian. I thought only the Sun wrote about immigrants claiming benefits and driving expensive cars.

Three years ago she married Hissam Goris who took his new wife to Morocco, though they were careful to return home so they would not lose unemployment benefits. The couple eventually settled in in the rundown area around the Gare du Midi in Brussels where many Muslims live.

Muriel's parents spoke of the cultural gulf which strained relations on the rare occasions that their daughter was driven to their house by her husband in his Mercedes.

Stereotyping or what ?

Low Intensity Warfare Part 21

Let's remind ourselves once more ... Home Office minister Hazel Blears :

"we are seeing much more cooperation from the courts in making sure decent people who are prepared to stand up and challenge this behaviour are properly protected."

Tracey Cullum challenged anti-social behaviour.

Just as did Michelle Wenden, or Alwyn Jones. Or William Bird. Or Martin James.

In related news, Victim Support (a nominally independent but overwhelmingly taxpayer-funded organisation- £31m out of £33m in 2004) are spending £100,000 on a study of "hate crime".

Not all "hate crime", of course. Kriss Donald, Ross Parker, Richard Whelan, Gavin Hopley won't qualify as victims.

"Because the extent of hate crime is so wide - including attacks against lesbians, gay men and transgender people, members of minority ethnic communities, disabled people, refugees and asylum seekers - the research will focus on the experiences and needs of black and minority ethnic people."

When they talk about "the growing phenomenon of hate crime" you'd think they might mean the 52 dead and 700 injured in the wave of religiously motivated attacks last month.

Apparently not. Most of them are the wrong colour to qualify.

Didn't people who discriminate like that used to be called racists ?

Walker, Donald, Parker

The BBC have defended the different amount of coverage given to the murders of Anthony Walker and Richard Whelan - a difference they acknowledge.

The BBC has given a lot of national coverage to the murder of Anthony Walker, the 18-year-old boy killed with an axe in Merseyside last Friday.

It made the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News bulletins; there were constant live updates on News 24; and it led the UK index of the BBC News website.

The other murder, however, that of 28-year-old Richard Whelan, stabbed to death on a London bus, failed to make any of the national television bulletins, even in the immediate aftermath.

The reason ?

" ... in fact the two murders are very different. As far as I know, from reading the Press Association wires, listening to the police and reading newspaper coverage, the police are not suggesting there was any racial motive in the killing of Richard Whelan."

Hang on. As Dumb Jon points out, this is a £3bn organisation and its news editor gets her stories from other people.

But in the Anthony Walker case ? "It is this racial element to the crime that makes it different."

Ah - of course. Had Richard Whelan been killed in a racist attack, he'd have got the full One, Six and Ten o'clock treatment, wouldn't he. Just like Kriss Donald did. Not.

I wrote to the BBC Newswatch website as follows - we'll see if there's a reply. Don't wait up.

In responding to the concerns of licence fee payers over the vast difference in coverage between the Anthony Walker and Richard Whelan murders, Amanda Farnsworth says "It is this racial element to the crime that makes it different."

Could Amanda Farnsworth please then explain why the racist murders of 15 year old Kriss Donald in Glasgow and 17-year old Ross Parker in Peterborough never "made the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News bulletins; there were constant live updates on News 24; and it led the UK index of the BBC News website".

Both murders might have been considered exceptionally newsworthy even apart from the racist nature of the attacks - Kriss Donald's because of the vile nature of the assault (the story is not a pleasant read) and Ross Parkers because he was killed 10 days after 9/11 - at a time when the BBC was featuring heavily the dangers of attacks by native Brits on Muslims.

Ross Parker never existed as far as BBC radio and TV news was concerned. The sentencing of Kriss Donald's killers was reported on the PM programme and Today, but nothing was reported until the trial - a stark contrast to the Anthony Walker coverage.

Are there any other differences between the Anthony Walker and Kriss Donald cases which might cause the BBC to give one story big air and the other the oubliette ?

I'm sure there is. Just can't quite put my finger on it. Any ideas ?

Racist Murder and White Liberal Guilt

On Friday 18 year old Anthony Walker was murdered in Liverpool, in an disgusting and unprovoked racist attack like the ones that killed 15 year old Kriss Donald and 17 year old Ross Parker.

The murder of Anthony Walker was the main or second item on BBC Radio Four News all Saturday. It was the second item on BBC Television news last night, after the terrorist arrests. High profile coverage continued this morning.

The murders of Kriss Donald and Ross Parker didn't ever make BBC Radio or television news. I'm an avid Radio Four listener and I've never heard Ross Parker's name. The Today programme had one report on the trial of Kriss Donald's murderers and the trial was also mentioned on the PM programme.

The Kriss Donald killing was notable for the horrific and premeditated nature of the attack, the Ross Parker murder because it occurred 10 days after September 11th, when the BBC, Guardian and Independent had all antennae alert for a 'backlash' by Native Brits against innocent Muslims. A racist murder of a Native Brit by Muslims ? Sorry - I can't hear you. On the day Ross Parker was killed this is what the BBC were reporting.

It could perhaps be argued that the remarkable disproportion between the coverage of racist murders where the victim is white (minimal coverage) and non-white (major coverage extending in some cases over years) reflects the severity of the problem. Perhaps black and Asian people are being murdered much more often than white.

The Home Office figures (table 3.6) don't seem to bear this out. Over three years 2001-2004 there were 38 homicides of blacks, 28 of Asians, and 22 of 'other' where the principal suspect was white. For blacks the figures were 87 homicides of whites, 12 of Asians, 11 'other', for Asians 37 homicides of whites, 7 of blacks and 6 of 'other', for 'other' 29 homicides of whites, 4 balck, one Asian.

This kind of data is notoriously difficult to analyse, because of the geographical distribution of ethnic groups. For example, if 95% of the white population lived in areas where they never saw a black or Asian person, it would be unfair to conclude that zero racist murder in those areas equalled zero propensity to racist murder.

But what they can show is conclusively is that in all murders which could POTENTIALLY be racist, white people are over-represented in the victim class and correspondingly under-represented in the 'principal suspect' class. You would never know that if you listened to the BBC.

UPDATE - Who else but the Pub Philosopher also comments. And I'd just like to say that I've no objection to the amount of air that the Anthony Walker case is getting. I'd just like to see all all murders getting that kind of coverage - even if the victim's white. Long ago, when murders were half or a third of todays levels, the BBC reported them all on national news. It would be interesting to know when and by whom the decision was taken to stop this.

Kriss Donald Update.

The suspects in this particularly disgusting racist murder case who fled to Pakistan have been arrested.

Kriss Donald would have been 17 today.

If The Victim Hadn't Been White ....

Would this be a racist murder ?

UPDATE - It's certainly a mystery to the BBC.

UPDATE 18/3/04 - The Scotsman has more. And the Guardian has wise words from Labour MSP Gordon Jackson. "Every area, particularly in a city, has young men getting into bother from time to time." He's right of course. In Gloucester the council have a regular van runnng to collect the bodies of abducted schoolboys. Just a bit of 'bother' Kriss Donald got into. Nae worries. The Indie, like the Guardian and the BBC, is worried by the potential for damage to race relations rather than the hideous murder of a young boy, but a local resident doesn't agree.

James Boyd, a neighbour of the dead teenager, said: "Whenever a white guy hits an Asian kid, it's a racial incident. But when Asian kids attack us, it is passed off as a gang fight".

Got it in one.