Sunday, July 17, 2005

Two Stories

Here's Bashir Ahmed, uncle of one of the London bombers, expressing his shock and disbelief at his nephew's actions on the BBC.

And here's Bashir Ahmed explaining that what he did was "looking for justice for human beings", denying that Tanweer was a terrorist, explaining that his nephew had made a name for himself in the world, and predicting more attacks by young Muslims unless British foreign policy is changed.

UPDATE - Remember the murder of 16 year old Stephen Lawrence in 1992 ? Of course we do. I'm still trying to work out why even an obsessive newswatcher like me missed the story of 16 year old Tyrone Clarke, which for some reason didn't make BBC radio news. The cached Yorkshire Post story draws a different picture of Beeston from the 'quiet suburbia' stories (when I lived in Leeds many years back Beeston was a white working class area of terraces and back-to-backs, perched above Elland Road - definitely not a suburb).


Mother mourns her 'gentle giant' son after stabbing

Chris Benfield

A mother has spoken of her devastation after her son was stabbed to death in the street during a disturbance on an estate in Leeds.

Lorraine Fraser, 39, said her life would never be the same after the loss of 6ft 4in Tyrone Clarke, described as a "gentle giant", who died after being attacked by Asian youths in Beeston shortly after 5pm on Thursday evening.
"They have taken part of me," said Ms Fraser. "I will never be the same again. Why have they taken my son's life?
"Tyrone was a gentle giant. He was full of life. His young sister does not know yet and I have still to tell her.
"I had seen him at the corner shop earlier and told him o be home in half an hour to have his tea. I can't sleep. Every time I close eyes I see my son."
Ms Fraser, who also has a four-year-old daughter Shannon, said she heard that her son had been hurt in a phone call from the landlady of the Malvern public house and ran to the scene.
Tyrone was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary followed by his mother in another vehicle.
It is the second time Ms Fraser's family has suffered tragedy in recent years. Seven years ago her aunt, Maureen Comfort, was murdered at her flat in Lincoln Green, Leeds.
Yesterday Ms Fraser revisited the scene of her son's murder shortly before police began a fingertip search of the area.
A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "We are not treating this investigation as a random attack, Tyrone being part of a gang is one of the lines of investigation we are following."
"We have many people we wish to speak to before we can say whether this attack was racially motivated. It is just too early to say."
Extra police were on patrol last night amid fears there could be further violence and five males aged between 16 and 25 were last night still being questioned in connection with suspected murder.
A witness said he had seen eight to 10 Asian-looking youths heading for Brett Gardens with sticks and cricket bats. He said: "The next thing I saw was two lads being brayed. They were kicking them and hitting them with pieces of wood while they were on the floor." A post mortem examination established Tyrone was stabbed more than once.
Friends and relatives yesterday laid flowers at the scene. They said there was on-going friction between gangs associated with Cockburn High School, where Tyrone was a pupil until Easter.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tyrone was a close friend of mine. It was such a shock that something like this Could ever happen to Ti! He was a real good laugh and such a kind person. Obviously he wasnt a total innocent person through his life, but hey 16 year olds in our day never are! Like in the poem some of the people that were friends said about him at the funeral - We thought it was a dream and never wanted it to come true, but when the harsh reality hits you, all you can do is hold your head up and remember him for the person he was and all the good things he had done. Also in the poem, Hold your head hi ty, These are not our last goodbyes, You have done some of the things most guys will never do. Thoseguys will get what they deserve! All this will not really make sense to people who didn't know him, But it means a lot to those who did. Tyrone should have lived his life through and he would have really got somewere with it!!!!

I will miss him forever

2 years on and i still think of him every day!!

Goodnight Godbless our friendly giant

Love from not only me but everybody who knoew you

Anonymous said...

I didn't know Tyrone, but i read the story in the paper when it came out, and was absoloutly horrified. I felt a massive surge of hate towards those those "boys" (they definatley weren't men!!!) I don't realy know why it bothred me so much, but i found myself thinking about Tyrone alot, and how his poor family must be feeling. Even though i didn't even know any of them, i wanted those sh*ts to pay for their vile behaviour.
Anyway about a year on i revieved a letter from the law courts, i had been selected foe Jury Service! Imagine my suprise when i found out that i would be working on the trail of 4 asian youths accused of murdering a young boy. to start with, it didn't register and i had no idea what i was about to see in that court room. But when i walked in and the Judge told us what our case was, i couldn't believe it. The trial took 5 weeks and i found it very upsetting. We had to go through every detail, which was hard. But all the time i just kept thinking how much harder it must have been for Tyrone's family. By now, i probably shouldn't say this, but, i think half of us on the jury had already made up our minds to find the bas**rds guilty, lock em up and throw away the key. In my mind, i deffinately don't think their sentances were long enough. The judge gave them life, what sort of f***ing life is 11 years?? please??!!
Although i can't say i enjoyed my Jury service, I was pleased that i could play a part in finding those boys guilty. I don't condone fighting, but i do hope that someone on the inside finds them as repulsive as the rest of us do, and show them what they realy deserve!!!

So to Tyrone's family and his friends, his memory will live on forever (i'm sure you don't need me to tell you!!), and he is always safe now. Good luck to Lorraine with the petition, i hope it brings some good to you, god knows you deserve some.

Anon - age 22

Anonymous said...

Tyrone was a a friendly boy and was well known by everyone he didnt derserve what has happend to him. everyone wwll miss him truely we all wiil. and the people that did it will get their revenge soon. missing you lots

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