Boom Bang A Bang

It's all the rage ...

A bodyguard was being quizzed by detectives after explosives were found in his house.
An army bomb squad searched Justin Cartwright's family home after police found suspicious items that could be used to make explosive devices.

According to friends, the accused intended to supply incendiary devices to bodyguard firms to use in training scenarios. Once again our rulers stifle the honest endeavour of the British working man. No wonder so many members of the British explosives community find it easier to relocate to Waziristan.

As for the British exploding community ...

A 30-year-old man has appeared before magistrates, charged with making explosives at home. The court heard police found 12 grams of the homemade explosive hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD) in Donatien Chamchawala's kitchen cupboard in Blackwood, Caerphilly. Mark Topping, prosecuting, told the court at Newport it was enough to cause "substantial damage" had it exploded.

Mr Chamchawala was remanded in custody to appear in court again on 20 April.

Some HMTD crystals were also found at the two-bedroom semi-detached house, as was an attempt to make a form of plastic explosive, the hearing was told. Mr Chamchawala was arrested and the house raided by Gwent Police on 4 April, after neighbours heard loud bangs and saw smoke, Mr Topping said.

Donatien Chamchawala ? Where's that name from ? Donatien was the first name of the Marquis de Sade, while the Chamchawala family feature in Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses.

While we're blowing things up, I hadn't realised that the 7/7 bombers apparently used the same H2O2/chapatti flour mix as the 21/7 asylum seekers. I'd never heard of the NEFA Foundation, an American band of anti-jihadis, but their report on the 21/7 flop is fascinating stuff. In my chemistry days I used to think 100 vol hydrogen peroxide was pretty pokey stuff, an opinion based on what happens when you drop a grain of pot permang into some. Fume cupboard and eye protection are advised, rather than this foolish chap's kitchen surface.

The 7/7 bombers were apparently buying 60 vol (i.e. 1 ml of peroxide liberates 60 ml of oxygen gas) or 18% solution, and boiling it down to 70% - which if my maths is right equates to around 230 volume. Quite a lot of oxygen. You wouldn't have thought chapatti flour made a terribly good fuel, but apparently it does.

Not a bad site, NEFA. This portrait of Bradford wannabe jihadi Aabid Khan, given 12 years in 2008, is far more detailed than anything Uk-sourced.



Lordy. Eight o'clock Mass tomorrow and then off to see the in-laws. Back Monday.

Greece Isn't The Way We Are Feeling

I didn't know what to make of the riots in Greece. For the last 30-odd years, riots by "youths" in Western European cities have meant riots by immigrant "youths" - as in France last year and the year before. I can't remember large scale riots by natives since - when ? Paris 1968 ?

Yet in the French riots it was easy to translate and see who the rioters were. I didn't get the impression that it was an immigrant underclass rioting in Greece. Everyone seems cheesed off over there. Yet, as I blogged in October, there is a perceived problem with immigration and crime in Greece. What's going on now ?

Time to do some Googling.

A quick look at Greek demographics. Pretty much par for the European course - ageing population, not enough children. Not tremendously high numbers of immigrants compared to say the UK - but they've probably arrived over a shorter period of time. I must say, if you were running one of the most corrupt countries in the EU, do you think another half-million Albanians would improve things ?

Majority Rights (apologies in advance for the commenters) reckon it started with trouble involving asylum seekers, and a leftist demo in support thereof, during which the youth got shot.

Seems eminently possible as a trigger, and a blackout on the asylum angle likewise - but why are the riots going on and on, with seeming widespread anti-Government feeling ? Greece has had an anti-Western far left for 30 years or more - where's all the support coming from now ?

EU Referendum

"What marks this out is the comment from Stathis Anestis, spokesman for a federation of private sector unions. He says: "Participation in the strike is total, the country has come to a standstill." Banks, schools and public transport are shut and hundreds of flights in and out of the country have been cancelled as air traffic controllers also went on strike.

The level of unrest here, and the huge support for direct action, is clearly more than a rump of disaffected youths running amok. The whole country is crying out, and there is clearly something seriously and fundamentally wrong."

An English Teacher in Thessalonika describes what appear to be Left-Right battles :

In Greece's second city anarchists occupying caused extensive damage to the Law and Theology department in the university campus.

In Patra and Larissa angry citizens attacked protesters in the cities universities. In addition riot police allowed groups of youths to throw rocks back at anarchist protesters in the university of Thessaloniki (see video here).

Greek prime minister, Kosas Karamanlis last night went on TV to make a call for national unity after pleas by the government for claim over the death of 15 year old Alexandros Gigoropoulos went unheeded.

But it's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph who reckons he's nailed it. The Greeks apparently fiddled the stats to gain Euro entry :

Greece's euro membership has now led to a warped economy. The current account deficit is 15pc of GDP, the eurozone's highest by far. Indeed, the deficit ($53bn) is the sixth biggest in the world in absolute terms -- quite a feat for a country of 11m people.

Year after year of high inflation has eroded the competitive base of the economy. This is an insidious and slow effect, and very hard to reverse. Tourists are slipping away to Turkey, or Croatia. It will take a long time to lure them back.

The underlying rot was disguised by the global credit bubble, and by the Greek property boom. It is now being laid bare.

Plenty of underlying rot in the UK, too. I guess it takes a lot to get the stolid English going, unlike the excitable sons of the Med.

While the violence was triggered by the death of a 15-year old boy, the underlying motives of the protest obviously run deeper. The hard left can mobilize demos because the youth unemployment is endemic and because the goverment is being forced by economic constraints to adopt a hair-shirt policy at a very bad moment. At some stage a major political party - perhaps PASOK - will start to reflect whether it can carry out its spending and economic revival plans under the constraints of a chronically over-valued currency (for Greek needs). Then there will be a problem.

I am a little surpised that the riot phase of this long politico-economic drama known as EMU has kicked off so soon, and that it has done so first in Greece where the post-bubble hangover has barely begun.

The crisis is much further advanced in Spain, which is a year or two ahead of Greece in the crisis cycle.

I've been wondering about Spain, too. Catastrophic demographics much worse than the UKs, an idiot left government that makes Tony Blair look like Franco (did you know that some human rights legislation was extended to "our evolutionary comrades", apes and gorillas, this summer ?), mass immigration and a property collapse worse than the UKs, the highest unemployment in the EU - it doesn't look good at all.

My old job as Europe correspondent based in Brussels led me to spend a lot of time in cities that struck me as powder kegs - and indeed became powder kegs in the case of Rotterdam following the murder of Pim Fortyn, and Antwerp following the Muslim street riots (both of which I covered as a journalist). Lille, Strasbourg, Marseilles, Amsterdam, Brussels, all seemed inherently unstable, and I do not get the impression that the big cities of Spain and Italy are taking kindly to new immigrants.

The picture is going to get very ugly as Europe slides deeper into recession next year. The IMF expects Spain's unemployment to reach 15pc. Immigrants are already being paid to leave the country. There will be riots in Spain too (there have been street skirmishes in Barcelona).

Hedge funds, bond vigilantes, and FX traders will be watching closely. In the end, a currency union is no stronger than the political will of the constituent states.

No doubt events will be ugly in Britain as well.

Mr Evans Pritchard is a hell-in-a-handcart merchant who even I think may be a tad too pessimistic (he also thinks that the recent Chinese devaluation may trigger 1930s style protectionist wars - with all their concomitant unpleasantness) - and I'm not at all sure what the link is between immigration to Greece and the wrong valuation of the drachma at Euro entry, or immigration to Spain and the Spanish housing boom. But our government seem to share his fears, if the recent police harassment of political opponents and attempts to extend powers of detention without trial are any guide.




UPDATE - I'm still not sure that the above totally explains things. If anyone has any decent links, please drop them in the comments - remembering that blogger comments can't deal with links longer than 40 or 50 characters. Chop them up or use tinyurl to shorten them.

Sarah, Sarah

It's all so clear, I could never forget,
Sarah, Sarah,
Lovin' you is the one thing I'll never regret.


(Photo by Judy Patrick)

No matter what the election result, you can have Ms Palin on your wall until 2010.

The 13-month calendar–the first of its kind–includes dozens of original portraits and candid shots of the Alaska governor on the job and with her family.

Hmm. I'm not sure how that sits with family values, but it should do wonders for sales.

Alum Rock Update

Two arrests, no names.

Two views of the area - from the native Brummies and the young people who live there (aka "ppl dat liv ther")

News via Google (again)

Getting hits for "gang attack in monk road, alum rock, birmingham".

And lo and behold ...

Teenager seriously hurt in attack.

A teenager has been seriously injured in an attack in the West Midlands which involved a number of people. Police were called to Alum Rock Road in Birmingham on Saturday at 1710 BST, where they found the 16-year-old. He is thought to have had head injuries. He is in hospital where his condition is described as stable. Police said a number of people were thought to be involved but details were unclear.

The Alum Rock area has featured in police anti-terror raids - to the point where the Birmingham Mail feels the need to report that "People living in Alum Rock today urged others not to feel wary of visiting the Birmingham suburb." It's also where Christian evangelists were threatened with arrest by a PCSO for preaching the Gospel.

Doubtless all will be made clear in time.

Keith Reid Update

Mr Reid, if you remember, "aged 42 and from Walsall, was in the town centre when he was confronted by a number of people. He was pursued by the group and suffered multiple stab wounds."

Someone's been charged :

A man has today appeared at court accused of attempted murder in Walsall. Abdul Malique, aged 41, from Cobden Street, Coventry, has been charged in connection with the stabbing of Caldmore man Keith Reid. Mr Reid, 42, remains in a serious but stable condition in Walsall Manor Hospital after suffering multiple stab wounds. It follows an attack near the junction of Wednesbury Road and Corporation Street just before midnight on Sunday. Malique appeared before Walsall Magistrates Court this morning. No plea was entered and the case was committed to Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Two other men, 21 and 24, have been bailed pending further inquiries. A 35-year-old has been released without charge.

Hmm. If this was a random attack then it's got 'racist attempted murder' written all over it. On the other hand, does a 41-year old travel from Coventry to stab a random gora in Walsall ? Aren't there any left in Coventry ? And isn't 41 a bit old for that sort of thing ?

Doubtless all will be made plain in time - as long as one monitors the local papers on a regular basis.

Hmm ...

Accidents do happen. But if you read this about an opposition leader in a third world country, what would you think ?

Austria's Haider dies in accident


Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider has been killed in a road accident, police say.

Mr Haider suffered severe head and chest injuries after his car came off the road in Carinthia, his political base.

Police investigating the crash said he had been driving alone.

As I recall, there are two right-wing parties in Austria. I forget the name of the chap who runs the other one, but in his shoes I'd be tempted to invest in a driver and some security.

Here We Go Again ...

Remember "The Jewel of Medina", the touching, Sylvie Krin-like romantic novel about the Prophet's true love (or one of them, anyway), publication of which was pulled by Random House after dhimmi University of Texas professor Denise Spellberg saw a preview and decided to "warn Muslims", telling Random House that its employees would have to watch their backs if publication went ahead ?

Telegraph :

Four people have been arrested in London over an alleged terror attack which may be linked to the publishing of a controversial book. The arrests are thought to be linked to a fire at a property in Islington, north London, which is used as the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja.

His company, Gibson Square, recently agreed to publish a controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride, entitled The Jewel of Medina. The blaze, which led to people being evacuated from the house, may have been started by a petrol bomb pushed through the letter box.

Initially, three men, aged 22, 30 and 40, were detained at around 2.25 am this morning in the Islington area of north London after a fire at a property in Lonsdale Square. Two were stopped by armed officers in Lonsdale Square, and the third was seized following an armed vehicle stop near Angel underground station. Police are searching four addresses around north-east London - two in Walthamstow, one in Ilford and one in Forest Gate.

The men, who were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, are being questioned at a central London police station. Later a fourth person, a woman, was arrested at a property in Ilford for allegedly obstructing the police, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

Walthamstow, Ilford, Forest Gate.

Unite And Fight Part 194

The other day I posted about the mysterious gang fight between two gangs of no appearance, in which an unknown man was killed, as well about the hideous attack on asylum seekers by a gang of far right ... asylum seekers.

The victim of the gang fight was Rashid Elahi, of Bradford. A number of people have been arrested in West London.

And a lot more on the asylum camp battle, which appears to be have been sparked by a noisy two-year-old :

Newspaper Aftenposten reported over the weekend that the violence apparently stemmed from a fight on Wednesday between Kurdish and Chechen women living at the center. Two Chechen women reportedly were annoyed that a fellow Kurdish asylum seeker allowed her two-year-old child to run around the center with shoes that made noise.

The Chechen women complained that their own children were being kept awake, and a fight broke out between the Chechens and the Kurds. Another refugee from central Africa attempted to break them up, but then one of the Chechen women called her brothers who lived in Oslo. They headed for the center.

Meawhile, some Kurdish men confronted and beat one of the Chechen women. That inflamed the other Chechens, and on Thursday night several arrived at the center, broke in and attacked any Kurdish refugees they could find, both men, women and children. It took around an hour before police arrived, "much too long," according to one resident from Liberia.

Tensions have long been high at the center, which houses many residents due to be deported because their asylum applications have been rejected. Frustrations can run high, and the center at Våler is relatively large, housing up to 250 persons from all over the world.

Many have come arrived directly from wars in their homelands, they have different religious backgrounds, living conditions are crowded and stress levels high.

The combination of many people with little to do, few staff members, crowded conditions and fresh memories of violence back home can lead to more violence at the asylum center, warns Berit Berg, a researcher affiliated with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitetet, NTNU).

Other refugees from Chechnya who earlier won asylum in Norway worry that the violence last week can spark new prejudice and hurt their reputation. "There's no reason why Chechens and Kurds should be fighting," said Mouslim Kourakaev of a Chechen youth group in Oslo.

Other Chechens said they don't condone the violence, but understand it. "In our culture it's completely unacceptable for anyone to touch a woman they don't know," said Ibja-Shapi Shaihi, who joined around 50 other Chechens in an Oslo park on Sunday. He blamed the Kurds for setting off the brawl.

A Few Moorhen Chicks From The Curate's Pond

Gloom unrelieved for Labour :

What is holding cabinet assassins back, according to one ex-minister, is the fear that Brown will refuse to go and the rebels will not back them up when it comes to it. 'It's like when you tell a wife who separates from her husband, "I always thought he was a bastard". And then she takes him back and never speaks to you again.'

Mind you, I'm not sure I can trust anything Observer editor Gaby Hinsliff writes :

Last month's itinerary for the Foreign Secretary was interesting, to say the least: Palestine, Tokyo, Luxembourg, Brussels - and Slough. The commuter town hosts the only council Labour now controls outright in the whole of the south, a mecca for those wanting to know how Labour can recapture Middle England.

Slough ? Middle England ? Middle England in thirty years time, maybe. Has she actually been there ?

Leaving aside London, Slough can claim to be the most diverse place in England. If you were to pick any two people at random from its population of 120,000, there would be a 62 per cent chance that they would be from different ethnic backgrounds.

(En passant, the website of the now defunct Commission For Racial Equality is archived here. And here's Trevor Phillips on how diversity is good for business. So good it needs laws to enforce it !)

Private Godfrey - trench fighter. Arnold Ridley's First World War.

"His battalion had been sent to attack the Gird trench near Gueudecourt. They were dispatched without any proper reconnaissance being carried out. A lot of the battalion was wiped out by machine gunfire, but Ridley and the other survivors simply had to make their way through the trench armed with bayonets and lobbing bombs. He was hit on the head with a rifle butt and fell to the ground. The German soldier than lunged a bayonet at him, but he managed to save his own life by directing it into his groin rather than his stomach. He was unconscious for a while but did recover. Then a soldier lunged a bayonet up his hand and through his wrist. He passed out again. We can only assume that the German soldier was killed at around the same time because Ridley obviously survived."

It took 15 operations to save his hand and he was left without movement in three fingers. For two years Ridley did not realise that the rifle butt had cracked his skull. That injury would cause him to suffer blackouts for the rest of his life. Although he established a successful career as a director, actor and writer, he lived in fear of collapsing on stage.

Hideous attack on asylum seekers :

A group of more than 40 people armed with iron bars and knives has attacked a holding centre for asylum seekers in Norway, injuring more than 20 people.

Far-right thugs ?

The attack, at a centre in Valer, 60km (40 miles) south of Oslo, was sparked by a disagreement between two groups of asylum seekers, reports said. No-one was seriously hurt but 10 people reportedly needed hospital treatment. The Nordbybraten centre houses 200 refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Somalia and Eritrea.

Remember the news that Community Cohesion Partnerships are liasing with local newspapers to be sure that no news which might 'raise tensions' is reported (unless it's a racist murder by a white person, in which case give it 24/7 coverage) ?

I thought there was something strange about this story - a gang fight and murder which made BBC radio news but has no background and no named victim. Just this one snippet leaked through from the Telegraph and Argus. Someone will get their wrist slapped.

A murder investigation was under way today after one man died and another was critically injured in a street gang knife fight. Police who were called to the incident in Gaythorne Road, West Bowling, yesterday found three men with stab wounds – three other people, including a woman, have now been arrested on suspicion of murder. The injured, a 17-year-old, 22-year-old and 24-year-old, all from Bradford were taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary. Surgeons battled to save the 22-year-old but he died shortly before 3am today. The 24-year-old, who also had surgery, remains in a critical condition, said detectives. The 17-year-old was released after treatment for a laceration. Two men, aged 42 and 25, and a woman aged 34 are being held for questioning at different police stations across the county. The murder investigation is being led by Detective Superintendent Tim Forber, of West Yorkshire Police homicide and major enquiry team. Initial reports from bystanders suggest there had been fighting for about 20 minutes between rival black and Asian gangs. One of the men had been stabbed in front of a three-storey terraced house in Parsonage Road which runs alongside Gaythorne Lane, said a witness.

I must admit I thought the Asian gangs had long taken over whate'er illicit stuff may go on in that fair city.


A third of Muslim students think violence in the name of religion is justifiable ? Be fair. Once upon a time pretty much 100% of Christians would have agreed with that.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, condemned the study. “This disgusting report is a reflection of the biases and prejudices of a right-wing think tank – not the views of Muslim students across Britain,” he said. “Only 632 Muslim students were asked vague and misleading questions, and their answers were wilfully misinterpreted.”

Only 632 ? I'm presuming Wes Streeting isn't studying statistics - or is he ?

Labour appointed an anti-prison activist to be Inspector of Prisons and wonder why she gives the system a shoeing in every report. The new Director of Public Prosecutions is a "human rights" lawyer who's spent the last few years overturning Home Office strategies.

Mr Starmer has acted as a prosecutor and CPS adviser in the past but is best known for his work challenging government decisions in the fields of human rights and criminal law. He acted for two terror suspects in the landmark House of Lords case last year that led to the control order system for terror suspects being declared unlawful under human rights law.

Don't talk to me about Bagel Street

Nothing to see here ...

I can't find this on the BBC. I guess it's just a minor incident.

A father-of-three is fighting for life after he had his head stamped on outside a Colne church. Paving contractor Edward Geddes, 29, was left covered in blood after being attacked by a gang of four outside St Bartholomew's Church in the early hours of Sunday.

Eyewitnesses say his head was repeatedly stamped upon by the gang, who are believed to have been thrown out of a party just minutes earlier.

Earthquake Blogging

Over at Unenlightened Commentary, Ross was blogging the quake at just gone one.

More Isolated Incidents

Reading murder of Margaret Dolan : The results of a post-mortem examination, carried out on Saturday, revealed she had been asphyxiated, said Thames Valley Police spokeswoman Rebecca Webber. Detective Inspector Dave Hubbard, leading the investigation, said: “I would like to reassure the community of Reading that this is an isolated incident, and that we are not at this stage looking for anyone else in connection with the inquiry.”

Newcastle murder of John Hudson : The death was an "isolated incident", according to Northumbria Police.

Funny - that's what they said about the stabbing on Diana Street a fortnight ago.

The theft of £5,000 from an elderly lady in Windermere : A police spokeswoman said: “This is an isolated incident, unusual for the area. However it has left an elderly woman very distressed.”

Hertfordshire triple murder : "It's an isolated incident and one I hope we never see repeated."

Your Isolated Incidents Tonight

Newcastle attempted abduction : Det Sgt Steve Flook said: “This is an isolated incident and we are appealing for help from the public to identify the occupants of the van. The two girls were very sensible and did the right thing in running off and calling for help.”

Blackbird Leys Estate (see also here), Oxford - serious stabbing : South East Oxford Inspector Phil Standish said British Crime Survey statistics showed crime had dropped by 43 per cent on the estate in the last 12 months. He said: "This is a serious incident, but people do feel safe walking around Blackbird Leys and they do accept that this is an isolated incident."

Potters Bar fatal stabbing of John Redhead : Detective chief superintendent Bob Saunders said: "This is believed to be an isolated incident".

Exeter attempted abduction : DC Read said: "As far as we are aware, this is an isolated incident, but as a precaution, children should let parents know where they are going and when they will be home, and they should stay in groups."

"An Isolated Incident"

Lancashire, kicking a girl to death : "It's important to remember that this is an isolated incident".

Letchworth : Police said the shooting was an isolated incident.

Carlisle murder : "Cumbria police would like to reassure people that this is an isolated incident and a full investigation is underway".

Swindon : The police are treating the attempted abduction of a young girl in the Oakhurst area as an isolated incident.

Newcastle stabbing : Det Insp Jim Hetherington offered reassurance to people living in the area. He said: “I would like to reassure people that this appears to be an isolated incident.

Cardiff : Police are investigating an "horrific" sexual assault on a woman walking her dog near school fields. The 25-year-old woman was attacked on Tuesday, 31 July, near St Bernadette Primary School in Pentwyn, Cardiff. South Wales Police said it was "an isolated incident" and they were appealing for witnesses.

Maidenhead murder : Windsor and Maidenhead local police commander Superintendent Mike Ismay reassured residents of the town that it was an isolated incident.

Wycombe shooting : Ch Insp Stuart Craik, of Thames Valley Police, said: "This is an isolated incident which is uncommon to the Wycombe area.

Winchester double murder : "I would like to reassure members of the community that this is an isolated incident".

Or take a look at the 39 pages of isolated incidents at BBC News.

More Trouble At Mill

Halifax ... one of those little incidents that even makes the BBC.

BRICKS, bottles and missiles were hurled at police in a night of violence in Halifax that left one man fighting for his life.
Dozens of people were involved in the three-hour confrontation in Hopwood Lane that began at 9.30pm.
It is believed the violence was sparked after a crowd armed with knives and bats attacked four men.
Police said they were pelted with bottles and bricks as they tried to control the situation and rescue the injured men.
A 27-year-old man was today critically ill in Leeds Infirmary intensive care unit. A 39-year-old is also being treated in Leeds but his injuries are not thought to be life threatening.
A 44-year-old is in Calderdale Royal Hospital and a fourth was treated and released. Several other people were injured.
Chief Inspector Steve Cotter, of Calderdale police, said: "High-visibility patrols were deployed in the area last night to provide reassurance to residents and neighbourhood policing team officers are in the area again today to continue that work.
"We are also meeting residents and community leaders again today to reassure them this was an isolated incident.
"Incidents such as this are, thankfully, very, very rare in Calderdale."
Community leaders today called for calm.
Councillor Mohammed Najib (Lab, Park) said: "What happened was so, so bad. I feel sorry for the people that suffered. I would ask for calm and peace in the community."
Hopwood Lane remained closed today as forensic teams examined the scene.
A 25-year-old witness said: "A group of young men were ambushed by another group, believed to be all the same family.
"They were attacked in the street with knives, baseball bats and what looked like a car wrench, leaving two unconscious.
"The public rushed those who were badly injured to hospital before the emergency services arrived.
"They were like animals and they annihilated them. There was blood everywhere. We thought they were going to kill one guy who was unconscious.
"They carried on hitting him with a baseball bat while he was lying there."
Ali Hussain, 23, of King Cross, was among the group of shocked bystanders at the scene today.
He said: "It's not safe to be around this area now.
"What is going to happen to families living here, especially those with kids? We just want to keep out of it."
Arfan Mohammed, 22, of Warley Road, said people were worried because there were guns in the community. Four local men, aged 23, 24, 36, and 38, have been arrested in connection with the assaults and are currently in custody.
Two other men were arrested for public order offences and have been dealt with and released.
Council leaders called a crisis meeting today.
A spokesman said: "The council is working with the community, police and other partners to see how we can help relieve any issues in the area."
Anyone who witnessed the incident or who has any information is asked to contact police on 01422 337085.

The BBC reckons it's a family feud. Any relation to this ? The guy who got 15 years two weeks ago comes from the same area.

A MAN has been jailed for a total of 15 years for trying to pervert the course of justice with acts that included hiring a gunman, who was himself later murdered, to scare off witnesses.
It can be revealed for the first time following the lifting of reporting restrictions at Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Richard Clarke, who was shot dead in Leeds in 2004, had two weeks earlier fired a handgun at a car containing three men in Halifax after being recruited by Chaudry Fiaz Hussain.
One of the men in the car was the brother of a witness due to give evidence at a trial in which Hussain was accused of an earlier shooting of amateur rugby player Liam Walsh, in Halifax.
While on remand in Armley Prison awaiting his trial Hussain had got to know Clarke and recruited him to send a message to some of the potential witnesses warning them not to give evidence.
Clarke was shot dead while sleeping at his home in Moorland Avenue, Hyde Park, Leeds, in July 2004.
He had a reputation as a hard man with a knowledge of firearms, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Norman Jones QC, was told at an earlier hearing at Leeds Crown Court. After his release from jail Clarke was the passenger in a stolen Subaru Impreza car which pulled up alongside a VW Bora outside the Beehive and Cross Keys Public House in King Cross Street, Halifax, and fired one shot at the three occupants.
The bullet made a hole near the driver's door and windscreen but it did not stop witnesses giving evidence at Hussain's trial the following month.
He was cleared of attempting to murder Mr Walsh but found guilty of assaulting Mr Walsh's stepfather and a friend earlier that day when he sprayed a CS-type substance at them. He was jailed for two years.
After that trial police began investigating allegations that Hussain had persuaded relatives and others to give false alibi evidence that he was at home when Mr Walsh was shot.
Those inquiries led to further charges, but reporting restrictions were then imposed on the whole proceedings.
Hussain, 28, of Thrum Hall Drive, Pellon, Halifax, was jailed for eight years by Judge Jones in February for conspiring to pervert the course of justice relating to the Beehive shooting.
Yesterday he was jailed for a further seven years consecutively by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC on similar charges involving the false alibi evidence. He had been convicted on that matter by a jury in May.
His brother Chaudry Sajad Hussain, 30, is already serving 15 years in jail after he was extradited from Holland and pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Mr Walsh and his stepfather.
He admitted last year he was the gunman who shot Mr Walsh and his stepfather in a revenge attack.
Yesterday other members of their family were also jailed for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice over the false alibi evidence. Their sister Shameen Hussain, 22 of Thrum Hall Drive, and sister-in-law Rukhsana Hussain, 32 of Harrow Street, Halifax each received three years in prison.
Two businessmen, Mahmood Khan, 45 of Savil Park, Halifax, and Matloob Hussain, 32, of Queens Road, King Cross, Halifax, also convicted of the alibi conspiracy, were each jailed for four years.
All had said Chaudry Fiaz Hussain was at home when Mr Walsh was shot.
Judge Durham Hall said he had no doubt Hussain shamelessly orchestrated the "tissue of lies" told by members of his family and his acquaintances over his false alibi.
Robbie Gottshalk, 40, of Dewsbury Road, Beeston, Leeds, who was driving the Impreza when Clarke opened fire, was jailed for six-and-a-half years by Judge Jones after admitting conspiracy
to pervert the course of justice.
Nayyer Hafiz, 28, from Halifax, was sentenced to eight years and Arif Alam, 21, of Cross Kelso Road, Leeds, to four years for their part in that plot.
Gottshalk also received further consecutive sentences for wounding a former girlfriend and drug offences.
Det Supt Steve Fear said: "These are people who went to extreme measures to avoid justice but, as a result of our investigation, their tissue of lies was unravelled.
"This was a criminal family intent on carrying on their business regardless and they used devious and violent methods to do that.
"They appeared to have no fear of the criminal justice system and were convinced they could get away with telling lies to avoid the consequences of their actions.
"They first tried to intimidate witnesses but when those people stood their ground and refused to back down they turned to violence involving firearms and ultimately false evidence."
Police have so far failed to trace Richard Clarke's killer.
olwen.dudgeon@ypn.co.uk

Racist Teachers Part 798

We're here again.

Jamie Whyte in the Times on the 'London Schools And The Black Child' conference, and the pre-conference report, which inspired headlines like "Black boys betrayed by racist school system". Can you guess the newspaper ?

These results suggest that teachers do not have lower expectations of black students than white, that they do not show lower levels of care. When this was the only serious data available, how could anyone draw the opposite conclusion? It requires a scandalous degree of either stupidity or mendacity.

The victims of this fraud are not only the teachers falsely accused of racism, or the ratepayers of London, whose money has been wasted on this bogus research. It is anyone who genuinely wants to know why black boys are failing at school.

There was at least one dissenting voice at the conference.

BBC sports presenter and former Tottenham Hotspur striker Garth Crooks said there was a direct link between films and rap music glorifying violence and the drift of black boys away from education and into crime and violence.

'There is an epidemic out there, and it is killing some of our children. Do you think there could be a correlation between this and the growing dissipation of our cultural values?' he said.

Crooks joins Tony Sewell and Guardian journalist Joseph Harker in the awkward squad who think there may be factors other than the obvious racism of the average London teacher at work.

Sewell - The gospel I preach is a simple one. It asks black young men to look beyond the street and beyond immediate gratification. It asks some hard questions about their own responsibilities: homework, bedtime, respect for peers and adults, good manners, self-control and how to succeed in the system. Nobody is asking our boys these questions. We just get more politicians telling them they're victims of racism.

Harker - At the top of the list must surely be the breakdown of the black family: 50% of Caribbean mothers under 35 have never been married - five times the white figure - and the number is increasing.

The conference recommended that teachers should be paid differently according to their skin colour, and that black children should not be excluded for a first offence unless the offence involved a knife or a gun.

The latter recommendation soon flushed out the [irony]closet racists[/irony].

Behaviour management and discipline are a huge issue and the idea that a pupil should only be permanantly excluded on the first offence if he or she is carrying a gun or a knife is frankly terrifying. Words fail me at what teachers are expected to put up with in the name of inclusion.

God, that is just so blatant !


UPDATE - the Bunny isn't too impressed either. And let's hope this isolated incident didn't involve a knife or a gun. (No, Judge Hathorne, I wasn't implying anything about the ethnicity of the boy - just a comment on the exclusion rule ... what's that bonfire and stake for ?)