Ok. I’m going to defy ‘the man’ and speculate. For an ordinary, common or garden assault leading to death the police put a tape around the crime scene and send in a forensics team. Or so I believe. But when the incident has the scent of religion or perhaps terrorism (or maybe religious terrorism) they close a lot of roads and the local MP tells us not to speculate. So where does that leave us?
The police on call out would have found one stabbed man dying in the street and acertained fairly quickly from witnesses that there had been an "altercation" between two males. One would have thought that the initial police statement to local news outlets or social media would have said something like ' a man was found stabbed on Oxford Road and taken to hospital and enquiries are continuing'. That this is not what happened is truly bizarre and while one must not speculate as to why - we mere citizens must accept without question I do understand - I cannot help drawing certain contrasts.
I live in London, one time murder capital for knife crime, that reached well over a hundred a year for consecutive years, often betwen feral youths and school kids (much the same thing here). Finding an equivalent incident is not difficult and I give you one on Oxford Street a couple of years ago near Oxford Circus. An altercation between two males ended with a fatal stabbing. It made the news because traffic along Oxford Street was disrupted for a couple of hours, with the pavement closed on the south side for a few yards either side of the stabbing, and with the street opening for traffic fairly quickly (by Leicester standards).
Consider also terror incidents in Belfast. Older readers may remember the era of car bombs. These were genuinly serious incidents, but only very serious if the bomb actually went off. The street containing a suspected car bomb would be sealed at either end. What did not happen was sealing off half a dozen streets nor did the authorities issue cryptic communications.
These contrasts need explaining and despite Ms Kendall's entreaty against speculation I can't help wonder. Is it that social media and the ubiquity of smart phones has altered the sense of self, producing an impulse to theatre where continence once defined us? 'I'm in the media therefore I exist' seems to have spread to public bodies with a need to maintain attention from us. Did the police feel more important, more relevant, for being portrayed as dealing with something 'very serious'? For the university and Ms Kendall their statements may be no more than getting in on the act (in the theatre), but I am puzzled as to why the police's decision to close off so many streets and issue such cryptic statements is not questioned by the media. It is as if goverment even down to local agencies wish to create and live in a surreality and impose it on us.
If that is what is happening then I regard each example of this corruption of the social and public as a very serious incident.
I’ve tended to ignore all alleged serious incidents for about a week until the facts have been gleaned. By then we’ve got a pretty good picture of what happened and in the meantime life goes on rather than being gripped and manipulated to feel scared. It seems as though we are being played whenever a story breaks and I was already sceptical before the covid scam, but now I start off any piece of serious news with cui bono.
Ok. I’m going to defy ‘the man’ and speculate. For an ordinary, common or garden assault leading to death the police put a tape around the crime scene and send in a forensics team. Or so I believe. But when the incident has the scent of religion or perhaps terrorism (or maybe religious terrorism) they close a lot of roads and the local MP tells us not to speculate. So where does that leave us?
There must have been a Muslim involved. That now is the prime reason for secrecy about any serious crime.
Mustn't upset the Muslims eh?
And also mustn't allow the natives to know the danger they are in.
The police on call out would have found one stabbed man dying in the street and acertained fairly quickly from witnesses that there had been an "altercation" between two males. One would have thought that the initial police statement to local news outlets or social media would have said something like ' a man was found stabbed on Oxford Road and taken to hospital and enquiries are continuing'. That this is not what happened is truly bizarre and while one must not speculate as to why - we mere citizens must accept without question I do understand - I cannot help drawing certain contrasts.
I live in London, one time murder capital for knife crime, that reached well over a hundred a year for consecutive years, often betwen feral youths and school kids (much the same thing here). Finding an equivalent incident is not difficult and I give you one on Oxford Street a couple of years ago near Oxford Circus. An altercation between two males ended with a fatal stabbing. It made the news because traffic along Oxford Street was disrupted for a couple of hours, with the pavement closed on the south side for a few yards either side of the stabbing, and with the street opening for traffic fairly quickly (by Leicester standards).
Consider also terror incidents in Belfast. Older readers may remember the era of car bombs. These were genuinly serious incidents, but only very serious if the bomb actually went off. The street containing a suspected car bomb would be sealed at either end. What did not happen was sealing off half a dozen streets nor did the authorities issue cryptic communications.
These contrasts need explaining and despite Ms Kendall's entreaty against speculation I can't help wonder. Is it that social media and the ubiquity of smart phones has altered the sense of self, producing an impulse to theatre where continence once defined us? 'I'm in the media therefore I exist' seems to have spread to public bodies with a need to maintain attention from us. Did the police feel more important, more relevant, for being portrayed as dealing with something 'very serious'? For the university and Ms Kendall their statements may be no more than getting in on the act (in the theatre), but I am puzzled as to why the police's decision to close off so many streets and issue such cryptic statements is not questioned by the media. It is as if goverment even down to local agencies wish to create and live in a surreality and impose it on us.
If that is what is happening then I regard each example of this corruption of the social and public as a very serious incident.
I’ve tended to ignore all alleged serious incidents for about a week until the facts have been gleaned. By then we’ve got a pretty good picture of what happened and in the meantime life goes on rather than being gripped and manipulated to feel scared. It seems as though we are being played whenever a story breaks and I was already sceptical before the covid scam, but now I start off any piece of serious news with cui bono.
Yes, same here - by which time the story is basically buried and only a tiny sliver of the population cares. Which I think is the point.
Tyrants of compassion and masters of incompetence, our overlords.
Maybe something about Allan who snack bar?
Answers on a postcard