by
Les May
Last
Wednesday 23 October my local paper, the Rochdale Observer,
carried a report of an incident in which a tree surgeon had his hand
chopped off with an axe in an attack carried out by an armed gang of
up to 20 men some of whom were carrying knives, machetes,
knuckledusters and a claw hammer.
Further
details of the attack, the attackers and the sentences received can
be found at:
'Black & White Bastards'?
Before the attack, which took place in the Newbold area of Rochdale, the four tree surgeons had been called ‘white bastards’ who were ‘in his country’ by one of the attackers. (This is taken from The Observer article and I assume that the ‘country’ referred to is the Newbold area of Rochdale.
What
the Rochdale Observer did not make clear is that this attack was a
‘hate crime’. We seem to have become so used to hearing these words to describe
what in many cases are little more than hurt feelings being reported
to the police, that we have lost track of what the term actually
means. What
the term means is that a crime, in this case a violent
and brutal
attack with an axe,
had coupled with it an aggravating factor involving one of several
‘protected categories’,
of
which a person’s race is one.
We
are not talking about references to ‘pillar
boxes’
here, we are talking about a young man being subjected to an attack
which left him with injuries which will affect him for the rest of
his life.
I
do not believe it to be improper to suggest that had the attack been
preceded by the words 'black bastards'
it would have been reported as a
'hate crime'.
It would seem appropriate for all Rochdale councillors, and perhaps especially those who may feel they have some affinity with the perpetrators, to take the opportunity to utterly condemn this attack and the thinking behind it, both criminal and racially motivated. By speaking for the people of Rochdale in this way it will deter those who try to exploit incidents like this for their own racially inspired motivation from claiming that it is they who speak for us.
Counter Productive Coyness!
If the intention of the wording of The Rochdale Observer
report
was to ensure continued harmony between the different communities in
Rochdale then I suggest that it was counter-productive and was a
potentially dangerous path to take, because it lays The Observer open
to the charge that it treats reports of violent crimes differently
based upon the colour of the victim's skin.
It would seem appropriate for all Rochdale councillors, and perhaps especially those who may feel they have some affinity with the perpetrators, to take the opportunity to utterly condemn this attack and the thinking behind it, both criminal and racially motivated. By speaking for the people of Rochdale in this way it will deter those who try to exploit incidents like this for their own racially inspired motivation from claiming that it is they who speak for us.
Already
we are beginning to see references being made to this attack on
websites which contain material
derogatory
to people who would self identify as being of a different race.
Being coy about condemning racially motivated hate crimes when they
are perpetrated by people who would not identify as ‘white’,
only gives the conspiracy theorists ammunition.
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Posts
10 comments:
Thanks for the article which I agree could be classed as a hate crime. I am thinking of sending the reports to the Assistant Chief Constable to remind him he was told that in this area of Rochdale crimes were often not followed up and if they did not quickly enough.
It's surely a matter for the court to decide whether it was a hate crime, isn't it?
John,
It depends on how the police and the CPS charge the culprits and present the prosecution case. It seems that the police guide-lines are that if a person doesn't report an attack as a hate crime it is not treated as such. A workman with his arm hanging off might not think to do this. All this assumes that the police and the CPS have no imput into how a case is presented and if the CPS, the police and the media want to play something down they can do so. They can also do the opposite.
Brian
The comment by the NV Editor (Brian) is correct. Unless the victim(s) reported the attack to the police as a ‘hate crime’ then it would not be recorded or prosecuted as such.
Page 5 of the police Hate Crime Operational Guidance (HCOG) says:
‘The alleged actions of the perpetrator must amount to a crime under normal crime recording rules. If this is the case, the perception of the victim, or any other person, will decide whether the crime is recorded as a hate crime.’ (The term ‘any other person’ does not mean you or I in this case.)
In other words the fact that one of the perpetrators used the words ‘white bastards’ before the attack counted for nothing in the case brought by the police if the victims did not report it as a hate crime. The point made by the NV Editor that they may have had other things on their mind at the time was made to me this morning by a lady who had read the original report in the Rochdale Observer.
My concern in my article was to draw attention to the fact that whatever might be the legal definition of a hate crime, and page 2 of the HCOG says ‘There is no criminological consensus on the definition or even the validity of the concept of hate crime… ‘, what was reported to have happened would be perceived as a hate crime by many readers of the Rochdale Observer who would simply note the words used and the actions which followed.
When I looked at how many national papers had reported this incident I found that the reports had largely followed that in the Manchester Evening News. I could not find any report of the attack and sentences in either the Guardian or the Independent. I do not believe it to be improper to suggest that had the attack been preceded by the words 'black bastards' it would have been reported in both these papers. (Please correct me if either or both of these papers did report this case.)
What I did find is that seven websites, which I will euphemistically describe as ‘xenophobic’ and for that reason will not provide links to, had picked up the story and were exploiting it for their own racially motivated reasons.
This will continue to happen so long as the political Left in this country, and to some degree the media, prefer to draw a veil over incidents like this instead of confronting them and to use a currently fashionable phrase ‘calling them out’.
I would urge anyone living in Rochdale to contact their local councillors and ask that a motion condemning this attack be debated at the next full meeting of Rochdale Council.
The Kashmiris have also been recently active in Bristol near the Council House.
Kashmire has always been a contentious issue ever since the lines between India & Pakistan where drawn up by a Geographer without any real knowledge of the area.
Bristol has a very diverse Asian Community including many Sikhs, Christian Tamils, Hindus and followers of Islam.
I have been in most of the Mosques in Bristol. Years ago I thought Islam was a very tolerant religion. I have reservations these days.
The Newbold incident seems very strange.
Pakistan is deliberately encouraging anti-Hindu, anti-Indian incitement and thuggish protests, fueling tension between diaspora communities. Who will stop their intimidation and violence, before it's too late?
On a much more personal note, a close Indian friend based in London recently described how he perceived as racist his arrest by a policeman of Pakistani origin for alleged drunk driving, despite being well under the alcohol limit. Whether the officer genuinely acted on bias, or this was merely my friend’s perception, one thing is clear: tensions on Kashmir are spilling over between Indian and Pakistani origin communities in the UK.
In the aftermath of the Indian government’s abrogation of Article 370, changing the constitutional status of Kashmir, Pakistan has created "Kashmir cells" at its embassies around the world in order to incite local populations against India. It is a campaign dedicated to bringing its sinister propaganda to an international audience – and to legitimizing its provocateurs to bring the Kashmir conflict on to Europe's streets.
After India’s controversial move to abrogate Article 370 on Kashmir, Pakistan has embarked on a desperate and vigorous diplomatic offensive against New Delhi.
Pakistan has downgraded diplomatic ties with India through the expulsion and recalling of envoys and commissioners, termination of bilateral trade (which wasn’t much to begin with), banning of Indian films and content that are hugely popular in Pakistan, and the cancellation of the Samjhauta Express bus linking Lahore to New Delhi.
Please remove me from your mailing list.
Councillor George Newton
Councillor - Denton South
Cllr. Newton's Employment:
Suez Recycling & Recovery Ltd.
His other interests include:
The Labour Party (member)
National Union of Students (member)
Denton Town Twinning (chair)
Denton Town Team (vice chair)
Is it not rather appalling that a Labour Councilor, a Labour Councillor should ask to be taken off the mailing list when it is a question of racial bias against white workingmen? And does this kind of attitude not play into the hands of the right-wing?
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