'Joint Enterprise'* and deportation!

by John Wilkins

AN article in The Guardian caught my eye this week because it dealt with the use of what it termed “controversial and discriminatory joint enterprise law.” It also involved the order to deport the person involved in a crime.

I will outline the case first but then look at how double standards seem to be involved when it is a 'black' person rather than a 'white' or 'brown' person involved.

Osime Brown is 21 years old Jamaican born man who came to the UK aged just 4. He is autistic and was slow as a child even in learning to walk. He had behavioural and learning problems at school and it resulted in exclusion aged 16. It would seem his problems had not been forensically diagnosed until then so he never received adequate support, merely being labelled disruptive.

He had been engaged in low level criminal behaviour but the latest crime involved the theft of a mobile phone. Although he was part of the group who took the phone witnesses said he had asked the other teenagers he was with to stop the street robbery, but he was convicted under the joint enterprise law which anyone considered complicit in a crime can be arrested even if they played no part in the crime. Critics say this law has disproportionately criminalised many young black men with those imprisoned through it being 11 times their presence in the community.

I used the term double standards in the headline for a reason. Our local Campaign Group, BOLD, have been following up the way our local authority have appeared to 'sweep under the carpet' the conviction of only 4 out of nearly 20 men who were present when a local workman suffered three broken ribs, a punctures lung and nearly had his hand severed in an axe attack. They were summoned by one of the gang by phone after the victim interceded in a dispute between the man and a lady driver.

The judge quite clearly termed it gangsterism and when local MP was asked to condemn the case as gangsterism he was happy to publicly acknowledge it as such also. Despite councillors, including the leader, the Local Authority officials being asked not just to condemn the gangsterism and how they can work with the police to reduce it in area no one is prepared to comment. A contrast here is that the police have been very open and forthright about how they are working on this issue.

That is one comparison with how Osime has been treated but let me turn to a more startling disparity, that of deportation. The effect of imprisonment itself on Osime has been considerable. He has suffered racial abuse and bullying. Without, his mother says, a mentor or support worker his health has deteriorated and he is self harming. He does not fully comprehend how he would cope in Jamaica, thinking he could catch a bus to visit mum from there!

I have over time felt that those now termed Immigration Enforcement Officers will use easy targets to boost their figures for deportations. Now I come to another very worrying comparison again from my town Rochdale.

Few people will not have knowledge of the grooming scandal involving vulnerable young girls in Rochdale. Three members of the grooming gang remain in the UK more than 18 months after they lost an appeal against losing their British citizenship. I concur with the Independent's sub headline: 'Home Office accused of prioritising offenders with Jamaican roots over sex abusers.'

Yes Osime has been involved in low level crime, but deportation would be extremely cruel for him with no family support in Jamaica and a condition which will make him even more vulnerable there. It is known that at least 11 have died as a result of unjust deportation from the Windrush scandal, it is likely that Osime could be another unnecessary death. I urge you to sign the Change.org petition for Osime Brown.

* Editor's note on Joint Enterprise:

'Why joint enterprise is unfair and needs changing' by Sandra Paul in The Law Society Gazette 23 December 2014

Exactly two years ago, I stood in tears outside Wood Green Crown Court, having just left my 16-year-old client, one of four teenage black males of previous good character, in the cells facing a three-year custodial sentence for GBH. Some 18 months earlier, he had been part of an altercation at Hendon tube station.

He was guilty of common assault, even ABH, and certainly affray. All of these were offered as guilty pleas to the prosecution. However, they were rejected on the basis that joint enterprise would convict a group of the more serious offence of GBH.

CCTV footage shows my client was as far as 20 feet away from the victim at the time he was stabbed. However, my client was convicted of section 18 GBH on the basis that it was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ that others might get involved when he punched the complainant and that ‘serious harm might’ result, irrespective of whether that was what he intended. My client was 14 at the time of the incident and I am convinced could not have forseen that his action could have led to the ultimate outcome which resulted.

Looking at the CPS guideline published since then, I am hopeful, but not convinced, that a review on the same facts would lead to a different result. Consideration of the judge’s directions for the jury outlined in the Crown Court Bench Book is equally problematic for young people.

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Seven Arrested After Rochdale Police Drug's Raid

YESTERDAY, ROCHDALE ONLINE reported that seven people had been arrested after police executed warrants in Rochdale. Three warrants were executed on Taylor Street, Middleton, Blanche Street, Rochdale, and White Lees Road, Littleborough.

Four men - aged 22, 26, 35 and 42 - were arrested on suspicion of section 45 of the Serious Crime Act.

The men aged 22 and 42 were also held on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and the 26-year-old man was additionally arrested on suspicion of conspiring to supply class A drugs.

A 23-year-old woman was also arrested on suspicion of possession of class A and class B drugs and section 45 of the Serious Crime Act.

All are now in police custody for questioning.

These new arrests follow other Rochdale arrests on the 28th, August in which three people were arrested after police executed warrants on Sykes Street and Hardwicke Street in Rochdale, as part of an investigation in to the supply of drugs in the Deeplish and Newbold areas. On that occasion Inspector Andrew Fern, of GMP's Rochdale district, said: "Enquiries are ongoing but the initial indication is that, this morning, officers seized class A drugs with an estimated street value of £900,000. Drugs blight communities so this is a really positive result."

It is worth noting that Newbold is recognised as a notorious 'hotspot' in a problematic district, and that the police have set up Operation Beehive to try to help the local communities there.

Inspector Andrew Fern said: "Investigations of this nature rely partly on intelligence from members of the public living in our communities so I would like to use this opportunity to appeal to anyone who thinks they may know something which may help us rid the streets of drugs to get in touch."

Earlier this year Northern Voices together with others had a meeting at Rochdale police station about the difficulties with regard to the Newbold district in which we raised our concerns about drugs and gangsterism.

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Not Just A Bit Of ‘Wacky-Baccy’ by Les May

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IT SEEMS that the chickens are finally coming home to roost for some Rochdale councillors. Perhaps now they will take seriously the threat of gangsterism in parts of the town.

Last autumn in a series of articles I drew attention to an attack by a hastily assembled gang in the Newbold area which left one young man with life changing injuries when his hand was hacked off by an axe wielding individual who, along with three compatriots, was later sent to prison.

I also published an ‘open letter’ which had been sent individually to all Rochdale councillors asking them to publicly condemn the attack which, although clearly a case of gangsterism, had racial overtones.

Only a few councillors were courteous enough to reply. All were happy to reassure me that they were not ‘racist’, but none were willing to go on record and condemn this attack and the gangsterism it entailed. This led me to conclude that it was reasonable to describe Rochdale Council as ‘institutionally racist’.

Ten months later we have a report that three people, two men and a woman, were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. These are considered to be the most harmful and include heroin, methadone, cocaine (including crack cocaine), ecstasy, magic mushrooms and ‘crystal meth’. The arrests took place at addresses in Newbold and Deeplish.

As the estimated ‘street value’ of these drugs isn’t far from one million pounds, we are clearly not talking about a bit of ‘wacky-backy’ in a roll up under the canal bridge. A haul valued at £900,000 points to organised crime, and organised crime points to the involvement of a gang or gangs. With this kind of money involved it makes a mockery of the idea that one can blame the problems of these areas on ‘deprivation’.

If these arrests result in convictions I don’t think it is too much to ask that on this occasion councillors of all political stripes begin to take the problem of gangsterism seriously and say so.

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Not Just A Bit Of ‘Wacky-Baccy’ by Les May

IT SEEMS that the chickens are finally coming home to roost for some Rochdale councillors. Perhaps now they will take seriously the threat of gangsterism in parts of the town.

Last autumn in a series of articles I drew attention to an attack by a hastily assembled gang in the Newbold area which left one young man with life changing injuries when his hand was hacked off by an axe wielding individual who, along with three compatriots, was later sent to prison.

I also published an open letter which had been sent individually to all Rochdale councillors asking them to publicly condemn the attack which, although clearly a case of gangsterism, had racial overtones.

Only a few councillors were courteous enough to reply. All were happy to reassure me that they were not ‘racist’, but none were willing to go on record and condemn this attack and the gangsterism it entailed. This led me to conclude that it was reasonable to describe Rochdale Council as institutionally racist.

Ten months later we have a report that three people, two men and a woman, were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. These are considered to be the most harmful and include heroin, methadone, cocaine (including crack cocaine), ecstasy, magic mushrooms and ‘crystal meth’. The arrests took place at addresses in Newbold and Deeplish.

As the estimated ‘street value’ of these drugs isn’t far from one million pounds, we are clearly not talking about a bit of ‘wacky-backy’ in a roll up under the canal bridge. A haul valued at £900,000 points to organised crime, and organised crime points to the involvement of a gang or gangs. With this kind of money involved it makes a mockery of the idea that one can blame the problems of these areas on ‘deprivation’.

If these arrests result in convictions I don’t think it is too much to ask that on this occasion councillors of all political stripes begin to take the problem of gangsterism seriously and say so.

Rochdale resident's Institutional Racism anxiety

I've read the full post on the blog, the replies from the councillors are at best flippant! At worst they are exactly as reported by Les, blatantly racist. 

The gangerism he highlights is, I suspect, the reason the individual councillors are unwilling to comment.

This fear of retribution, of what might happen if something is said against them, is the reason these "gangs" continue to grow stronger and languish in the fear they're creating.

Unless something is said in condemnation by those on the top levels of our councils the situation we now face ourselves with will only get worse. 

Gangs are clearly present!

If one man can make a call to arms and have, almost instantly, numerous men appear with weapons we may already be too late, but should it stop us at least trying to put a halt to it?

As I said in an earlier email, there are areas of Rochdale I just wouldn't drive through let alone walk through anymore, how long will it be before the whole of Rochdale is off bounds? 

Scary, scary times.

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Rochdale Council and Institutional Racism

by Les May

I BELIEVE that Rochdale Council is tainted by institutional racism.  I rest this claim upon the fact that its members appear to base some decisions about whether to act to give some sort of leadership to the people of Rochdale upon skin colour and ethnic origin.  The evidence I have for this is the response, and in most cases, lack of response, I received when I sent an open letter to all members of Rochdale Council regarding an attack on four white tree surgeons by a gang of about twenty Asian men in the Newbold area of Rochdale.

I provide below three paragraphs of this letter.

I am writing to you not as a representative of a political party, or of a particular ward, or because you happen to have been born with skin of a particular colour, but as someone who was elected to represent the people of Rochdale.

Two weeks ago the Rochdale Observer reported that a thug who had been ‘disrespected’ in ‘his country’ organised a gang of about twenty males who were armed with weapons such as knuckledusters, claw hammers and an axe to attack four men working as tree surgeons.  One of the men had his hand hacked off in the attack. Before the attack the four men had been called ‘white bastards’.

In the name of common decency I call upon all councillors, both individually and collectively, to condemn this attack and the language which preceded it, by bringing a motion to this effect before the full Council at its next meeting.

The full letter can be read at:

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2019/11/an-open-letter-to-rochdale-councillors.html

I print below the responses that I received from individual councillors and my reply to them.  As I believe that the racism is present at an institutional level because it exists as a shared understanding, whether conscious or unconscious, amongst members of Rochdale Council that some things must never be drawn attention to, I have chosen to remove the name and anything that would identify individual Councillors.  This was impossible to do without mutilating the response in one case so I have excluded it.

Dear Mr May

Thank you for the information of which I knew nothing.  Unfortunately the next Council meeting is a short meeting with no motions due to the Freeman and Alderman meetings to follow.  I will discuss with colleagues, but if I had been asked for a comment I would condemn this attack as indeed I would any attack regardless of colour, creed or sexuality.  There is no support for any form of violence I would hope from any member of Council, and this and any attack should be condemned by all.

Dear Councillor ***,

Thank you for your response to my e-mail.

I believe that this is a matter of such importance to the promotion of harmonious relations within the town that I would like to see it debated and condemned by the full Council at a later meeting, if the next one is not appropriate.  This is the reason I have written to every councillor in every ward in the town, I believe it should be condemned by every councillor both individually and collectively.

If you or your colleagues wish to obtain further information a report which includes material taken from the court hearing can be found in the Rochdale Observer of 23 October and on the GMP website below.

https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2019/october/Four-men-have-been-jailed-for-their-part-in-a-brutal-gang-attack-which-left-a-man-with-life-changing-injuries-after-being-hit-with-an-axe-in-Rochdale/

I would be grateful if you would share this with your colleagues.

Les May

Hi Les

I have no idea why you’d want me to comment on this particular incident, given I have never commented on any police investigation.  I’ve had a look through my inbox and it seems you’ve never emailed me before demanding I call out racist attacks in Rochdale.  I have no idea why this one might be different.

It seems to me that the legal system has dealt with the criminals - not being involved in the case or having any legal training, I can’t say either way whether there are any issues here.

To be honest it’s the first I’ve heard of this terrible incident, not some cover up of anti-white racism.

It’s a shocking incident.  All racism is wrong.

Do you have any potholes or grot spots in **** I can help with?

Dear Councillor ***,

Given the nature of the incident which involved an unprovoked attack by a gang of up to 20 young men armed with an axe, knuckledusters and a claw hammer on four workmen which resulted in one of those attacked having his hand chopped off, I think it is self evident why some comment is needed.   I am not aware that there has been an attack of such a nature in Rochdale before.  I am not asking you to 'call out' racism, which I note that you clearly identify this attack as being tainted with, I am asking that you use your best endeavours to have this attack debated and condemned by the council.  Twenty young men being assembled quickly and carrying weapons, coupled with the use of the term 'my country' by the leader who claimed he had been 'disrespected', suggests to me that what we have here is a case of gangsterism which may well spread into the wider community. I would like to see it halted before it does.

This attack was reported on the front page of the Rochdale Observer of Wednesday 23 October 2019, so quite a lot of people will be familiar with it.

I should add that every councillor in Rochdale has received the e-mail I sent you.   I will file your response along with theirs.

Les May

Hi les

Thank you for including me in your email.  I have and always will stand up against any form of racism and will continue to do so

Regards *** ***

Dear ***,

This is not about racism, though there are clearly racist overtones. It is essentially 'gangsterism' when someone justifies the attack by saying he has been 'disrespected' in 'his country'.  That is why I want it condemned by councillors individually and collectively. The racism will be if there is an unwillingness to condemn it because it was carried out by up to 20 young men identified as Asian.

Les May

Hi Les,

I am saddened to hear what you have alluded to in your email. ******* I am not aware of the matter you mention but will establish the facts and contact relevant officers.   I apologise that you have not had a response before now.  Please let me have a few more details abut the incident such as when, where etc it occurred. I realise you may be further upset by my asking for this but it will save me some time.  I am grateful. ***

Dear ***,

Thank you for your very positive response.

The incident occured on October 17, 2017 and came to court in October 2019.  It was reported in the Rochale Observer of 23 October but the story was very garbled and differs somewhat from what was reported on the Greater Manchester Police website. I have given the link below.

https://www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater-manchester/news/news/2019/october/Four-men-have-been-jailed-for-their-part-in-a-brutal-gang-attack-which-left-a-man-with-life-changing-injuries-after-being-hit-with-an-axe-in-Rochdale/

Although there is a racial element in this attack which I think has deterred people from commenting on it, the main problem appears to be gangsterism.  If this is indeed the case it will be very detrimental to everyone in Rochdale and especially in Newbold.  I believe there was a similar, but much less serious, incident in the Greave area during the summer.   This is why I would like it condemned by individual councillors, and debated and condemned by the full Council.

Thank you again for your positive response.

Les May

I have absolutely no doubt that had this been an attack on four Asian men by a gang of some twenty white males armed with an axe, knuckledusters and a claw hammer, it would have been publicly condemned by most, and probably all, of our Councillors.  I believe that this view would be shared by many people in Rochdale. If this belief is correct then our Councillors do not represent the views of the people of Rochdale.

I can only offer four possible reasons for the unwillingness of Councillors to go on the public record and condemn this attack for what it is; gangsterism exacerbated by racial abuse.  These are: a desire to keep certain councillors ‘on side’, a desire not to alienate what is seen an individual Councillor’s ‘natural constituency’, a fear of being called ‘racist’ by others and not considering an attack in which a young man had his hand hacked off with an axe to be sufficiently serious that it has to be publicly condemned.

To Rochdale Councillors I say this: ‘Telling me in a private e-mail that you are not racist and how you have always been against it, is not good enough.   I will start to believe you actually understand what racism is when I see that you are willing to stand up and be counted by publicly condemning gangsterism and similar crimes, irrespective of who the perpetrators are’.

I stand by my belief that Rochdale Council is tainted with institutional racism.

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Blue Story Film Ban Dispute

  Slag-off of Cinemas for ditching film after Birmingham brawl

 by Brian Bamford

RONAN Bennett, the Northern Irish novelist, screenwriter and one-time anarchist, today criticised the decision of a cinema chain to shutdown showings of the film Blue Story following a brawl between warring gangs in which teenagers armed with machetes in Birmingham fought.

Since the shutdown there have been claims of an overreaction to clash as police say decision not based on official advice.

Two leading cinema chains are now facing a backlash over their decision to withdraw a film about warring street gangs, 

Ch Supt Steve Graham stressed that the force did not ask for the movie to be withdrawn by Vue and Showcase cinemas after the disturbance at the Star City leisure complex on Saturday night.
Footage on social media appeared to show people fighting in the foyer area of the cinema, where families and children were queuing to watch Frozen II, while witnesses said some of those involved tried to force their way into screening rooms without paying.


Showcase said it would no longer show the movie at its 21 venues in the UK after Vue withdrew the movie from nearly 100 cinemas on Sunday.  Six teenagers, including a 13-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy, were arrested after what West Midlands police described as “maybe the worst thing” its officers had seen.

 But following mounting criticism, Showcase has since said tonight that it was reinstating the film “supported with increased security protocols”.

BBC Films described Blue Story as an “outstanding, critically acclaimed debut feature, which powerfully depicts the futility of gang violence. It’s an important film from one of the UK’s most exciting new filmmakers which we’re proud to be part of.”

Its distributor, Paramount Pictures, said though it was “saddened” by events at Star City, Blue Story was “an important film” that had had “incredibly positive reaction and fantastic reviews”.

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