NORTHERN ANARCHIST on Death Row Part 1

by CHRISTOPHER DRAPERr

ON 20 August 1887 a Chicago jury condemned a Todmorden man to be hanged for a bomb-throwing incident that killed eight policemen and injured sixty more. As the turning point in Chicago’s bloody class war this sensational case was reported around the world. Back home in England, when Samuel Fielden’s invalid father was informed of his son’s death sentence he became another victim and expired within the week. Details of the bombing and trial were comprehensively recorded at the time but Samuel Fielden’s lifestory has never before been fully told.

A Northern Childhood

Samuel Fielden was born on 25 February 1847 in Walsden, on the Lancashire side of Todmorden. There’ve always been Fieldens in Todmorden and Samuel’s father, Abraham (1816-1886) worked as an overlooker at the town’s enormous Fielden Mill, though Sam’s family occupied a much lower social level than millowner, John Fielden MP (1784-1849) whose statue graces the town’s Vale Park. Sam’s mother, Alice bore Abraham seven children although only four survived into adulthood. She’d endured an impoverished childhood selling polishing sand door-to-door. Abraham first met her as she hawked her wares around the houses in the bitterest of winters, trudging through snow in bare feet.

Sam learnt nothing of anarchism or socialism in his youth but acquired an overwhelming ethical sense from the non-conformist religion and politics of his parents. Tragically, Sam’s mother died in 1858 when he was just eleven. He inherited a basic understanding of politics from Abraham who campaigned on many social issues of the day, Chartism, the ten-hour day, the co-operative movement and much more besides. When Sam was six or seven, he learned to read by attending a local dame school for six months.

Work

Aged eight, Sam started work at Fielden’s Mill. His first job was to race along the machines removing empty bobbins, taking care to keep fingers safe from the moving parts. After a couple of years he was promoted to the heavier task of taking full spools to the weavers. At this stage Sam was a statutory “half-timer”, required to attend the factory school for half of his time at the mill. He became a “full-timer” at the tender age of thirteen when he transferred to working in the factory’s warehouse. After a couple of years he learned to weave and laboured at that until he was twenty one when he’d resolved to seek his fortune in America.

Awakening

Several incidents in Sam’s youth came to shape the character that was so forcefully emerged in later life. In 1860, at the conclusion of Sam’s factory schooling, Mr Harrison, his teacher was accused by a local Methodist of brainwashing his pupils with Unitarian heresy. When Harrison sued for libel Sam was required to give witness at a Liverpool Court hearing. He was overjoyed at the prospect. Not only did he get to spend a week away from home but visited the new Menai Bridge and at Liverpool docks Sam was thrilled by the tall ships bound for America. His imagination was stimulated by the “dime novels” he brought back from Liverpool and with the outbreak of Civil War in 1861, everyone in Todmorden’s thoughts turned to events in America as supplies of mill cotton from the Southern States slowed to a trickle. Initially Fielden’s mill supplemented the raw material with inferior Surat cotton from India but this so clogged the machines that production ground to a halt. Until hostilities ceased in 1865 milling resumed only intermittently and in the interim Sam carried tiles for workmen laying drainage for the ground on which the millowner’s magnificent new Dobroyd Castle would soon arise.

Sam learned of the cultivators of that Southern cotton when escaped slave Henry Box Brown visited Todmorden in 1861 and told of how, with the assistance of abolitionists, he’d gained his freedom concealed in a crate posted away from the plantation as a parcel. Sam’s inherent disrespect for elitism was reinforced when William, his older brother, who worked as a gardener for the Fieldens, was dismissed for showing insufficient deference. Sam’s oratorical skills which came to be recognised as his political strong suit were nurtured in the chapels of Todmorden’s Methodist circuit where from 1865 until 1868 he was admired as a fervent “exhorter” well on his way to becoming a full-blown religious minister but it was not to be.

Wanderlust

Drawn by tales of the “Wild West” Sam longed to leave home but obeyed his father’s wish to remain until he was twenty-one. He’d also given his word to marry Sarah Gill, a weaver at the factory. When Sarah promised to wait for him until he was established in America, he booked his passage and in July 1868 sailed from Liverpool. His first job on landing in New York was at Prentice’s Brooklyn hat factory, but he didn’t like the work or the wages and left after only two days. Moving north to Providence, he returned to his old trade of millwork before in March 1869 starting out West. He reached Chicago in August, by way of a bit of sightseeing at Niagara Falls. Coincidentally, the very first building he entered on reaching the city belonged to John Still and his brother who ran a plumbers business and originated from Todmorden where Sam had known some of their relatives. Less happily, it was outside this building that seventeen years later the bombing occurred that led to Sam’s death sentence.

That autumn of 1869 Fielden worked on John Wentworth’s farm and the following spring laboured at dredging the Illinois & Michigan canal. His religious fervour continued to diminish as his political awareness grew. As a deck passenger on a Mississippi steamboat, in spring 1870, he embarked on a working tour of the southern states that enlightened him on the falsity of “abolition”. The “liberated” blacks continued to be dispossessed and exploited by a myriad of sophisticated social and economic measures.

Chicago Again

On returning to Chicago in May 1871 Sam laboured around the region on a variety of navvying tasks until, after a year or so, he settled into heavy haulage work serving the city’s stone yards. Belying his big, rough, burly appearance Sam never neglected his intellectual development, spending every free hour at lectures or reading in Chicago’s public library. He returned to Todmorden in the autumn of 1879 for the first and only time. After embracing his aged father who was no longer the vigorous patriarch of memory, Sam visited the overgrown grave of his mother. He also fulfilled the pledge of two decades before and married Sarah, his childhood sweetheart. The pair sailed from Liverpool on the Germanic, arriving in New York harbour on 26 January 1880 eager to start their new life together in the “Land of the Free”.

Teamwork and Anarchy

Having saved his wages over the years, on his return to Chicago Sam bought his own team of heavy horses and worked for himself in the thriving stone haulage business. After starting a teamsters union Sam was duly elected Vice President. In the autumn of 1880 he helped reorganise Chicago’s Liberal League which existed to ensure the total separation of church and state. Over time he successively served as the organisation’s secretary, vice president and conference delegate and this involvement served to enhance his growing intellectual development, confidence and political awareness.

By 1883 his involvement with the Chicago labor movement brought him to socialism which evolved into anarchism. The following year he joined the International Working People’s Association with divisions organised on the basis of language; Fielden joined the English-language “American Group”. Confronted by a corrupt oligarchy of employers and politicians intent on smashing organised labor, Chicago IWPA was defiantly militant. Sam Fielden subsequently recalled, “I wish to say (we) were all anarchists at that time.”

Chicago’s May Days

On 3 May 1886 an “army” of Pinkerton thugs and city police opened fire on striking workers at Chicago’s McCormick Reaper Works, killing two and injuring many more. In response, Chicago IWPA organised a mass protest for the next day at 7.30pm, 4 May at “Haymarket”. There were to be three speakers with Samuel Fielden to close the event. The meeting was peaceful but as Sam was ending his speech two hundred armed police officers led by Inspector Bonfield rushed from an adjacent building, panicking the crowd. Fielden was ordered to cease immediately and assist in dispersing his audience. As Sam remonstrated a bomb arced through the air and exploded amidst the police, who responded by shooting indiscriminately, injuring officers and workers alike. Fielden was shot in the knee and when records were compiled there were eight dead policemen, another sixty seriously injured and probably similar casualties amongst the workers though, understandably, few of these injuries were reported to the authorities.

Judicial Murder

Fielden managed to limp home and the next morning, police, without warrants, searched the house, found nothing but arrested him anyway. At the police station Sam was sworn at by Lieutenant Shea and ordered to remove his bandage and expose his leg wound. Police Chief Ebersold pointing at Sam’s forehead said, “it ought to have gone in here!”

The authorities never claimed that any named individual made, threw or had prior knowledge of the bomb. No relevant evidence tying any suspect to the bomb was ever presented in court yet Sam, along with seven other anarchists, was charged with murder. Evidence wasn’t required, for the judge, prosecutor and jury were hand-picked and the verdict a foregone conclusion.

Verdict

The verdict was delivered shortly after 10am August 20 1896. Mr Osborn, the foreman intoned, “We, the jury, find Samuel Fielden (and comrades)… guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in the indictment and fix the penalty at death.” Samuel Fielden responded from the dock: “Today as the beautiful autumn sun kisses with balmy breeze the cheek of every free man I stand here never to bathe my head in its rays again. I have loved my fellow man as I have loved myself. I have hated trickery, dishonesty and injustice. The nineteenth century commits the crime of killing its best friend but as I have said before if it will do any good I freely give myself up. I trust the time will come when there will be a better understanding, more intelligence; and above the mountains of iniquity, wrong and corruption, I hope the sun of righteousness and truth and justice will come to bathe in its balmy light an emancipated world.”

“Murderers’ Row”

Fielden was imprisoned in Cook County Jail in a stone cell measuring 6ft by 8ft, reached by a flight of iron steps. In front of the cell ran a narrow footway. Sam occupied “Cell 31” in this section known as “Murderers’ Row”. Awaiting execution he was visited by his wife Sarah and their two children, Alice and Sam junior. He’d never seen his son before as the boy was born on 1 November 1886, six months after Fielden was imprisoned and, ironically, four days after the unveiling of a giant statue in New York harbour; “Liberty Enlightening the Word”!

Despite continuing world-wide protests and a further 1½ years of legal wrangling, it was confirmed that Samuel Fielden would be hanged at 12 noon, 11 November 1887, but this isn’t quite the end of the story….

(The concluding part of this story will be posted on NV in 3 weeks. Search our archive for more of CD’s articles of Northern Radical History)

Rethinking British Policing!

T-A-S-E-R

 A 5 Point Manifesto.

by Charles D. Crichlow

IT has become abundantly clear that policing within the British criminal justice system is not working.  For decades, trust and confidence in policing among the UK Black community has been comparatively low and for good reason.  Ministry of Justice data on Race and the Criminal Justice System has consistently throughout the 21st Century shown that Black people are unjustly treated.  The call from the streets in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder is, ‘We want Equal justice under the law’; ‘We want change and we want it now’ and ‘No Justice No Peace’.

Incrementalism will not suffice.  No longer can we afford to engage in ‘look how far we have come-ism’  Herein is the outline of a manifesto for a radical rethink of policing.  I believe, that this is what sections of the public, who have been oppressed by the present system for far too long, deserve.  Upon close examination one will quickly recognise that these changes will not simply benefit a minority of the population but the whole of society.  I must point out, that the ideas put forward here, are only the beginning of what will be a long continuous road towards public safety, protection and equal justice.  No one should have a monopoly on good ideas and undoubtedly others will bring forth other welcome suggestions. This manifesto is not for faint-hearted evolutionists but rather for a genuinely radical rethink of policing in its current form, which I argue is not fit for the essential purpose of racial justice.

This manifesto is deliberately brief, so as to make way for more nuanced and detailed discussion and collective framing of ideas. What is for sure; is that it’s high time that our political leaders take a bold and dispassionate look again at British Policing and the Criminal Justice System.  Whilst also resisting the tendency to be seduced by the awesome power of police leaders to dazzle and seduce with an overly romanticised vision of policing and focus them on the hard reality of racial injustice in this nation.

I therefore set out below, the T-A-S-E-R Model which is based upon the accumulation of experience over my thirty years (Participant Observation) as an Operational Police Officer a Community Organiser and former President of the National Black Police Association. I say respectfully to those within the policing profession, that it should not be for you to determine the merits of this manifesto. Instead, it is for you to work for the public. Since you are supposed to police with our consent, I implore you to set aside the customary disdain for anything resembling a usurpation of your power to determine the policing dispensation. And that instead you pay attention to the cry for justice which is ringing out loud and sweeping across the globe. You now have at the very least the opportunity to contribute something on the right side of history. To think or do otherwise will see your authority slip even further away and pave the way for future anarchy.

T-A-S-E-R MODEL = Transparency Accountability Scrutiny Education Reparation Transparency.

Transparency For far too long, the police have been allowed to operate effectively in secret when it comes to implementing reforms.

They have effectively been given free reign to ‘mark their own homework’. This can be seen in terms of duties under the Equality Act (2010) where the public have little or no insight into how they operate and how they are monitored.

As a police officer, I have witnessed first hand the cavalier approach to these legal duties and the total disregard to its application at the front line of policing. This has to end. And a new era of Radical Transparency must be ushered in, whereby the public get to have maximum real-time insight into how the police, carries out its duties under the Equality Act. ‘The public is the police and the police is the public’ has effectively become a brainwashing mantra that misleads the public and police officers into a romantic perception of the reality. This has to be addressed by opening up policing, much more to the public gaze.

I propose that unless there is a compelling argument for confidentiality, police boardrooms where matters of public interest are to be discussed should be made accessible (via camera) to the public. It should not be left to the police alone to decide upon the many aspects of policing activity that in my view can and should be made transparent to the public. There must be a radical approach to this. Accountability

Each and every police officer is invested with extraordinary powers of discretion, to act in ways that no ordinary citizen can. Therefore much should be expected in terms of holding them to account for their actions.

In far too many cases, accountability is non-existent or is severely hamstrung by aspects of the very Criminal Justice System that is intended to protect the public. We have seen many examples of rogue officers escaping justice or, moreover, being protected by the organisation. Conversely, good officers have all too often, been hurriedly forced out of policing in questionable circumstances and Black officers have disproportionately and inexplicably found to be in this category.

I propose that the application of police Professional Standards be taken completely out of the hands of the police service and that this is coupled with a completely independent mechanism for investigating police misconduct. This would mean the complete abolition of the Independent Office of Police Conduct and the replacement with something, which is fit for purpose particularly in terms of racial justice. In addition there should be a presumption that accountability is a public concern therefore notwithstanding appropriate confidentiality issues, questions of misconduct should be answered in public.

Scrutiny

Hand in hand with a new Radical Transparency so too must there be a new era of Super Scrutiny. At present we have an extraordinary state of affairs, whereby police forces either have little or no scrutiny, of how they implement the legal requirements of the Equality Act and yet they get to pick and choose who is deemed appropriate to scrutinise their work.

The current system of inspection by the ‘Her Majesty Inspector of Constabulary’ is completely inadequate. I have seen at first hand how the police are able to very easily ‘pull the wool over the eyes of HMIC’ - a toothless tiger. Police and Crime Commissioners whose role is to hold the Chief Constable to account on behalf of the public have been fantastically ineffective in terms of racial justice. Many of these PCC’s are hopelessly incapable of performing this task not only due to competence but many are ideologically driven.

I propose the establishment of a completely independent body of highly professional and competent scrutineers in the field of equal justice with the necessary powers to ensure compliance. Their remit will include identifying disparity and ensuring police compliance with equality duties and its own equality strategies.

Education

From Training to Education, there is ample evidence to suggest that police forces are not capable of recruiting, training and developing the workforce, the public and the whole of the system required for equal justice to flourish. Policing has recently been placed on a more professionalised footing, whilst this is a welcome step it is not enough.

I propose that the recruitment and development of all police personnel should be taken completely out of the hands of the police force and placed in a framework of Education rather than simply regimented training. A genuine new ethos of Education for Public Service should be the goal where Police Forces will become genuine Police Services. This should include every aspect of current training including and particularly ‘Use Of Force’ training. This should not in anyway signal a pivot towards privatisation of any aspect of current policing functions but rather to establish new ways within the public realm, of improving policing. The College of Policing has been a signal failure in terms of its 6 remit, particularly in regard to race equality, it has simply come to reflect and replicate the racial hierarchies that exist within policing. Moreover it represents a huge waste of public money that could be put to better use. The same applies to many of the institutions, which represent policing from top to bottom.

Reparation

In order for any of this manifesto to be implemented, the current police force and justice system must come to reckoning with its past and therefore genuine reparative racial justice must be brought about.

Whole communities have been criminalised labelled and brought to ruin by institutional racism not just by hostile policing but by an entirely hostile environment in terms of education, housing policy, health and generally towards the presence of Black people in the United Kingdom who were brought here to work, build and be used as was the case under Colonialism and Enslavement.  Indeed, the roots of some of the crimes, which have plagued the Black community, particularly those of a seriously violent nature (often framed as so called ‘Black on Black’ violence) can be located in the legacy of a history of violent oppression.  These ‘chickens are now coming home to roost’ and all the tough talking about ‘rioters’ and ‘thugs’ will not drown out the voices of those who have a just cause and demand for reparatory justice.

In short, reparatory justice is the first and necessary step toward equal justice.  Any attempt to build a future upon the unquestioned foundations of the current broken system will prove to be an exercise in futility and we will be back here again. The backlash to the current movement has already begun and the need for courageous leadership is palpable. Failure to take the necessary steps will prove to be a concession towards those who benefit from the privilege of status quo and the advancement of white supremacy. We have seen and heard that the call of ‘white silence is violence’ thus, political cowardice is also violent and must be called out loudly. This brief manifesto is submitted / launched at the Windrush Defenders – ‘Burning Work: In the Wake of Windrush’ Conference (22.06.2020) however, this is a public document and will be open to much wider conversation.

Charles D. Crichlow 21.06.2020

A former police officer with 30 years service. President of National Black Police Officers Association from 2009-2013.Graduate of Manchester University School of Law with a Masters in criminology. Served as Independent Special Advisor to Tutu Foundation review into institutional racism.

Quotes: (“...pay attention to the cry for justice which is ringing out loud and sweeping across the globe. You now have at the very least the opportunity to contribute something on the right side of history. To think or do otherwise will see your authority slip even further away and pave the way for future anarchy.”)

(“We have seen and heard that the call of ‘white silence is violence’ thus, political cowardice is also violent and must be called out loudly.”)

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Time to prevent our UK police service morphing into a US-style police force

by Ex-Superintendent Victor Olisa

POLICING by consent is the foundation on which a ‘service’ style of policing dominates over an ‘enforcement’ style.   In the United Kingdom, the police are praised around the world for its service style of policing.  Yet evolving changes in the language and style of UK policing are shifting that style towards more ‘enforcement’ than ‘service’ for Black people.

The heart-wrenching images of the killing of George Floyd on 25^th May 2020 in Minneapolis, United States of America, has become a powerful driver for change in the way Black people are treated by the police around the world. In the UK, some people console themselves that such a barbaric act would not happen here because of the checks and balances in place to prevent that level of police misbehaviour, such as inspections by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire & Rescue Services.

However, the words ‘police culture’, often evokes negative mental images of police misbehaviour and indiscipline.  The criminologist Robert Reiner argues that the ‘core’ characteristics of police culture, such as ‘mission’ and ‘action’, engender in officers the belief that policing is not just a job but a way of life.   It is the reason why officers rush towards danger when others run away.

The Canadian criminologist John Lee described a characteristic of police culture that he termed police ‘property’.   He explained that “modern police forces emerged out of the need to protect dominant communities from dangerous classes” and as a consequence police soon learned to distinguish the ‘public’ they were supposed to serve and protect and the ‘public’ they were supposed to control and punish (i.e. blacks, women, Indians, and others)”.   Police ‘property’ are “low status, powerless groups whom the dominant majority see as problematic or distasteful and are prepared to let the police deal with their ‘property’ and turn a blind eye to the way this is done.”

Today, the concept has become a powerful reality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, because of the callous way it was done by the officer: hands in his pocket as he surveyed all around him in triumphant nonchalance.

As a police officer for 35 years who has worked in forces in the UK and with police organisations across the world in my experience the majority of officers are professional and committed people who uphold the ideals of public service.

So, the question is, how has such a powerful and respected social institution allowed some of its officers to police with unimaginable brutality, and engage in irrational activity?

In the sense of irrational activity, the misuse of ‘stop and search’ exemplifies the notion of police ‘property’

The negative impact of stop and search has been well documented, for example, the conclusion of a 2013 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary inspection on stop and search states:

“…with a few exceptions, forces were not able to demonstrate an approach to using stop and search powers that was based upon a foundation of evidence of what works best to fight crime…”

Today there is a growing practice (as often posted on social media and according to anecdotal information I hear from accounts of police training) of officers handcuffing young Black boys who have not been arrested and are not resisting or showing any signs of aggression, before they start searching them. This happens whilst white friends that are with them are searched without being handcuffed.

This is a worrying development of a practice that seem to reinforce the stereotype that conflates Blackness with dangerousness:  Black boys are considered ‘dangerous’ and so have to be treated differently (restrained), and in a way that is humiliating and degrading, without a rational justification.  Black boys are treated as police ‘property’ whilst their white friends that are with them are treated very differently, with courtesy and respect.

An often-articulated statement by police officers is that people from BAME background do not want to join the police.  True, not all BAME people want to join the police but enough do. My plea to senior officers is work to reduce the rate of attrition for those that do join:  For example, Home Office data (March 2019) suggests that 23% of recruits to MPS were people from BAME backgrounds, so joining at a higher rate BUT the same document shows that voluntary resignation is 26% BAME and 17% white officers.  Additionally, 2.6% of BAME officers are dismissed compared to 1.2% white officers.

The journey for many Black officers (in my experience the BAME category fair better collectively) is comparable to them running a 400 metres stable chase alongside their white colleagues who are running a 4x1 400 metres sprint relay.  Consequently, Black officers never realise their potential, because the hurdles they must overcome grinds them down and saps away their energy.

When Government take an active role to understand the reasons why Black people face structural racism by public bodies, they would receive confidence in their commitment by not appointing a lead for a commission who is on record doubting the existence of institutional racism.

Whatever our colour, race or social standing, society needs the police. If we are genuinely going to address racism and its destructive effects, every one of us need to look at ourselves and ask:

What do I need to do to take Black people off the list of police ‘property’?

• The answer is to stop stereotyping Black people as low status, unintelligent, aggressive, dangerous, self-destructive, and sub-human, and recognise the privilege and comfort that comes from remaining ‘silent’.

Every senior police leader advocating for change must make a commitment to empty the police ‘property’ list so that Black people and others subject by the majority to negative stereotyping as ‘low status’ are not treated contemptuous and with excessive force and they don’t end up as a death in custody. 

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Why 'Black Lives Matter' Will Fail!

by Les May

THE proximate factor in the murder of George Floyd is that the USA has militarised police forces; the notion of ‘policing by consent’ is absent. Trump does not want any international legal oversight of the actions of the the US military with regard to possible ‘war crimes’; should we be surprised that strong legal oversight of US police officers is resisted?

As of 30 June 2020 a total of 506 civilians were shot in the US, 105 of whom were black. In 2018, there were 996 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 this figure increased to 1,004.  For comparison the rate of shootings per million of the population was: black 31, hispanic, 23, white 13, other 4.  These figures speak for themselves.   By comparison the average number of fatal police shootings per year in England and Wales in the 15 year period 2004/5 to 2018/9 was less than 3 in a population of about 60,000,000, that is about 0.05 per million.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/319246/police-fatal-shootings-england-wales/

Faced with a fatality rate from police shooting which is 200 to 600 times higher than in the UK one might have thought that saving lives, black, brown and white, by demilitarising US police forces, would be central to any widespread response to the murder of George Floyd. Seemingly it isn’t.

Instead of attempting to attain measurable objectives like improving police training and making officers accountable every time they use a firearm, the emphasis is on ‘racism’, something for which there is no objective measure and having all the explanatory power of asking ‘how long is a piece of string?’ It’s a popular badge to display because it allows the wearer to get a warm glow of satisfaction from ‘calling out’ racists. If by chance the murder of George Floyd causes anyone to remember their humanity and dare to say they think all lives matter, you can call that racist too!

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/13/why-saying-all-lives-matter-opposite-black-lives-matter/87025190/

And if you have any time left over from combating racism you can always spend it ‘dismantling cisgender privilege and uplifting Black trans folk’ or ‘disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure’ or you could ‘dismantle patriarchal practice’ or even ‘foster a queer‐affirming network’. You will find the quotes by scrolling down the page at:

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

But if all this is too much for you then why not buy the tee-shirt for a mere $25* and get back to denouncing someone on Twitter?

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Things are not much better in the UK. Check out the website at https://www.blacklivesmatter.uk/ and you will find the disclaimer, ‘We are not affiliated with either Black Lives Matter USA or the political arm of the Black Lives Matter (Activist Coalition) UK who are purported to be affiliated with BLM USA.’

In the UK the response to the murder of George Floyd has been to facilitate the rise of groups of ‘activists’ who think that symbolic gestures like tearing down statues actually achieves something which will improve the lives of real people, and the energising of self promoting academics.

The media are for now superficially supportive, but this is all too reminiscent of the #MeToo movement. Dr David Starkey has unwittingly managed to contribute a couple of ways of keeping BLM in the news, but eventually the media will move on to another story.  Unfortunately it won’t be the one about inequality in the UK and the US. Getting a few black faces in the boardroom won’t solve that.

*$25 would pay for one sixth of an operation to correct cleft palate, or all of an operation to correct ingrowing eyelashes plus 40 doses of antibiotic to treat an eye infection of children and adults in Africa.

https://smiletrain.org.uk/sightsavers uksmile train

https://www.sightsavers.org/

AUTHOR'S FOOTNOTE:

In the article I mentioned a disclaimer which read ‘We are not affiliated with either Black Lives Matter USA or the political arm of the Black Lives Matter (Activist Coalition) UK who are purported to be affiliated with BLM USA.’

If you check out the website https://uk.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund which appears to be the group referred to in the disclaimer, you will find passages like ‘a commitment to dismantle imperialism, capitalism, white-supremacy, patriarchy and the state structures that disproportionately harm black people’ and ‘we lift up the experiences of the most marginalised in our communities, including but not limited to working class queer, trans, undocumented, disabled, Muslim, sex workers, women/non-binary, HIV+ people.’

You’ll also find the group have been given £1.2 million by 35,000 donors. At the risk of being tedious I will mention that this sum would change the lives of almost 7500 black children in Africa who were born with a cleft palate and face a lifetime of ridicule and social isolation, or pay for nearly 75,000 ingrowing eye lash operations or nearly seven and a half million doses of a drug to cure trachoma and prevent this many black people going blind.

Clearly all those donors have different priorities to mine.

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Freedom of Expression & the High Court Decision

from Steve Starlord

A CLASH between the Right to Freedom of Expression in relation to Harry Miller's alleged transphobic tweets recorded by the police as a 'non-crime Hate Speech'.

Police officer’s ‘transphobic’ tweets were lawful, high court rules in landmark case (14 February 2020)

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/02/14/harry-miller-police-officer-transphobic-tweets-lawful-high-court-trans-media-watch/

Police officer’s ‘transphobic’ tweets were lawful, high court rules in l... Harry Miller, an ex-police officer accused of 'transphobic' tweets, has won a partial victory after a High Court... "Police officer’s ‘transphobic’ tweets were lawful, high court rules in landmark case" Not yet spotted anything else online about this apart from this article on Pink News. I've just seen it announced on BBCNews24 on TV. I mentioned this website the other day when we were chatting in IKEA. Police transgender rules breach right to free speech, court told (20 November 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/20/police-transgender-rules-breach-right-to-free-speech-court-told Police transgender rules breach right to free speech, court told Owen Bowcott Ex-officer Harry Miller taking legal action after being accused of hate incident "Police transgender rules breach right to free speech, court told Ex-officer Harry Miller taking legal action after being accused of hate incident" ********************************************

Les's 'J'accuse letter' to all Rochdale's Councillors

IS ROCHDALE COUNCIL GUILTY OF BAD FAITH?

J'accuse. by Zola. J'accuse, (French: “I accuse”) was a celebrated open letter by Émile Zola to the president of the French Republic in defense of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer who had been accused of treason by the French army. It was published in the newspaper L'Aurore on Jan. 13, 1898.  

On the 1st, December 2019. on this NV Blog Les May accused the Rochdale Councillors of 'institutional racism' for their failure to openly condemn a version of racism when it was applied to white northern workingmen employed as tree surgeons in the Rochdale ward of Newbold.  Mild mutterings in private e-mails really doesn't cut the mustard.  

A number of councillors have already replied to Les May's open letter on the 6th, Nov. calling on Rochdale's councillors to condemn the collective assault on the tree surgeons recorded on this NV Blog.  Meanwhile, another  Rochdale councillor who is Asian has quite separately engaged with me in an exchange of views on this matter below. 

Readers of this Blog, in the light of the savage attack in Newbold on the tree surgeons in October 2017, must judge the wisdom of the concluding utterance of this councillor:
'Brian I don't want to waste your time justice has been served and there are no tensions in newbod of the sort you suggest'

***************

On Fri 25/10/2019 at 14:04, I wrote:

Dear Councillor X,

How are you? You will no doubt be aware of the case below for which I provide the link.  Already there are sites taking note of this who perhaps lack the best of intentions. I suspect the people involved were not from Kashmir. However, the critics of this behaviour will not be so nuanced and on past experience will use a scatter gun approach. In the light of this, it is important that the Council should condemn in full council what has happened up Newbold in the strongest possible terms.  I'm sure that you will agree with this, and accept that attempts to sweep this kind of conduct under the carpet is worse than short-sighted. Please try to prevail upon your colleagues and get them to condemn the culture that allows this to take place?

Best wishes,

Brian Bamford:  joint-editor of Northern Voices. 

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On Fri the 25/10/2019 at 14:49 Councillor  X replied:

Thank you Brian  I am aware of this case and as a result the council,police and community have worked together.

I am a councillor ,not Kashmiri,Pakistani or Muslim councillor but a councillor who serves all people of Rochdale.

In your email I assume hints of segregation (but I know you better). However, are you suggesting that all muslim/Asian councillors should condemn it?

We are having a meeting with police to look at crime figures in my ward and drawing up a strategy to combat it.

Once again thank you for your email.

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To which I responded on Fri 25/10/2019 at 20:01L

Dear X,

I wrote to you as a friend rather than as a councillor and as I am someone who, because of my history which know about, has a certain affection for Kasmir.  Clearly as a councillor you must represent all of your consituents, but one of the offendents in this case , Habibur Rahman, claimed in Court that the victims  were 'white b******s' who were in his 'country'.  Now Mr. Rahman was clearly making a specific  georgraphical claim, and as someone who is an ethnomethodologist and a conversational analyst I find it curious.  I take this to mean that he exercises some control in Newbold.  Now let me be clear that I believe that all Rochdale councillors of all parties, should openly condemn this kind of thing, precisely because it strikes at the heart of all human decency and civilisation.

Best wishes,

Brian Bamford

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On Mon the 04/11/2019 at 07:16 I wrote:  I don't understand why you are so reluctant to invite me over to discuss the problems of Newbold. Clearly there is something seriously wrong in the ward. Later today I will be talking to the police about this case of the tree surgeons. As I write this I'm just hearing about the problems in Kashmir on Radio Four, I remember in the 1990s when you asked me to go over there with you. The bottom line is there must be an open and public condemnation of what happened in Newbold at the next Full Council Meeting which I believe is the 11th, December?

To which Councillor X replied on Mon 04/11/2019 at 08:29:  Brian I don't want to waste your time justice has been served and there are no tensions in newbod of the sort you suggest

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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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Richard Farnell case 'insufficient evidence’!

THE police investigation into allegations that the former Rochdale council leader Richard Farnell committed perjury when he appeared at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) have now said there is 'insufficient evidence’ to take any criminal action against him.

Initially a report from the inquiry alleged Councillor Farnell had ‘lied under oath’ as he gave evidence about the town’s notorious Knowl View school, where children had been abused during a period of over than 25 years.

That allegation branded Councillor Farnell – who has always strongly denied he misled the inquiry – as ‘shameful’ in refusing to take responsibility for the abuse that happened under his watch when he was leader of the council from 1986 and 1992.

It said, at the time, that ‘defies belief’ that he was unaware of the events involving the school.


In May 2018 the Metropolitan Police received a referral from the Greater Manchester Police requesting the force reviewed an allegation of perjury by a witness to the IICSA.

Now after a long investigation the Metropolitan Police have told Councillor Farnell that they will not be taking matters any further following a ‘full review’ of the evidence.

The letter, signed by Acting Detective Chief Inspector Gail Granville states:   'Having carefully considered all the material gathered that was subject to review, I have concluded there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate to the criminal standard that you wilfully, that is to say deliberately and not inadvertently or by mistake, made a statement that you know to be false or did not believe to be true.

'As a result, no further action will be taken by the Metropolitan Police in relation to the allegation.'

Councillor Farnell, who stood down as council leader just weeks after giving his evidence to the inquiry, has welcomed the decision.

He said:  'I am really pleased that following a thorough 12 month investigation by the Metropolitan Police they have decided not to prosecute me for perjury.
'I have always maintained I told the truth to the inquiry and the Metropolitan Police’s decision vindicates this.
'There is not one scrap of evidence that I knew about the failings at Knowl View almost 30 years ago. The council’s most senior officers at the time  – the chief executive and directors of education and social services – all told the inquiry they did not inform me.
'The inquiry examined  over 100,000 pages of letters, reports and documents and not a single one was addressed to me or informed me about Knowl View.'

Referring to Operation Clifton, which NV took part – an investigation into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse at Knowl View, Councillor Farnell added:
' A previous two-year inquiry by Greater Manchester Police into allegations of a cover-up of Knowl View found there was absolutely no evidence to support this.
“The inquiry was handed a 16 page report of evidence proving beyond any doubt I was not informed about Knowl View which, bizarrely, they ignored.”
Councillor Farnell, who continues to represent the Balderstone and Kirkholt ward, said it has been "extremely stressful" to have the allegation hanging over him for twelve months, but thanked the police for a ‘thorough investigation’.
He added: “I was always confident it would come to nothing because I told the truth to the inquiry and all the evidence supports this.
'However, we must never, never forget the victims in this tragedy. It was only under my leadership that the council apologised for its failings at Knowl View.'

When he stood down as council leader Councillor Farnell blamed a ‘small minority’ of Labour members for ‘undermining’ his leadership following the hearing.

He was later suspended by the Labour party and still awaits reinstatment.

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