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Doing our bit to combat terrorism & racism

Julian Richardson | 27.07.2005 09:41 | Anti-racism | Repression | Social Struggles | Terror War | World

It's been reported that Lincolnshire Police officers arrested two men yesterday, who had been travelling on the GNER Newcastle to London King's Cross service, at Grantham railway station, following 'tip-offs' given by two off-duty Metropolitan Police officers, who were travelling on the same service.

The arrested men were taken to a Lincolnshire police station, where they were being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, for questioning. The train and the rest of the passengers continued on the journey, Lincolnshire Police said.

This follows hot on the heels of an open-top US tourist bus with "five middle eastern men with rucksacks" being stopped after a tip-off from another passenger. They were all, as expected, released without charge, the so-called "tip-off", somewhat predictably, actually being yet another example of racism and Islamophobia.

However, rather than investigate that crime and arrest and question the people actually making these bogus, vexatious reports in the first place, rooted as they are in racist paranoia, the police seem to be preferring to assist in the perpetuation of these racist attacks, even going so far as to arrest ethnic minorities at gun-point, on no concrete evidence of any wrong doing whatsoever.

So be sure your doing your own bit to help combat both terrorism and racism, within your community.

If you see anyone acting "suspiciously", and that can apparently simply involve - as the police have announced - carrying a ruck-sack, wearing a jumper or jacket in case it gets cold or appearing fidgety, stressed or nervous (isn't that half of London at the moment!?), then be sure to let the police know without delay.

However, unless the person you happen to report as suspicious is from an ethnic minority don't hold your breath any precautionary action will be taken, least of all that they'll stop a train or a bus and send in the a bunch of heavily-armed 'heavies'. As all of us who've lived in London for years and viewed with disgust the extent to which ethnic minorities are routinely harassed by the police, 'honkies' apparently ain't guilty of nothing!

This gross failure - treating a campaign to root out a terrorist insurgency, as an opportunity to give police officers quite literally carte blanche to put into practice brutal, discriminatory & racist ideologies on city streets - will all be sharply brought into focus when we see - as chance may have it at some point - the first white suicide bomber.

And reveal yet another blinkered, failure in "intelligence" when it goes off.

Countering any sort of criminality within society should always be scrupulously colour-blind, and be based on solid evidence and credible intelligence. Not on a simplistic, blanket approach which simply seems to nonsensically and racially say "black people bad" and "white people good".

Julian Richardson

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

a little racism is ok if it beats the terrorists, right?

27.07.2005 11:20

"Britain with its liberal and welcoming approach to people is taking this in its stride. I'm very proud of that." - Ian Blair

Can you imagine the police chief saying that about a situation where white people were the targets of death threats, abuse and attack on the streets and in their places of worship? Isn't that exactly what we dispise so much about the terrorists' modus operandi?

Should we be outraged? Absolutely.

Should we be surprised? Not at all.

unimpressed


reality check

27.07.2005 11:53

I think you'll find the terrorists were hardly Jehovah's Witnesses were they?

Therefore it is legitimate to take into account the suspects religious identity, because Al Qaeda IS AN ISLAMIC TERRORIST GROUP BY DEFINITION.

But I guess to some being "anti racist" is more important than saving lives!

Most Asian people actually are PLEASED to see the police being proactive because in case you didn't notice, they also bleed like we do, and die like we do, when a bomb goes off.

err


Racial profiling is a violation of universal human rights

27.07.2005 20:56

Um... here in America, Muslims come from all nationalities, many muslims are black or white. If you start ethnically profiling people, then the "terrorists" will just recruit people who don't fit the profile.

George Washington


As expected the men arrested on the train now released without charge

27.07.2005 22:50

A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said: "Following extensive inquiries during we are now satisfied that the men arrested from the GNER train at Grantham at 11pm last night are not connected to any terrorist activity.

"They have been released from our custody without any charge and the matter is now closed."

I expect the off-duty officers who made the erroneous tip-off are having a great laugh at all the trouble they caused.

The quiet beginnings of Britain's very own Nazi-style kristalnacht carries on apace.

Unless people start doing something about it...

Ron


Um, Err ... ?

28.07.2005 02:35

"it is legitimate to take into account the suspects religious identity, because Al Qaeda IS AN ISLAMIC TERRORIST GROUP BY DEFINITION."

According to the people who knowingly LIED about Saddam's vast arsenal of WMD, in order to justify a long-planned ILLEGAL War of Aggression for Profit which, coincidentally, slaughtered over a hundred thousand innocent men, women, and children - most of them, Muslim/Arab.

But every time someone points to "al Qaeda", it turns out either to be yet another LIE (which is very quietly retracted by the media, after being SHOUTED initially), or their ends up being a connection to Western Intelligence Agencies.

The group is a myth, my friend.

Don't Fall for the PsyOps