London Rolling

The news doesn't stop coming this year

This racist bastard ran over innocent civilians on their way home from taraweh #FinsburyPark pic.twitter.com/YHvsVZHqIY

— Didier (@Known_As_H) June 18, 2017

Cops say they've arrested someone; calling this a major incident
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40322960

Imam of mosque protected the driver until police arrived.

looking forward to the right-wing thinkosphere's incoming 'while we must condemn his methods, his concerns were nevertheless legitimate' hot takes

Plenty of papers have been dusting off their Abu Hamza files, despite the fact that was a) 15 years ago and b) a completely different mosque in the area.

It sounds like the driver targeted a group of people who'd come to the aid of a man who'd had a heart attack outside the building.

Just up the road from me, I almost got the tube to there earlier in the evening.

It's my nearest tube station too, take the 106 there almost daily.

I'm terrified by the prospect of van attacks becoming Europe's gun violence - just something that'll happen whenever someone snaps.

Here are the Abu Hamza files from the usual suspects:

As many Muslim friends as I have, I still can’t imagine what it’s like to be on the end of these headlines every day. Every fucking day. pic.twitter.com/wyiwzWiw8Q

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) June 19, 2017

if they must write racist headlines, at least make the effort to make them punchy - that's just a chore to read

he was clean shaven, what a gent.

say what u will about this racist murderer, at least he had the decency to run a razor across his face before heading out to kill people

In fairness that probably is their version of a nod towards acknowledging "def not Muslim"

yeah that thought did occur to me

Am I allowed to be irritated that the bus I use to get to work every day was cancelled, even though its route takes it about 50 yards closer, the end of my street closer, to Finsbury Park than my flat?

Footage of the guy being arrested embedded in this story, he appears to be J3r3my Cl@rks0n

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/19/imam-praised-for-protecting-finsbury-park-suspect-from-crowd

Beat that Gazza.

let's not encourage him

Those mail headlines are completely illiterate. Why is there absolutely no punctuation? Surprised they bothered with the capitalisation.

Obviously there are other problems with it as well.

Seems to be a Welsh connection to this attack. Have Welsh people been strong enough in condemning it?

Someone's attacked a policeman at Paddington??

http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/19/finsbury-park-suspect-named-as-father-of-four-darren-osborne-6720145/#ixzz4kT0ka3DT

"Another neighbour said: ‘He had lived on the estate for a few years. He’s always been a complete c*** but this is really surprising.’"

“This is awful. There are a lot of evil people out there but you don’t think of people like that being in somewhere like Pontyclun.”

That did jump out me.

at me

i realise there's a lot of goading the daily mail to be had when this sort of attack occurs, but i still remain unconvinced that the solution to flinging words like "terrorist" and "radicalised" around without much analysis is to do exactly the same to prove a point about the media when a perpetrator is not muslim.

it's not that i don't think the person involved in this act is a terrorist by definition of the word, it's more that adopting the tone, language, and level of anger of the daily mail, even with almost fully concealed irony, is a pretty bad road to go down. we'd be better trying to humanise all acts of violence rather than demonise some in the name of redressing the balance versus the worst publication in the country.

it also feels weird to me that one dominant reaction to horrible violent acts is this social media goading of the right wing press - but i guess that's inevitable and some part of the wider desensitisation. i mean, if people do believe the tabloids are responsible for an act like last night, then we should start getting a good theory together about who's responsible for other terrorist attacks as well.

lastly, the amount of people in a rage today about the fact the papers didn't linguistically roast the still-living perpetrator and end up in contempt of court is also disturbing, it sometimes feels like people want the same bigoted, violent and angry coverage for all criminals, not just foreign ones, rather than an eradication of this kind of language and approach.

You won't earn any points that way mayne

that could mean a lot of things as a response so i don't know if i agree!

I agree with your take

It's a lot to ask maybe. Criticism of behaviour is demonstrably as prone to partisan blinkeredness as anything else.

fully agree, but I also suspect that the individualist philosophy promulgated through neoliberal doctrine has distorted people's general notion of what constitutes "fairness." So many people I meet seem fascinated by a version of fairness that often seems incredibly punitive and petty. Seeing minor injustices everywhere between neighbours but largely accepting of macro-scale inequality. I feel like this is the basis of this kind of tit-for-tat re: holding the mail to account in this way. Its a very Piers Morgan style inquisition on hypocrisy that has no foundations in any vision of how we might actually want the world to be. I sometimes suspect that everyone just hates each other anyway.

yeah there's a really facile and childish sense of "redressing the balance" that seems to permeate issues that would benefit from a lot more effort.

i agree it's a bit idealistic and also like, fuck the daily mail in a way, i can't quite be sure if it's necessary for some people to take the fight to them or a total, total waste of time that just boosts their reach and popularity. i know a lot of the time it's the latter but maybe not always.

i mean its easy to be overwhelmed by the complacency and opportunism of the news media in its fascination with scandal and theatre

its like when the news sources were hounding corbyn up until the election, and I really wondered how much of my own bias filtered into my perception of how he was being treated. Then I saw this clip, after the election, of Laura Kuenssberg literally just heckling Theresa May. I almost have a personal vendetta against Theresa May, as she is a big reason why one of my best friends is now on a different continent, and she has done much that I believe she should be held to account for that she probably never will be. But this is not journalism, neither is it about speaking truth to power. This is literally someone shouting at the PM in the street. Still, I have to admit, I did slightly enjoy seeing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUqiczVgMG4

Reporters shouting at politicians in the street is the British way, sir!

People were talking about LK yelling like a drunk radge who'd had her drink stolen and when I saw the clip I just thought 'really?'

its just that its so without substance. is what strong and stable. what does that mean. It sounds like something you yell in some heated street encounter.

Khadijeh Sherizi, who lives next door, said the suspected attacker was "so normal".

"He was in his kitchen yesterday afternoon singing with his kids. He was the dad of the family. He has kids. He lives next door. He seemed polite and pleasant to me."

I love that, "He has kids. He lives next door."

statistically speaking that is far from normal

When it comes to descriptions of terror suspects, this, from Metro's piece on Darren Osborne, takes some beating. pic.twitter.com/GwrVNHZcwk

— Ben (@BenDunnell) June 19, 2017

This is the Britain we should rally behind, etc

#notallcompletecunts

You'd never have suspected it, he was just your typical complete cunt, kept himself to himself, the prick.

More from Khadijh Sherazi,

"We didn’t think nothing of it. He seemed a normal bloke, a normal family, normal kids, happy go lucky. I would see him out walking with his two spaniels. He would also shout quite a lot but the kids seemed happy. I wouldn’t have said he was someone with mental problems."

The Daily Mail and the tabs in general humanise a terrorist if he is white. Its not hard.

This needs to be called out for time and again. For ever and ever.

Unfortunately it is hard.

The problems with terrorism are bigger than how the Daily Mail covers it, and the problems with how the Daily Mail covers events are bigger than its approach to terrorism.

I wouldn't describe their approach to this latest event, or any other, as "humanising", and as already stated, the rhetorical approach of angrily wishing the Daily Mail was equally awful to everyone seems a failure.

I am not saying this is the most problematic aspect wrt terrorism but papers like the Mail can shape public response and ultimately policy (via polls)

The bits I'm reading above are somewhat emphasizing that he is like you or me (Jo Cox's murderer was a quiet retiring chap iirc). I don't think anyone is wishing the Mail does anything different because everyone knows what it is - that's what they do. But it has to be called for every inch of the way. It certainly is, and long may it continue.

i just think it's too complicated, none of these crimes are the same, no two violent crimes can be the same and on multiple levels the crime last night and say, manchester or london bridge or whatever are wildly different. there are definitely some cliches around how the criminal is described but i don't think the solution is to seek equal demonisation of "radicalised terrorists" and furiously denounce any narrative that includes someone's history of mental health problems.

I was having a conversation about this with a Muslim dude earlier. The guy who murdered Jo Cox was barely literate and the group he was affiliated with couldn't draw more than 40 people on a good day. They usually got outnumbered by the police for local gatherings - which isn't very austerity, but how it was. We came to the conclusion that this current government are the real dangerous extremists.

Obv there are ongoing investigations on the attacks in Manchester and both attacks in London so it will be a while before any conclusions can be drawn on how similar or different these are. Having said that you do see the way sections the media jump the gun and simplify - nothing is too complicated for them - for their readers and what I see on my TL is people pulling them up on it.

I haven't seen many people saying "be equally awful to everyone". What I have seen is pointing out the discrepancy in the coverage with a desire for balanced, better reporting.

I am sympathetic to LG's view but the Times headline which, prior to any investigation describes him as a "Jobless 'lone wolf' " is o_O.

afaict, the only person who has definitively marked him as a 'lone wolf' is Tommy Robinson, so maybe that's who they are quoting.

Yeah I saw that front page last night, it is incredibly cliched but I guess I don't see "lone wolf" as a specific form of exoneration, it just seems to be a different codeword or media genre for this, a fairly silly cliche. I guess people find it hard to think of a terrorist acting without affiliation to an organisation - I don't think that's entirely misguided or damaging at a basic level, like I'm not convinced terrorist is specific enough for an act like Finsbury Park. Plus there is a long history of white terrorism in the UK, i think the bogeyman of the organisation is a big part of how people think of terrorism and I guess how the media talks about it. But also how it should be dealt with, tbh. Brendan Cox said yesterday we should treat attacks like this exactly the same way as we treat London Bridge etc, that's a good soundbyte but I don't agree. Racism is not the same as Islamic fundamentalism. It starts to get into an absurd territory.

By the dictionary definition of terrorist a huge number of crimes could be deemed as terrorism, like almost crime which has fear or violence as an element, I guess I don't see why "hate crime" is not more specific for an incident like this, even if a general acceptance that terrorist is not confined to specific races or religion is welcome.

It's terrorism because the attack was against a specific community and was carried out by someone who wanted to take lives and breed fear in that community. The attacker, in common with the Westminster Bridge van driver, does not have to be a joined-up member of an extremist group for the wider public to judge this as terrorism.

Terrorism, to me, is defined by the relationship to authority - unless it's, theoretically at least, designed to influence the direction of capital-P politics it's usually something else. The growth in near-nihilistic ISIS attacks and mass hate-crimes like Dylann Roof and this guy does blur that boundary but part of the reason hate crimes have elevated sentencing is because they're recognised as an attack on communities, not just individuals.

The semantics of public discourse are important and i totally get why this is being widely defined as terrorism but i think there'd be as much value in defining it as a hate crime, and treating the two as equally serious, as there would in recalibrating what we think of as terrorism.

This is good imo:

I understand - completely - the place that this comes from. But I question the political utility of calling Darren Osborne a terrorist.

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) June 20, 2017

The thread, rather than just that tweet...

... and particularly how elevating it to 'terrorism' potentially decontextualises it from a long history of racist murder in the UK.

it's interesting to me how quietly and completely the "self-radicalisation" element has now entered the definition: by contrast the entire purpose of the "terrorist narrative" of the 70s and 80s was to argue that it was a phenomenon created planned and controlled by enemy states (mainly the USSR; sometimes also iran)

i somewhat assume this is why some ideologues need the caliphate not to be the "so-called" caliphate: ie to argue it has a concrete geographical existence at the hub of all terror "so-called" -- but this now seems an old-fashioned outlier

(certainly in the early 2000s, an element in left fightback was that "bush is the real terrorist" -- justifiably i think making the link between say "shock and awe" and terror as a desired tool of modern statecraft. i tend to agree with SV and LG that expanding the definition, esp.if i'ls being expanded upwards AND downwards this way, is more obfuscatory than useful… moreoever, my inclination is to suggest that better storymaking is not a matter of angrily tweaking the meaning of specific words, least of all as if it were for consistency's sake: the "consistency" if achieved may well be at cost of other things we want to change)

(i also think a good story to be emphasising is that the reach of these newspapers is beginning to fail: i actually slightly resent how long we've spent treating them as a seriously implacable force across all the land; they're not, any more)

"Brendan Cox said yesterday we should treat attacks like this exactly the same way as we treat London Bridge etc, that's a good soundbyte but I don't agree. "

I'd imagine some of the women who complained about his behaviour at Save The Children would contest his credibility as a campaigner for equality. There is something really off about that guy, all the platitudinous "more in common" soundbites remind me of Blairites that talked the good talk and then abstained on every damaging Tory austerity bill that maintained people have fuck all in common. Sorry for o/t derail for personal bugbear*

*probably mostly my m.o. tbh

i think there'd be as much value in defining it as a hate crime, and treating the two as equally serious, as there would in recalibrating what we think of as terrorism.

Semantically I think "hate crime" is such a dogwhistle for the right - "minorities getting special treatment" - while terrorism is, in a way, "their" word, not something they can mock or wave away. So yeah, playing their game to an extent.

fwiw I feel like this and London Bridge certainly felt like the same thing - similar methods, lack of apparent ties to any organisation. Motivation less easy to ascertain, but if you'd ask me to guess I'd probably think that, behind the ideological trappings, the attackers were probably suffering under a lot of the same conditions

(i also think a good story to be emphasising is that the reach of these newspapers is beginning to fail: i actually slightly resent how long we've spent treating them as a seriously implacable force across all the land; they're not, any more)

― mark s, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 08:13 (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Side question- is there something in ilxs demographic makeup that causes it, or has caused it til now, to overstate (to whatever extent) the importance, influence, whatever of the media in this fashion?

Some combo of idk higher participation in the industry, greater makeup of users with media-related education or interests, whatever?

Does being politicised lead to it, perhaps? It's a big element of the game, not necessarily of the reality outside of that?

tbf the media itself has played up its importance for years - the Sun wot won it etc

but it's probably always been the case that the proprietors of popular newspapers are in the game for political influence rather than because it's a profitable industry - right back to Beaverbrook and Harmsworth - so this idea is long-standing and widespread. and now more than ever the vast majority of people are saturated in media, its language and perspectives and values. it's just that that media has become more diffuse in its sources, maybe.

of course the effects of cultural discourse on individuals are nebulous but I think the two extremes of "it has no effect" and "people are brainwashed" are both untrue positions

I wouldn't underestimate the importance of the media in shaping the pre-election view of Corbyn, Brexit, immigration, Islam, etc - i think the key takeaway from the election is that those narratives can be challenged effectively.

The problem with tabloid orthodoxy is that, until now, politicians have pretty much accommodated it rather than really believing it was possible to push back.

The semantics of public discourse are important and i totally get why this is being widely defined as terrorism but i think there'd be as much value in defining it as a hate crime, and treating the two as equally serious, as there would in recalibrating what we think of as terrorism.

That's p much exactly my view. Hate crime treated as seriously specifically highlights the fact it's targeting minority groups. Terrorism by definition is not necessarily against minorities - to say otherwise would require us to come up with a new word to describe much of what has been defined as terrorism historically.

I also think, and maybe I'm going too far, that there may be injustices at the heart of the causes of some terrorism, distinguishing it is helpful in exposing the fact that that's not true for hate crimes.

ISIS and their nihilism probably challenge that but again, that's a case for narrowing our definition of terrorism to exclude them, not broadening it beyond all meaning to score a point.

On the media stuff, I find it a tricky issue in that it seems hard to say when the media is responsible for someone's views or actions or just reflecting them. Do we think the media is capable of directly inspiring violence but not say, videogames or violent movies or whatever? I feel like in the left we used to reject entirely the idea that people acted based on what they consumed culturally but perhaps times have changed, I don't know.

People being told that their irl neighbours pose a direct security threat, are the reason they can't get a job / housing, are trying to erode their way of life, etc is pretty different from the the idea that abstract violence in media promotes violence in society.

Isn't the usual leftist stance - and the reason there can be so much debate about gender, representation, etc. in media - that it's not about directly influencing ppl's actions but molding the culture and discourse we're in?

xpost

I think we can allow for an Overton window-ish effect without going full "video nasties will turn you into a psycho", and that includes presentations of violence and its role in conflict resolution imo

fwiw I feel like this and London Bridge certainly felt like the same thing

The more obvious parallel is the Westminster Bridge attack.

Worth pointing out that many of the men who commit these acts are domestic abusers.

i think part of my objection is as follows:

i) the thing deems rightly asks abt is IMO quite a recent development! it wasn't considered implacable even in the 90s -- formidable maybe, but not implacable (blair's ceasefire treaty with murdoch maybe somewhat changed this, by virtue of blair's early success: but it still came across as deft pragmatism, not bowing to the utterly inevitable)
ii) it belongs to a historical period now over! which is thatcher's successful wooing of a key part of the soon-to-be ex-urban working classes via pruchase of council houses etc-- which as of course totally screwed things up for those that came after! those who came after -- for whom higher ed is available only as a kind of indentured debt -- don't read it at all
iii) so yes, there was a period -- you can doubtless trace it with some kind of bell-like curve -- where the sun especially was able to act as the voice of a dynamic element within the working class, within a particular age-cohort… the amplification of which shut out or anyway muffled many *other* working-class elements
iv) a think abt post-grenfell news stories is seeing kinds of ppl speaking on my TV (actually more often my computer) screen who i see and hear all around me EVERY DAY, *except* on-screen -- bcz somehow compared to yaxley-lennon and the foax john harris likes to seek out, they are "not properly working class" or something (hackney is quite hipstery! and the gentrification sorta-kinda includes me! but it is predominantly poor and working class and this element has not yet been cleansed and god-willing will not be)

to answer deems, i am going to theorise that it's almost an offshoot of the "likes of us" (*vaguely handwaves the social make-up of the thread/uk ilx generally*) doing our elective affinity thing: an overstated other that we had recoiled from (but needed to affirm our "usness") -- what's fun abt RIGHT NOW is that this dynamic is maybe breaking up into something less cocooned and hermetic

part two of my theory is: this is why posting tweets is good not bad *runs away*

booming thread i love you guys

...by contrast the entire purpose of the "terrorist narrative" of the 70s and 80s was to argue that it was a phenomenon created planned and controlled by enemy states (mainly the USSR; sometimes also iran)

What?

Yes, doesn't account for IRA, ETA, RAF, Red Brigades...

Part of the practice of deriding pernicious media influence stems from the fear of the prospect of the extremist language and behaviour found within it as not otherwise requiring 'policing' (and the attention paid to 'what the papers say' thru TV News and social media both enabling that and perhaps distorting its importance). It seems like the resulting effect has been headlines, editorials and columnists getting more hysterical and trollish as their reach (on individual bases) dwindles and understandably the urge has been to try and shame that harder rather than treat it as a sign of any actual progress.

Was actually agog at The Times rolling with 'jobless', 'lone wolf' and 'mental illness' re the Finsbury Park attacker. End up preferring the idea that's deliberate and self-ware of them rather than that no-one putting that together is seeing a problem.

my formulation is compact and perhaps therefore not clear (sorry not sorry, my brand is my brand) but *ridiculous* as it now sounds, all of those (RAF, ETA etc) were routinely described/dismissed in mainstream outlets in the late 70s as being funded and directed FROM MOSCOW -- viz not "freedom fighters" but "terrorists"

this framing is now so dated it is hard to bring sensibly back to mind (but luckily i am dated too, and remember it quite well)

I don't really know how the mainstream media was reporting the groups in question at the time but I do know the Provos were rabidly anti-Marxist for most, if not all, of the 70s - it was only the advent of younger leaders like Adams that pushed them leftwards.

... that and members drifting across from avowedly Marxist groups like the Official IRA and INLA.

that came thru when I read some of the INLA pieces that people have shared recently

but details aside, I remember the kind of media-think that mark is talking about. the 70s 'Ra are a possible exception but the globalisation of terror was definitely a thing, iirc Ludlum's original Bourne novel hinges on this kind of worldview

and I strongly doubt the mainstream English audience knew or cared much about the political distinctions between NI paras then or now

yes my formulation wasn't to do with how these groups thought of themselves: it was abt how they were winkled into geopolitics as then understood by the pundits of the day

(deems posted a badly proofed but v interesting 1985 guide a couple of days back to the internal histories of the NI orgs on the ira thread, which backs up what you said -- tho the non-provisionals were very extremely marxist at that point) (and much attention was paid to e.g. where the armoury was being purchased)

tho lol of course the guns which weren't bought from gaddafi's libya were bought from the US

I just saw a Hate Crime Reporting Centre in Keighley, Maybe it was always there and I didn't notice before

Good answers to my halfmusings thanks

Think mark is otm about it more of a seeming powerful monolith post-blair that maybe hasn't been challenged by politicians since as they've all been hyperaware of the benefits of said ceasefire.

Corbyn not having been afforded same and yet succeeding over a continued period serves as a reminder. Maybe his best service throughout his time is how he stands as a refutation of that type of compromise.

An aside, the definition of terrorism that puts front and centre the definition of "controlled by a foreign power" very comfortably describes the IRA/INLA imo but perhaps not sufficiently either

Isnt the other legacy of Blair in terms of the power of the media, or at least the perception of it, the way in which the new labour government made their whole information delivery system so hyper-coordinated with the news cycle? Announcements were timed and leaked with media narratives in mind, and an accommodating knowledge of the requirements of journalists and news organisations to deliver content for particular time-slots (6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, etc.) We're very used to so many elements of this, the advance notice of the content of speeches ("the prime minister is expected to say...") for instance, its easy to forget that the Blair government forged a fairly novel relationship with the press in this country. I think this has encouraged a sense of mutual dependency between press and government, that has given a sense that the press are very much a part of the workings of governmental power. And also an increased desire for government to cater to the desires of the news outlets. You see this very much in the panicked way that Theresa May has sought to assuage Mail-ers all the way, despite the fact that less and less people read the daily mail and those that do are mostly focussed on salacious celebrity gossip where somebody steps out wearing something specific just after divorcing/cheating on/ getting engaged to/ having a fight with somebody else.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/25/demonstrators-confront-police-in-east-london-over-da-costa-death

every police car in SE London is heading to Greenwich, shutting down the entire road network

I got caught in it but was able to get a train. tt is braving the Jubilee to NG right now

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4811588/deptford-new-cross-south-london-police-latest-updates/

met police are claiming that these are measures to combat plans by biker gangs to ride around terrorising everyone with smoke bombs etc

also don't link the fucking sun kthx

Think the police got intel of a shooting in Greenwich but realised after dispatching 30 vans it was the Greenwich in New York!??? #Deptford

— S.T aka SamueL (@ST_AKA_SAMUEL) October 31, 2017

omg

please, please let that be true

no that's absolute bullshit, the convoys in london were on the go like an hour or two before the nyc thing

Possibly something to do with this

Officers will be out across #London during Halloween to prevent crime and disruption caused by anti social motorcyclists pic.twitter.com/oKxiqY4Ljp

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) October 31, 2017

yeah i saw that. but a massive convoy? idk

Charlton, just now: the sound of a great whooshing, like some cosmic air vent, then Chinooks about the sky. What does it mean, or portend?

this is really awful. 25 years old with outrageously huge potential, my god. Terrible ;_;

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/13/model-killed-in-latest-london-stabbing

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/opinion/this-dire-battersea-power-station-development-is-genuinely-dystopian/10028763.article?blocktitle=Comment&contentID=13641

weird that the previous post is about a model being stabbed as another model's been stabbed, this time in battersea

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/liz-hurleys-model-nephew-miles-repeatedly-stabbed-in-london-street-attack-a3786521.html

I mean everybody is a model now

Huge cloud of black smoke over the Knightsbridgeish area right now. Appears to be the Mandarin Oriental on fire.

southern trains wifi is p good actually

wait

wait

ru here

idk wheres here.

in town for a few hours but wouldnt besmirch a mrs mac day out with ye yobs tbf

I hope you've taken her to the Emirates right now.

alas

ireland -> gatwick -> west end -> gatwick -> ireland. no football, no internet friends

p much

sky news helicopter hovering almost directly over our house wtf

now joined by a police one

Are your neighbours the Vardys?

poll coverage obv

Rolf Harris spotted near a primary school in SE 18

haha it's for Extinction Rebellion shutting down City Airport :D yass you go guys

obviously we were returning there from milan about two years ago to the day and had this been then my tune might have been more 'yass but ffs'

not my problem fortunately

London Bridge cordoned off, reports of gunshots on a bus.

Fired by police?

fuuuuuck

twitter is saying someone with a knife was shot on the bridge

Pics of a lorry across the bridge..

Several men attacking one man according to an eyewitness.

Black Friday bargain hunters gone feral

Working on a street nearby and it has just been cordoned off by police

Content warning: poss body. https://twitter.com/Clarerobbo1000/status/1200420500834603008

Police were called at 1:58pm to a stabbing at premises near to London Bridge.

Emergency services attended, including officers from the Met and @CoLP

A man has been detained by police. We believe a number of people have been injured. Further info to follow.

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 29, 2019

Lol:

Literally what is the point of this tweet pic.twitter.com/cYKbbH0uRp

— Sam ✌️ (@samisam147) November 29, 2019

Ask Laura

https://twitter.com/Monkeytripes/status/1200426215510888453

Some sort of brawl followed by gun fire..

Might ask for that to be taken down - it's basically a snuff film?

Guardian removed it from their rolling live coverage of the incident

I've disembedded it

Big shout out to this fella who not only risked his life to stop a terrorist attack but also had to dump his cocaine due to the impending police interview. Swings and roundabouts. #londonbridge pic.twitter.com/zY7z2V023M

— Max O'Leary (@maxoleary1989) November 29, 2019

It appears to have taken place at a criminal rehabilitation event at Fishmongers Hall. There are photos taken from inside the event shortly before the attack on social media.

Also one of the attendees took a narwhal tusk off the wall and went out onto the bridge to attack the perpetrator with it.

that's some steampunk shit right there

i literally posted earlier about the growing bloodlust of decadent middle england and how we can't be far off some sort of crim hunger games as entertainment

what will tip the football forums of the uk over the edge is if it turns out the two people this guy killed were paedos

NRA types saying Britishers can't defend themselves because guns and knives are illegal - we have fucking narwhal tusks you idiots.

Also one of the attendees took a narwhal tusk off the wall and went out onto the bridge to attack the perpetrator with it.

0_o

These fellas are amazing. The terrorist has already killed 2 people, injured others and they chase him down with a whale tusk and a fire extinguisher. He’s wearing a suicide vest which they don’t know is fake.
Incredible. True heroes. #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/0hduOInM9I

— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) November 30, 2019

Which one is the convicted murderer?

The one without an improvised weapon apparently.

James Ford, 42, was jailed for life in 2004 for the murder of 21-year-old Amanda Champion, who was found strangled with her throat cut in Ashford, Kent, in July 2003.

A true hero.

'e only ever strangled 'is own people

The have-a-go strangler is British at least *wipes away tear of pride*

BREAKING: The Koko music venue on #Camden High Street, north-west London is ablaze.

The venue was undergoing a major transformation and was due to re-open in the spring this year.

Video: @Ic_ibz pic.twitter.com/p8ScPOAnfw

— London 999 Feed (@999London) January 6, 2020

Koko = Camden Palace iirc

that's what happens when you use Pimilco Plumbing on your refurb.

Any idea why these fires happen during refurbs? Glasgow School of Art, Cutty Sark...

Volatile flammable liquids used, can ignite with very little heat source, I've always heard.

usually combination of shite electricians, terrible site managers, penny pinching building companies imo. it's probably much more complex than that, but still a factor imo!

Yeah, overloading electrical circuits probably also a major factor.

Might be a good thread to use if it gets to the point London ILX folk need assistance with anything should they end up quarantined.

Not a bad idea but what kind of things?

Just thinking e.g. if someone can't leave the house but is running low on supplies and similar (businesses may still deliver but will be stretched).

bring me soup mfers

(is what i'll be saying itt if i have to self-quarantine)

Good idea but maybe use a specific thread for that? Every time I see this thread bumped I assume there's been a catastrophic fire or terrorist attack.

sometimes it's me hearing a funny sound tbf

"bring me soup mfers" (thread of urgent coronavirus quarantine requests shd need arise: london local)

emergency-specific thread already overrun with non-emergency quotidian chatter lol

ilx bring me soup and never change

Quietest exercise hour yet out there. I wonder if being able to go out multiple times has made people stop saving it up for a big post-work trip

Green Lanes was rammed yesterday, busiest I've seen it since lockdown began.

More than usual today a mile south of Stet - maybe the joggers all headed parkwards?

More than usual on the south bank, too.

That makes sense if people are travelling further afield then

Anyone near Southgate Rd? Whats going on?

A lot of emergency vehicles on Southgate Road. pic.twitter.com/UaLcm8VBZi

— Samir Jeraj 🇰🇪 🇮🇪 (@sajeraj) May 27, 2020

https://twitter .com/MPSIslington/status/1265748021234429952

(sorry dicking about with the URL, didn't really want to embed it, it's pretty grim)

*sorry for

I wonder if future historians will look back at this horrendous 2015 ad for One Blackfriars as a perfect Last Days of Rome-style artefact, the hubris before the collapse https://t.co/8v75jDcNys

— Dan Hancox (@danhancox) May 27, 2020

an old tweet from D hancox featuring some demented Epstein creepo vibes in a promotional video for the £23m flats in the giant buttplug building, amazing!

That advert (aside from the fury) just makes me nostalgic for swimming pools. what a luxury they were.

not been in a swimming pool since Pond's Forge on Feburary 4th which was my son's birthday and that is probably the longest I've gone in decades without swimming. It's really not good.

My understanding is that it doesn't really transmit in water but I wouldn't set foot in a changing room right now.

lol @ that 1 blackfriars video. Every time i see it i completely marvel at the fact of it being built. It basically looks like exhibit A in a bribery and corruption case. It reminds me of that quip that the shard looks like the kind of building you don't expect to see in a functioning democracy x10.

Buildings designed by starchitects who suffer from a different kind of degeneracy than Speer and call human inhabitants of cities that aren't millionaires freeriders.

Related and good: https://theconversation.com/how-the-super-rich-conquered-london-138865?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton

what psychopaths

<Cut to Dr Laing eating his alsatian on the balcony>

otm, still waiting for everyone to realise the film was Actually Really Good

Low traffic neighbourhood / modal filters on Upwood Road, Lewisham. pic.twitter.com/qlTDP5TSYS

— Tom Edwards (@BBCTomEdwards) June 30, 2020

:(

traffic will . . . find a way.

update: a few days ago i was walking around farringdon station and there was tons of homophobic graffiti about george michael everywhere

yeah that's been there since around the start of lockdown, not all of it homophobic but all of it weird. goes as far over as old st.

My first thought was that they'd knocked something down that revealed a wall from the 90s or something. Bizarre.

its so arbitrary, why this particular grudge?

I've seen it in Leather Lane - childish handwriting "george micheal is evil man" - that sort of thing?

sounds like one obsessed weirdo.

yeah that's the same stuff, handwritten in black on white backgrounds, things like "george michael's mum is stripper".

"george michael's mother has hepatitis" "george michael takes fists up the arse"

like what?

Seems like time can never end the brainless witterings of some bell ends.

ridgeley has fallen far

there's a similar guy in brooklyn who uses crayon in the stations on the subway ads on the wall and he likes to write about how evil michael jackson "is"

Let's hope they don't find out about this...

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/london-is-getting-a-nine-metre-tall-mural-of-george-michael-finally-081220

We've just stayed in an airbnb near elephant and castle, had a great three days playing in the brand new free splash park for kids and enjoying the multiple international food options available, all built on the backs of displaced residents and communities of the old heygate estate and environs :/