Police vet live music, DJs for 'terror risk' A dozen London boroughs have implemented a "risk assessment" policy for live music that permits the police to ban any live music if they fail to receive personal details from the performers 14 days in advance. The demand explicitly singles out performances and musical styles favoured by the black community: garage and R&B, and …
Just how exactly does a music event promote terrorism? Shouldn't half the population have been hacked up by crazed heavy metal fans by now if this argument held any weight?
As for the 10,000 applications, surely this is *helping* terrorists since police will be wasting time pushing papers instead of doing something useful.
And with the price of booze now being decided by the good old gov looks like where all be sitting at home watching strictly come factor (sure El Reg come up with a better name).
Do you think this will lead to Talidan style bans on certain music? (or in the Talibans case all music)
Last Politician to leave the re-education camps please turn of the light.
The rules are totally identical with pre-1990es Bulgaria. This is a positive sign actually as if I recall correctly it was the only Communist not to require the performing artists to have a valid membership in a specific performing arts union. In the USSR you also had to supply a membership ID with the application.
So what next, we all hail our dear leader Gordon Zhivkov the president of the People's Republic of England? He needs a bit of a bold patch for likeness as well as a better talent at extracting one side benefits from "special relationships" with world powers. While the first one can be easily arranged, I somehow doubt he has the intellect for the second.
Me coat
I wish I'd seen this earlier, it's a 3D mask for a V mask:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7738480/Downloadable-Guy-Fawkes-Mask
Link came from Guido's Fawkes political blog http://www.order-order.com/
that Hazel Blear was complaining about.... to a preselected audience that excluded anyone who might have an opposing viewpoint.
Where he has some nice photos of the police arresting them for wearing a V mask, irony.
Again and again the met either make stupid decisions or are forced to carry them out.
The reporter is spot on and has highlighted in yellow the information that counts. This is an attack on music events involving the black community, because black people cause all the hassle eh?
Over the past decade more and more activities have been either removed completely or red taped up, especially for the youth. Now they want the names and addresses of performers? Please. The promoter is who the buck stops at, who pays everyone and organises everything. On these facts alone they can trace all the event details. If the Met claim they can't then the promoter is stone walling them.
15 years since the stephan lawerance thing and still the feds are racist. Its disgusting
The terrorists want to destroy our way of life. That's what we're told. And yet here we are with the government watching our every move, stopping us from reading certain things - being exposed to certain words and ideas; wanting to curb the drinking of alcohol; puntitive crackdowns on unnaceptable forms of sexuality; movements to stop certain 'language' on TV - curbs on 'offensive' speech; curtailing and banning musical performances - restrictions on expressions of our culture.
I can't be the only one thinking that we *might as well* be living under the fucking Taliban.
The filth now cracking down on music too, we'll add it to the list of things then, except this time they're doing it to protect black people from themselves apparently... Interesting. Of course if a normal person said "we shouldn't let them black people gather and listen to their rap music" that person would probably get nicked for inciting racial hatred.
Because once you've effectively finished banning booze, music and other forms of enjoyment, made it impossible for people to have a relaxing toke because of random searches and sniffer dog patrols and your faith based anti drug policies, and banned anything entertaining from appearing on the television in case it offends someone, the UK populace will have nothing left to do except sit at home and ponder what an enormous pack of c*nts you are, with predicable results ranging from a humiliating defeat at the next election to a bloody and brutal revolution, depending how many of the house bound dissatisfied get bored enough to switch over to BBC Parliament and watch "democracy" taking place.
Either way, goodbye, it wasn't nice knowing you, please don't come back any time soon.
Slowly but surely the paranoid morons are ruining our society. Soon you will need a permit for leaving your home.
The terrorists must be laughing their socks off at the way they are crippling us without putting themselves at any risk whatsoever.
Unfortunately we have allowed a special breed to be crated - the terrorist risk assessors. They HAVE to find risks even if they do not exist because if they don't then they are out of a job. End result - we all suffer for no reason other than to keep a few morons in a job.
What a sad country this is turning into.
You will soon need one just to get out of bed in the morning.
RIP the last vestiges of common sense left in our so beloved NuLab Government who by the way couldn't organise the proverbial piss up in a brewery. Of sorry, there is sometheng else thay want to ban. No more Breweries = No more people getting pissed and there goes all that nice police overtime.
Paris becasuse she won't be able to hear her fav tunes and have a drink at the same time
"The terrorists want to destroy our way of life. That's what we're told. And yet here we are with the government watching our every move, stopping us from reading certain things - being exposed to certain words and ideas; wanting to curb the drinking of alcohol; puntitive crackdowns on unnaceptable forms of sexuality; movements to stop certain 'language' on TV - curbs on 'offensive' speech; curtailing and banning musical performances - restrictions on expressions of our culture."
What he said, all this is getting damn scary...
Flames cos paper combusts at 451 fahrenheit...
as an indie musician in NYC for 20 years, I can say, a lot of times, the club or promoter only tells us we have a show one week in advance. Then due to sudden cancellations, some bands may only have 24 hours notice. And when on tour, it's been known to just drop by a club and play without any advance notice. Hopefully Lord Obama will save us from the ways of the evil brits!
It never ceases to amaze me how often politicians and the police complain bitterly about how they're portrayed by the "meejuh." They complain that young people fail to connect with politics, that youth are cynical about it all because of the way politics and the law are portrayed by the "meejuh."
Yet none of them realise that the reason young people are refusing to vote is because the politicians themselves are such cynical, duplicitous morons who tramp all over the freedom of young people to do what they want.
Would you vote for someone as breathtakingly mendacious as that Eyles person? Someone who blatantly lies about the evidence literally in front of his face? And he thinks WE'RE cynical??
Democratic control my foot. This means the control of the bureaucrats in licensing departments. No election involved.
Even if it were, what makes a gig on private property any business at all of the elected authorities, unless it is a direct nuisance to someone else?
"...that permits the police to ban any live music if they fail to receive personal details from the performers 14 days in advance."
Really? There is no evidence of that in this article, so wheres that from?
"Licensing of live music is nominally under the democratic control of local authorities. However, few councillors dare contradict the advice of the constabulary - even when such advice exceeds the police's authority, as it does here."
Yeah, I call BS on the first part, that councils never go against the advice of the police. And as for the second bit, I don't see how the police have exceeded their "Authority" by asking questions relevant to foruming a risk assessment.
The way forward is not a police state, its a health and safety one.
But it must be because of TERRORISTS, Feargal Sharkey said so.
If only we had an ID card system then everyone attending a mass attendance event such as a musical performance could simply produce their card, or better have their fingerprints scanned - this way known troublemakers could be singled out beforehand, and anyone else making trouble at the event could easily be identified.
It's just crime prevention, nothing more, nothing less.
Leaders of the free world? Ha! Not bloody likely.
Not sure the US is any better but the rot that set in with Nu-Labour is a major factor in my current plans to depart this "Sceptred Isle"
"Go", because that's what anyone with any sense should be planning on doing.
Would the last sane, non-PC, non-NIMBY, non-Draconian person to least please turn out the light?
Please stop publishing articles like this one. You are undermining our efforts to show how terrible America is.
We might just start an underground music movement (down in the bashment or out in the garage) and have cells and secret handshakes and we'll talk Lolspeak to fox the Special Branch bugging.
Mine's the one with the balaclava...
sorry, i could have written something more intelligent and thoughtful, i'm currently playing on a pirate radio station and have been in and out of the music biz for 20 years..have released 4 pieces of vinyl as well..
..but why should i?
they are just TOSSERS.
never mind about the mythical "al queda"...the POLICE and the GOVERNMENT are the biggest threats to our way of life!!!
cheers,
bill
p.s. stuff and nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum
This reminds me strangely about this documentary about DJing in East Germany - you had to pass an exam and obey the '60-40' rule. Actually, come to think of it, East Germany in this respect sounds slightly less repressive...
http://www.archive.org/details/Berlinshire_at_the_GDR_Disco20408
Hear me nowwwwwww! Brat-brat-tat-tat-tat in a CCTV, bogus authority, big bruvvaaa stylleeeeeee!!
What's next for the artist? Submitting DNA before you write or sing your next song, "just in case Al-kayaeeeeda could use your rhymes for terrorist progaganda"?
I mean FFS. I used to take the piss out of Eastern Block Nations with authorities this silly but in the UK?
Big Daddy MC Lyrical Black Geeza and the Crew, Terrorists?
This really can't be true. If it -is- then the law and all that make it are asses.
Yeah, yah get me innit,
check the rhyme - Jihhad innit?
'cos I'm MC Al-Kayeeeda
and I'm the one the ladies neeeeda!
(offtopic)
I just watched Simpsons in Channel 4. A section was missing, the part where Homer says "I am the god ganesh, I am angered by this wedding"
I do a quick search to remind myself that I'm not foolled and I find this thread:
http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_posts.php?thread_id=110566
I've noticed this again and again, parts of the Simpsons cut for the British audience that are actually inoffensive and I've seen many times everywhere else.
You can see how bad it's getting when the Simpsons is considered too offensive for British TV.
WTF?????? ok, so having a live gig now brings you to the attention of our "beloved" Police Force? Hang on, just who the f*** is being protected from who? As other posters have said, we can't drink, we can't go out at night (not because you'll get beaten up, but because coppers assume you're up to no good), you can't do the horizontal fandango in any other way than horizontally, under the covers with the lights off and we can't say what is on our mind.
Even the f***ing IRA weren't this bad... at least you were allowed to get drunk! It's a sodding awful feeling knowing I have more to fear from the Govt and it's gang of Enforcers than I've ever had to fear from any terrorist.
"Come Mr Tailban, Tally me live DJs,
Freedom gone an' me wanna go home
Come Mr Tailban, Tally me live DJs,
Police State's come an' me wanna go home
It's six foot, seven foot, eight foot PUNCH!
Coppers' come and me wan' go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot ZAPPP
Copper's got a taser and me on the floor"
Yes I know the last line doesn't scan properly but it's late and the whole business has depressed hell out of me :(
What is the source of Sharkey's (and the Reg's headline writer's) suggestion that this police action is done for "anti-terrorism" purposes? The Form 696 you reproduce only mentions "crime and disorder".
If it isn't about "anti-terrorism" , it looks like you are just crying wolf, and thus undermines your reporting of cases where the police genuinely *do* misuse anti-terror legislation.
Please could I have your definition of terrorism?
I fail to see how music events are seriously likely to be included in terrorist outrages that may be perpetrated by the performers, I have however, been present at a number of musical outrages over the years that have been perpetrated by the performers and in some cases Guantanamo would have been insufficient punishment for them.
The fuzz in the UK seriously need a reality fix, all that sugar in the doughnuts is rotting their brains. Arseholes!
We used to think it was bad when the Lord Chamberlain had to approve plays.
We thought things were getting better when that was abolished.
But now only musicians who are approved of by the police will be allowed to perform?
So no musician will dare ever say anything controversial, or disapproving of authority, because if they do then they will be forbidden to play music.
What a load of nonsense. I can't see anything on that form that mentions terrorism, that’s just an attempt to get a sexier headline for what is in essence a no-story.
And predictably the net furnishes a line of people who wring their hands at something that has been the way it is for ages, does not effect them at all and which they only take an interest in because someone tells them to.
Event A: A classical music concert held in a church hall
Event B: A Garage/RAP face off competition in a nightclub with a 24 hr license.
Do you think the potential for disorder/violence is likely to be different for one than the other? Do you think it might be prudent to have more police at one than the other? In short are the RISKS to the public greater for one or the other?
Or more specifically if 2 artists whose followers have a predisposition for violence towards each other are going to be at the same venue you don't think that SHOULD factor in to how an event is policed.
How do you think the police decide what resources to dedicate to an event without having some sort of information about its content, how many people are going, for how long, to do what, will there be alcohol, what is the likely demographic makeup of that group, what sort of crime is prevalent among that group, what problems have arose from similar sized and themed events in the past.
Or maybe its none of the police's business and everyone should be allowed to get on with it. And you'll respect the freedom of someone to drunkenly bottle you and walk away laughing because there’s not a copper within 5 miles and there’s none of that intrusive unwanted CCTV making you feel like a criminal.
The article clearly says, in spite of a bias so strong it qualifies as a riptide, the police are asking, you don't have to give the information but if you don't then why be surprised when they object. If you applied for an events license and didn't know how many people were going, or when it'd be over, or what security you would have at the venue would you expect anything else?
Its not the government blaming everything on the fight against terrorism, its the journalist. Very poor article indeed.
This sort of nonsense would not fly in the US.
The city that I live in would require a permit for an event in a public park but this is just in the nature of a tax and to allow the booking of a public venue. The permit also holds the organiser responsible for clearing trash after the event. They certainly don't want to know what sort of music or who is playing.
The outcome of this sort of heavy handed regulation will be civil disobedience, eventually on a massive scale. You can push Brits about and piss them off for a long time and then, one day, they will stand fast and be pushed no further. When it happens, and it will, it will not be good to be a politician or senior plod.
I left years ago.
well, it was...
till the State Music Industry Police kicked the door in and (used state sanctioned apropriate force)stunned/koshed and dragged the DJ out by his ankles, smashed all the vynal and wiped all the harddrives just in case there was anything inapropriate on them...(like legally paid for music).
Looks like Maggies ideas for taxing everything including fresh air will come to fruition...
Anyone noticed that all the ('other nation' nationals) people are fleeing london...(they must luv BorisJ). I mean its soo bad now you trip over (cheshire cats) in the nightclub (whilst fighting through thick clouds of ganja smoke), its terrible. What happened to OUR nightclubs//country ????
I think i'll move the St.Peterburg, a much safer place to live. no problems with foot in mouth, whilst at the night club(or of draconian state police dragging the DJ(or the punters) out the back for a spot of re-Education regarding the rules of the house).
---"Have a look at the papers and tell me where the black-on-black shootings happen? They're around the night time economy," said Eyles.---
surprised no-one has picked up on this not only blatant racist comment but also ignorant understanding of causes of violent crime
indeed logically since the majority of britons are white and hence most crime will involve white people would anyone talk about white on white crime? no , because it is not only irrelevant but racist.
regarding the actual story - if enough people resist and are unco-operative no way the police can manage it, e.g. what's to stop people from lying on the form and putting down 'classical music' as opposed to 'grime'
You have to fill out such a form for music today, but it will be to protest tomorrow, but hold on it's already today if it's anywhere near parliament.
Its just like the form the Chinese had to fill out to protest during the Olympics, automatically denied, and the now spot light is off the country they will be participating in China's much longer version of 42 days.
Why do they need policing ?
All this seems like really lazy police work - get everyone else to do it for them! It's not like lists of events and artists aren't posted in newspapers, if they did want to do this sort of racial profiling.
They complain about bureucracy, yet their solution is another form, brilliant! No wonder Police Intelligence is an oxymoron.
...doesn't this stuff get on the front page of the BBC, Grauniad, Times etc?
OK...I might have answered my own question there with those 3 examples, but, seriously, why do I only ever read this stuff on El Reg?
ps: I've not lived in the UK for a long time, and even if my chosen "democratic" (voting machine problems are YOU fault) country, it does seem a lot better than U-Guantanamo-K
"Music promotions attract people who have a propensity to use violence."
Did no-one else see that? I mean seriously, huh? Where did that come from? I am a musician of many years standing and can say that this is the most ridiculous statement about music I have ever read.
And I can freely say that when I meet Detective Superintendent Dave Eyles at a music promotion I will thoroughly duff him up, Queensbury style.
But it would be nice to warn the plod if The Lyrical Terrorist was planning to play at a venue or seven in your locality. I'm not suggesting wasting police time at all, you see... just suggesting that they are *at best* wasting their own time and taxpayer's money with this nonsense.
AC, natch.
"And as for politicians, well, need anymore be said?
Their fingers all are in the till, their skulls are filled with lead;
You'll never vote the bastards out, for guess who runs the game?
And no use hollering for the law - the cops are just the same!"
Mine's the coat that I picked up and ran out the back door with (along with my guitar) while the cops were kicking down the front door...
Detective Superintendent Dave Eyles proves with his comments he is totally unfit for the work he does his superiors should also resign en bloc they work for us we pay for them and this is what we get........
Jumped up jobs worths who are abusing the law......and driving a bigger wedge between the community and themselves.
If they were out on the beat they might prevent some real crime it isn't as though London is without its problems you have to ask yourself where will it end ....our nation is being riven apart by namby pamby government blaming terrorism for everything.
Mines the one with the permit to breathe and a fixed penalty notice for malicious standing on the cracks in the pavement notice....in the pocket
I guess The Protomen are banned then.
Next up: Gordon Brown rescinds the right to vote, on the basis that people may vote for candidates who don't have their best interests at heart.
..Oh, wait.
It's a good plan actually. Create such a repressive government system that normal people are driven to commit acts of terrorism themselves out of desperation. Increase the oppresiveness of the government further and further, making the situation worse and worse until such a point absolute martial law is the only option left.
England Prevails.
Good points. Is that not like the bans on dancing as the work of the Devil? "We must ban music, because music is the work of terrorists. Unless it's created for the patron government."
And I suppose this would ruin Jazz club impromptu jams?
Pretty soon comics will have to file their routines with the governing regulatory authority before they can perform. Well, there goes live improvisation. Holy Hell.
Paris, she can't take much more before she breaks, cap'n!
"Music promotions attract people who have a propensity to use violence. That's not speculation. We have a duty to prevent that from happening." - wtf? you mean like town in the evening and pubs in general? can we expect us to sign into pubs/clubs now too? how often have you heard of a DJ/musician attacking their clients?
i call bullshit and erosion of civil liberties!
of course south london (and london in general to some extent) have fucked everything up for the rest of us - as usual. dance events by their very nature are far more friendly environments than pubs in general - mainly due to the E generation. of course now south londoners are all wannabe hip hoppers and are such pussies they need to be tooled up to go out. bloody southerners :(
@ "When I visit your country what is it that I can do ??" - everything we can do and much more... you would get much better benefits than us and a house which we wont. much better to be none-english in england these days :(
@"So what next, we all hail our dear leader Gordon Zhivkov the president of the People's Republic of England?" - i think we have good cause to legislate against fucking scottish people running england from now on (no offence against scotland - but i dont want you running me - we dont run you now)... bloody brown and that BLiar asshole (also born in scotland). of couse the english before havent been so great (major and maggie ffs) but at least they wanted whats best for <certain areas of> england (i live in the east midlands so im screwed... we get no cash from anyone!)
do we get to call coppers iPlods now? the i could stand for internet or could be ironic for 'intelligence'
They are being given free rein, under anti-terror legislation to creat what one could term (before the anti-indecency nazis ban the term) a Copper's wet dream.
Every citizen sitting at home with their hands on the table and never going out
Crime is reduced to zero and the coppers can have a brew at the station and catch up with the mountains of paperwork....
I'm so glad I left Britain, I really am!
It's indicative of the times in which we live that, despite the expansion of draconian, liberty-crushing legislation and the use of public funds to bail out the very banks that are repossesing homes, it takes a controversial decision in X Factor to raise public anger to the point of questions being asked in the house of commons. We get the government we deserve.
This post has been deleted by its author
I used to DJ at a bar that didnt have a dancing licence -- the council would NOT permit dancing on the premises.
It was both funny and frustrating when we used to build up the music, people would be getting more and more merry and then slowly but surely (hopefully) feet would start tapping and people would start swaying until a few bodies would start moving kind of rhythmically.....
....then the bouncer would come down and tell each one of them they'd better stoppit or they're out...
Ridiculous.
I know where this is heading:
Next will come a prohibition on assembling in groups of more than three.
So if you go down the pub with your mates, make sure that one lags behind and sits at a separate table.
Well they have justification:
"Larger groups attract people who have a propensity to use violence. That's not speculation. We have a duty to prevent that from happening."
And then . . . we burn the books.
I seem to recall, before leaving the UK, our local council banning a veterans parade due to health and safety and inadequate notice to prepare a risk assessment or somesuch nonsense.
I'm sure the local councils excuse there was the same, 'we didn't really we are just misundertsood'
Dear Lord, who thought this up, and why?
Having been involved in promoting late night events for most of the past 5 years I'm very glad I've left the country. The amount of problems this scheme would have caused me would have been huge. For example: it's a common occurrence if your have over 20 DJs playing in one venue that one will have to pull out at the last minute, requiring a replacement act to be arranged with minimal notice. While this is apparently not compulsary I can easily imagine that every venue in London will have to start implementing this due to the threat of losing their liscense, so it becomes the <i>de facto</i> policy, without any kind of legislative process.
What will be the results? More illegal parties in squatted venues for the more controversial acts - by their nature squat parties do not have a license. Therefore there will be less safety for the crowds attending the events, due to unsafe venues and less security staff. Oh, and a free market for narcotics to be sold, attracting shadier characters.
What really shocks me is the inclusion of "bashment, RnB, garage" for examples of music...not particularly subtle. Hey, why not remove "e.g"and have done with it? I know the Met aren't renowned for their subtlety, but are we actually seeing an exapmle document from the policy stage which hasn't had a few key words removed before dissemination to the wider public?
Overall results? Driving a music scene further underground, yet more feelings of alienation towards the police within the black community and less safety for those who enjoy music. Well done, Met!
January if the book happens to contain extreme porn images.
Probably the January after if it just contains descriptions of brutalisation for the intention of sexual gratification.
Then maybe the January after that just for books containing ideas that the aristocrats dislike?
Slightly off-topic, but I feel obliged to challenge this:
"@ "When I visit your country what is it that I can do ??" - everything we can do and much more... you would get much better benefits than us and a house which we wont. much better to be none-english in england these days :("
This is absolute bullshit Liam - did you generate this using the Twat-O-Tron?
Surprised you didn't mention that none-too-subtle euphemism of racists everywhere, the "indigenous" population.
Coming here from overseas does not get you a free house, benefits and all the rest of the tripe the papers you read tell you it does.
For asylum-seekers (which you are apparently referring to) it may, but also potentially gets you many other "benefits" such as rejection and deportation to death/torture, but that doesn't mean just anyone visiting this country does it?
Coming here from overseas gets you ridiculous visa fees and a belief by some (like you) that you must be here just to sponge all of our benefits/houses/women/wheelybin collections/right to put a St George's flag on our fire engines/etc...
Always somebody else's fault this country is rubbish though isn't it?
Being "none-english" (SIC) in this country these days is certainly not "better" unless you consider being the first large group to be forced to carry ID cards an advantage.
Think before you spout this inaccurate bile.
Rant over
"It's none of their business, innocent people do not have to answer to the police."
Oh dear. Where have you been for the last 11.5 years?
That was certainly true in those halcyon days of freedom (before Summer 1997), but since then, the current Gestapo Reichsfuhrer Whacky Jacqui has decided there are NO innocent people - there are convicts and those whose crimes** have yet to be uncovered.....
**"Crimes" involve:-
wheelie-bin offences of a non-sexual nature,
dissent (shortly to be a capital offence),
owning/using a mobile phone, computer etc., without letting the stalwart guardians of our precious freedoms sweep it at least once a day,
and
any other thing which she/it deems or will deem to be un-NuLab....
Just as the SA were Adolf's little enforcers, we now have Plod as the enforcers for Whacky Jacqui & Clown Brown...
"Seriously."
Unfortunately it is, otherwise it would be a laughing matter
"Where is your right of free speech."
Rapidly vanishing, under the diktat of Die Neues Arbeites Partei
"Where is your right of living anonymous."
See answer above
"Where the hell did you put all the books by your most famous author, George Orwell..."
They appear to have been used as training manuals for political apparatchiks and Volkspolizei
Doubleplusungood!
you spineless chicken shit.... moan at me then hide your name from me...
how do you define indigenous? i am most likely anglo saxon decent - so im not indiginous am i? or am i? its surely all a matter of dates.
i just think in this current climate where my pension is now worthless, im funding millionairres at the banks why the fuck are we importing people we cannot afford to feed, clothe or employ... this is simple economics.... i wouldnt expect a doley mate to put up and feed someone else so surely its time now to say enough is enough.
sure, there are many asylum seekers - what %? very small i guess... im more against economic migration - basically acting like locusts and leeching from better off sources.
i used to live in hull... the armpit of the east. very few polish but to be honest the polish have a good rep in the UK... they work much harder than we do! its the massive problems that are caused by the ones in hull. many reported rapes, racism (yes, even tho you THINK IM RACIST [bollocks btw - check out my history with the female of the species - many mixed race/none-white] i see many of these eastern blockers abusing the local black population), the many 'no english' signs on council funded shops/meeting places.
vast areas of hull have now been taken over by immigrants. at this current situation of few jobs and shit pay why the hell are we even allowing anyone in? i have nothing against foreign people at all... i just dont see why towns like hull are now overrun with jobless immigrants. the fact that the locals cant get jobs as there arent enough yet many new people arrive looking for work.
of course i guess you live in some leafy subburb down south - that takes very few immigrants (many richer councils pay poorer ones to take their quota)
now, i maybe should have been more careful with my words but after being sick as a dog with food poisoning for the last 5 days i wasnt in too much of a good mood.
there is no denying the terrible treatment of SOME locals over immigrants. i could site many examples such as the woman claiming 13k/month in benefits, immigrants being bought CARS (no, this isnt bullshit i know one of the guys who used to arrange the deals) and of course the obligatory 'no english' on the new immigrant council funded shops (yes, this isnt bullshit either)
im no daily mail/express reader, i just go on what i know what what ive seen. im not a racist - im trying to stop this country becoming a trainwreck - and immigration is one of the MANY areas we need to look at!
If you doubt this article, have a read of this story that did the rounds a few months back, when the police cancelled a babyshambles gig:
http://www.nme.com/news/babyshambles/39056
Here's an excerpt:
Chief Superintendent Julian Kirby, divisional commander of Wiltshire Police, said: "We carried out an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does. "What he does as part of his routine is to gee up the crowd. They speed up and then slow down the music and create a whirlpool effect in the crowd. "They [the crowd] all get geed up and then they start fighting."
Seriously? Babyshambles fans are pretty tame, hardly something for operation trident to worry about.
Does it still seem like El Reg are making a mountain out of a molehill?
Face -> Palm.
I prefer my reading of that passage,
"[SS] Chief Superintendent Julian [The Nazi] Kirby, divisional commander of Wiltshire Police, said: 'We carried out an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does. 'What he does as part of his routine is to gee up the crowd. They speed up and then slow down the music and create a whirlpool effect in the crowd. 'They [the crowd] all get geed up and then they start fighting.''"
It's not that I think that the Met are a group of Racist, Fascist, Pigs, it's that I know they are.
Quite amazing, indeed.
It's funny, how things seem to be converging now. The "Western" countries adopting lots from the book of the communist (or otherwise) dictatorships for social/political control, while letting savage capitalism grow to ever greater heights. Fascism, innit? At the same time, the likes of China do the same, in slightly reversed directions; getting wilder in the capitalism, a little less "out there" in the repression (but with mostly same results).
As an organisation (see www.blessedlovestudios.co.uk)that works with black youth, who make grime music and are linked to so called gangs, we were truely shocked, but not suprised by this article. The young people we work with are increasingly recent converts or sympathetic to Islam. Some of them use the term 'Taliban' to describe thier militancy and are openly hostile to the police and state. Perhaps this would convince many that these measures are appropriate. The truth however is that these same young people are on the whole extreamly vulnerable, loving towards thier families and communities, and passionate about thier art. Thier music is a reflection of the brutal realities of thier day to day lives (getting stop and searched by the police, being excluded from education & training and a constant fear of death from street rivals) Most have spent time in the secure estate (Feltham Young Offenders Institution has been the main recruiting grounds for street gangs for a long time, and a steady stream of alienated, disafected young people are constantly being referred too them by our criminal justice system)
Measures like these serve to remind black youth that they are always under suspision, and if they insist on getting together into groups and express thier anger (or anything else) they will be branded 'terrorists'. This was recently highlighted by Newsnights Jeremy Paxman asking Dizzie Rascal 'do you consider yourself to be British' over a debate about Barack Obama. The assumption if you are a young black person in the UK and speak non standard english you are somehow open to having your national identity questioned.
We know young people are very sensitive to 'projections' from those around them, and if society in general label them terrorists, criminals or just thugs...thats what they will be. Each generation seems to forget that from Teddy Boys to Punks, young people have attempted to 'shock' and unsettle the status quo. Long may this continue.
Listen to the tracks 'Positive' and 'Reality' on our ReverbNation player (on the right of this blog) by one of our artists Jahmai for an illustration of how young people feel. See our website
http://blessedlovestudios.co.uk
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
