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.

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 :/