Islamic state of London not safe, in general

[NickFitz]

Pretty clear that the person watching the CCTV and moving the camera didn't seem to sense a problem and call the cops in advance? If it was me I'd be on the horn telling the cops somethings going to go down.

Oh if only the cops were as smart as Kojak.

How do you know the police weren't on their way? They could have arrived one second after the point at which the video cut off, for all you can tell.

They can't be everywhere, and the whole situation seems to have escalated in about two minutes. It'd be nice if they could respond to every call in central London within two minutes, but I doubt it'd ever be possible unless the Met became the largest employer in the country.

[lilelvis2000]

How do you know the police weren't on their way? They could have arrived one second after the point at which the video cut off, for all you can tell.

They can't be everywhere, and the whole situation seems to have escalated in about two minutes. It'd be nice if they could respond to every call in central London within two minutes, but I doubt it'd ever be possible unless the Met became the largest employer in the country.

fair point. Though if it had been one second one or two the perpetrators would have been nabbed.

[NickFitz]

Worthy of note: the police have not suggested that this attack was anything to do with "Muslim patrols" - but neither does the story in the Times. Instead, it takes the Met's appeal, published yesterday, and mixes in a bunch of stuff about "Muslim patrols" from nearly a year earlier.

Here's the Met's appeal: Police appeal following bottle attack in Tower Hamlets - Metropolitan Police Service If you read it, you'll see that it's reproduced in fairly straightforward paraphrase in the Times piece.

However the Times piece also adds various bits:

"...in an area of London which has seen attacks on people accused of un-Islamic activities"

Note that this does not say that this incident is known to have involved any accusation of un-Islamic activities. However it plants the idea in the reader's mind.

"The area has seen attacks by self-appointed members of “Muslim Patrols” who have targeted people who have been drinking, they believe are gay, or women they consider to be dressed inappropriately."

Although this is thrown into the middle of a description of the incident, it does not say that this was such an attack; it merely says something about the area. But again, it's subconsciously influencing the reader to make the connection.

"Detectives investigating a self-styled Muslim Patrol gang arrested five people in January following a string of incidents in east London where members of the public were harassed.

"A video posted online show men from the gang in Whitechapel telling one man “no drink in this area, it’s a Muslim area” before ordering him to pour away his alcohol."

Note that these arrests - of five people, hardly a groundswell of opinion - were made in January. The assault that is the subject of the story happened in June. There is nothing in the story to suggest that there have been any "Muslim patrol" incidents since the arrests were made. The video cited is nothing to do with this assault; it is a different incident, from before the arrests (so probably last year).

"Majid Nawaz, the chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremism organisation, wrote in The Times that Muslim Patrols “could become a lot more dangerous”."

Is this anti-extremist a spokesman for the "Islamic state of London"? Or maybe he's one of the many Nawazes who trace their ancestry to the Norman Conquest. Either way, this passes for balance in case anybody tries to claim the story is fomenting hatred.

So at the moment we have a violent affray in the street. The police, who presumably have some knowledge of what went on from having spoken to the victim, have not suggested that the incident was in any way related to religious considerations.

But a Murdoch hack rewrites the police's appeal, mixing in a few details from an unrelated story involving a small group of Muslims who were arrested six months before this incident; and the casual reader mistakenly thinks the two stories are related.

And that is how the proudest traditions of British journalism are upheld by News UK.


You cannot hope to bribe or twist,
thank God! the British journalist.
But, seeing what the man will do
unbribed, there's no occasion to.

- Humbert Wolfe, The Uncelestial City, 1930.