The Pommy Po-po Ain’t Playin’
[guest post by JVW]
When the battle against racism has lost all sense of proportion:
#ARRESTED| We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy.
The 12-year-old from #Solihull has been taken to custody.
Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won't be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/oFxBUvdtV1
— West Midlands Police – #StayAlert (@WMPolice) July 12, 2020
Now it is indeed true that I haven’t seen the messages, so I have no idea as to what are the contents of this boy’s screed. But I do note that the West Midlands Police (last seen to such devastating effect in Hot Fuzz*) did not use the specific word “threatening” in their description, they only categorized the messages as “racist.” Yes, we Americans theoretically enjoy freedoms that allow us a certain degree of obnoxiousness in communicating with our fellow citizens, but just how long do you think it will be until at least one brigade in the Woke Army convinces some mush-minded police chief in some achingly progressive city to harass a punk kid for badthink on social media? I’ll bet it’s closer than we would like to believe.
In the meantime, rejoice that a millionaire footballer has been rescued from having his feelings hurt by a pre-teen.
– JVW
* Ok, ok, ok — Hot Fuzz was set in the West Country, not the West Midlands. Don’t spoil my fun.
“So what’s up, JVW — you think it’s cool for a kid to spew racist invective at someone?”
Nope, but I think that the West Midlands Police could knock on the kid’s door and tell him along with his parents that what he is doing is unacceptable. I don’t see how bringing him into custody and then tweeting about it as if he were Al Capone, Jr. is anything other than a gross overreaction.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/12/2020 @ 3:39 pmAnd the world will rest easier AFTER they’ve thrown the book at this lousy punk…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/12/2020 @ 4:03 pmIs this April first?
felipe (023cc9) — 7/12/2020 @ 4:24 pmWhat an embarrassing post.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/12/2020 @ 4:50 pmChild abuse is part of the English way of life, that’s why so many Englishmen are pederasts and catamites.
nk (1d9030) — 7/12/2020 @ 4:57 pmWhat an embarrassing post.
I’ll mark you down as being in favor of sending police to roust twelve-year-olds out of their homes for mean tweets, and then crowing about it on Twitter.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/12/2020 @ 5:52 pmThe people who ignored rotherdam and rochdale and missed an islamist that was featured on panorama.
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/12/2020 @ 6:03 pmjvw, dave might have meant the twitter post was embarrassing, which it really is.
Imagine all the resources of a police department, not only arresting a child for saying something stupid, but bragging about this success like this is a great accomplishment. Imagine being a victim of a real crime and reading this. And of course that kid will never like a cop for the rest of his life.
Even if the kid did something bad, kids should be discussed with a little responsibility.
Dustin (724986) — 7/12/2020 @ 6:07 pmjvw, dave might have meant the twitter post was embarrassing, which it really is.
Ah, if so then I apologize for misinterpreting it.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/12/2020 @ 6:18 pmKnowing how civil uk yoots im not assuming its racism.
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/12/2020 @ 6:27 pmCurious
https://mobile.twitter.com/WeirdLittleHen/status/1282394260302630916
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/12/2020 @ 6:44 pmhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/shortcuts/2015/jun/24/jurassic-world-dinosaur-accused-of-racism
nk (1d9030) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:00 pmI wasn’t referring to the Twitter post.
Dave (1bb933) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:01 pmSee the problem, nk, is that we attach our own made up names to the dinosaurs rather than trying to find out what they called themselves.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:08 pmI wasn’t referring to the Twitter post.
Ah, then my apology is void.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:08 pmI hear that 2+2=4 is now racist. Orwell was a frigging genius.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:51 pmDave, do you think the police should hunt down and apprehend 12-year-olds who say unkind things about celebrities? Be careful — someday that too will be badthink.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:53 pmWould they have arrested a girl doing the same? How about a
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:55 pmtransgirlyoung transwoman? The victim-calculus gets more difficult these days with all those genders.Well they want to cancel orwell, because he criticized the soviet union during ww 2
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/12/2020 @ 7:57 pmSticks and stones may break my bones, but now the cops will arrest me for calling names.
This is the world some desire. They are insane.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/12/2020 @ 9:53 pmDave,
How is this an embarrassing post?
norcal (a5428a) — 7/12/2020 @ 10:05 pm🤔
Post seemed interesting to me, Dave. If you agree with criminalizing hate speech that’s an interesting thing to discuss rather than a reason to dislike a post about the practice.
Indeed this is one reason why so many people, professionals in particular, find some reason to explain they are a victim, how something is really wrong with how the world has treated them. It’s not a good way to plan or see your life.
Dustin (724986) — 7/12/2020 @ 10:59 pmActually, Kevin, Orwell, who wrote in the 1940s, took that quote from Cummings, who wrote a book of poems titled “is 5” in the 1920s.
However, the equation 2 + 2 = 5 is a misconstruction. That may have been Orwell’s intention in his depiction of Big Brother brainwashing Winston Smith, by forcing him to admit to a mathematical impossibility.
But that was not Cummings’s intention. The equation reads two plus tow equals five, which is an absurdity. Cummings took a far more subtle and deeper approach. In this he anticipatated chaos theory and complexity science by decades.
It goes to the idea of emergence, when two or more component elements combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
A male has a mind and a body. That’s two, right? A female has a mind and a body. But when these twos are combined together, they form a whole which is greater the sum of its parts. That would be one, correct? Therefore, 2 plus 2 “is” 5.
“Ineluctable preoccupation with The Verb gives a poet one priceless advantage: whereas nonmakers must content themselves with the merely undeniable fact that two times two is four, he rejoices in a purely irresistible truth. . .”
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 7/13/2020 @ 12:50 amWe have a long way to go yet. Watch the movie the 7th seal. Just as in the black plague authority is starting to break down unless you think the blm rioting and statute tearing down is just a coincidence! As monty python says “Bring out your dead!” Stick them in this refrigerated truck. If biden wasn’t a senile corporate stooge with the DNC and donor class selling their souls to communist china for $$$ Oh! And to prevent another 2016 with jill stein spoiling hillary clintons party. The DNC as spent a lot of time and money to infiltrate the green party to neutralize it so no charismatic celebety gets the nomination or have the green party demand the ruthless punishment of trump and the republican party.
asset (728e0c) — 7/13/2020 @ 1:35 amArrested a boy. That sounds terrible, but apparently “The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years old.” (Got that from a uk.gov website). In Scotland the age is 8! (“If you’re 8 or older the police can arrest you, take you to a police station and ask you questions about what happened.” Got that from a Scottish .gov site) They have different courts, different sentencing guidelines, and ofc different prisons for children. Sounds absolutely horrible but the context helps bring perspective. Different laws, different system over there
JRH (52aed3) — 7/13/2020 @ 6:16 amAnd the racist messages included a threat to come to the guy’s house. Not sure why they didn’t say that in the tweet. Twitter sucks for actual info.
JRH (52aed3) — 7/13/2020 @ 6:19 am“The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years old.” (Got that from a uk.gov website). In Scotland the age is 8!
That’s about the range in the U.S. for states that have an infancy defense. Some do not have one at all. It’s not the fact, it’s the brag.
nk (1d9030) — 7/13/2020 @ 6:38 amPut USA Today on the case, they’ll figure it out:
USA TODAY
@USATODAY
The claim: Trump campaign shirts feature imperial eagle, a Nazi symbol
Our ruling: True
__ _
USA TODAY
@USATODAY
·
Jul 12
Replying to
@USATODAY
Clarification: The claim that Trump 2020 has put out a T-shirt with a symbol similar to a Nazi eagle and is being criticized for it is true. Worth noting, the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too.
__
One of the fact-checkers’ moms must have called and provided deep background.
harkin (077308) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:33 am_
A 12 year probably disadvantaged yoot vs a millionaire footballer let me think.
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:36 am“ The people who ignored rotherdam and rochdale and missed an islamist that was featured on panorama.”
__
Says it all.
I’m wondering when the sane segment in the UK (and Europe) is going to realize we aren’t going to be there to bail them out this time.
harkin (077308) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:37 am_
Just as soon as his tricycle got out of the shop, no doubt…
Look, not defending the kid, because what he said was unacceptable. But the defining trait of boys that age is saying and doing stupid things, just because they get an impulse. I have never felt happier that I did most of my growing up in the pre-Internet age, and the rest when people thought AOL was still a really neat idea. There are two or three things I said/did in those days (and those are just the ones I remember) that, if a kid did them now, they would be blasted all over social media, and his life would be over before it got started.
Oh, and having adults who believed in punishment as a means of teaching me to be more mature, rather than destroying me so everyone would know they believed the right things. That helped too.
Demosthenes (7fae81) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:43 amI’m wondering when the sane segment in the UK (and Europe) is going to realize we aren’t going to be there to bail them out this time.
They’ll still have the Greeks and Russians. In the fight against the Islamizing of Europe, the United States has been solidly on the side of the Islamists. If the Europeans had the sense God gave a gnat, they would have withdrawn from NATO and joined the Warsaw Pact during the breakup of Yugoslavia.
nk (1d9030) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:46 amWait i thought the russians were the worst thing evarr:
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:48 amKilling eve is overrated, although jodie comer is on the hawt/crazy scale
https://mobile.twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1282539837468422144
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:50 amNah, Trump is the worst thing ever.
nk (1d9030) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:54 amGreeks had the mataxa flavored commie syriza at the head of govt
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:57 amI’ll bet it’s closer than we would like to believe.
There are many supposedly well educated people who think the 1st Amendment does not, or should not apply, to “hate speech.”
See, for example, this:
40% of Millennials OK with limiting speech offensive to minorities
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/20/40-of-millennials-ok-with-limiting-speech-offensive-to-minorities/
See also this:
https://reason.com/2019/10/25/a-survey-finds-speech-restrictions-are-pretty-popular-thats-why-we-need-the-first-amendment/
Yes, it is coming here.
Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 7/13/2020 @ 7:58 amNah, Trump is the worst thing ever.We have always been at war with Eastasia.
That’s better. And it illustrates a point about the f-word internet. In the old days, nobody except me would have seen something I intended for public viewing until after my rewrite two days later.
nk (1d9030) — 7/13/2020 @ 8:03 amRe rotherdam only stephen leather had ever rendered any kind of justice, line of duty made it about pasty white blokes
Narciso (7404b5) — 7/13/2020 @ 8:09 amWell, it’s nice to know everything is so peaceful in the UK they can send cops to arrest 12 year olds who say mean things on the Internet.
Oh wait.
Capsaicin Addict (041266) — 7/13/2020 @ 8:26 amYou know — nobody here has made any effort to figure out what triggered all this. Context matters. So here is the tweet that got all this started.
https://twitter.com/wilfriedzaha/status/1282273543208808450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1282273543208808450%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc
It’s pretty gross and threatens the player in a way that would bring the police.
I concur with Dave, JVW. Sorry….
Appalled (1a17de) — 7/13/2020 @ 9:15 amKey word ‘triggered’
Horrible tweets from a kid should result in kid losing phone for a good amount of time plus youth authority monitoring.
Now do Rotherham and ignoring rape of 1,400 kids for over two decades because the officials didn’t want to cast some Pakistanis in a bad light.
harkin (029078) — 7/13/2020 @ 9:45 am_
It’s pretty gross and threatens the player in a way that would bring the police.
Well again, read the paragraph I wrote right after I embedded the tweet. Don’t you think the police should have characterized these as “threatening” messages rather than just “racist” messages? But we live in an age where it certainly seems that using a racial slur against someone is a more serious crime than beating the snot out of them or maybe even murdering them.
JVW (ee64e4) — 7/13/2020 @ 9:46 amthe book in question:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32543201-light-touch
narciso (7404b5) — 7/13/2020 @ 9:53 amAgreed. The police should absolutely have investigated this.
And then, when they found out the culprit was 12, they should have scared the snot out of the little idiot, threatened him with a world of consequences if he EVER did anything like that again, and come up with some appropriate non-judicial punishment.
Forgive me for pulling a DCSCA:
He oughtn’t to have done that, crippled his horse, that was cruel, but you don’t just hang a sixteen year old boy for that, for cruelty. There’d be no sixteen year old boys left.
–Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis), Lincoln
Demosthenes (7fae81) — 7/13/2020 @ 10:25 am“I hear that 2+2=4 is now racist.”
– Kevin M
Really? Where did you hear that?
Leviticus (efada1) — 7/13/2020 @ 12:11 pmWotz all this then!?!?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/13/2020 @ 12:24 pmThey’ll still have the Greeks and Russians.
Which would be okay if they needed to bring up teh rear or buy flavored vodka, in that order…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/13/2020 @ 12:30 pm48. They don’t flavor their vodka in Russia as a rule, Haiku. The first place to put black pepper infusion in their vodka, where it is still the most popular flavor today, was Sweden.
Gryph (08c844) — 7/13/2020 @ 12:35 pm49… it’s in teh NYT, so you know it’s true!
Vodka: A Taste of Russia
The national drink is an inseparable part of Russian social life. Vodka is drunk everywhere, with the intention of breaking down inhibitions and producing a state of conviviality Russians refer to as dusha-dushe (soul-to-soul). When a Russian taps his throat, beware: it’s impossible to refuse this invitation to friendship. If you have a cold, sore throat, or any such minor ailment, don’t be surprised if someone prescribes a shot of vodka — even for a hangover. Russians’ belief in the curative and preventative powers of this drink is almost limitless.
Vodka is often flavored and colored with herbs and spices. Limonaya, lemon-flavored vodka, is particularly popular with American tourists, as is pertsovka, pepper-flavored vodka. Other varieties include starka (a dark, smooth “old” vodka), pshenichnaya (made from wheat), ryabinovka (in which ashberries have been steeped), and tminaya (caraway-flavored vodka). Be wary of krepkaya vodka, which at 110 proof is the strongest variety.
http://www.nytimes.com/fodors/top/features/travel/destinations/europe/russia/moscow/fdrs_feat_107_8.html
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/13/2020 @ 12:41 pmAppalled (1a17de) — 7/13/2020 @ 9:15 am
What triggered all this is that the boy wanted to really make an effort to help his team win – but he had no role to play in the game. Soccer fans in England are like this.
So what he did is threaten a player (“you better not score”) and reference his race, and say that if he scored, he’d go to his house like the Ku Klux Klan. (“I’ll come to your house dressed as a ghost”)
Because he was 12, and acting alone, as it turned out, it was an empty threat. But you can;t say he didn’t try to intimidate the player.
Sammy Finkelman (c54485) — 7/14/2020 @ 7:01 am