Yesterday (26/12/11) in the UK a man was stabbed and killed on Oxford Street at the heart of London's shopping district at the start of the post-Christmas (Boxing Day) sales. I didn't comment on this at the time because it looked to me like a case of only humans involved. The Boxing Day sales are very much Britain's equivalent of Black Friday in the US when large crowds of people flock to the shops whipped up into a frenzy over the hope of getting a bargain. To be honest I'm more shocked when they don't end in fatalities.
However this and many other videos have since emerged showing the aftermath of the stabbing;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkUcCMSVO5w&feature=related
It shows a young black man being worked on by armed police officers and paramedics as other armed police officers attempt to push back and increasingly hostile crowd who are pushing to try to see and film what is going on. Apart from the large crowd trying to film the incident this scene is very reminiscent of the aftermath of the police shooting of Mark Duggan which sparked the August riots. So although I don't think it was anyone's intention the incident sharply pulls into focus the complete breakdown in trust between the Metropolitan police and the people of London following the Duggan shooting.
That's no great surprise because although the Leveson Inquiry didn't cover it the source of the gun Mark Duggan was supposedly carrying has been revealed as the Metropolitan police's evidence lock up and there are now police witnesses saying it was planted at the scene after the shooting. Still no public inquiry though.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment