Arndale Stabbings - Enter Katie Hopkins

Pro-am motormouth Katie Hopkins is at present on tour in the USA, grovelling at each and every mention of Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, even as the scale of the 45th President’s corrupt and treacherous misconduct unravels before the eyes of the media, a phalanx of lawyers, and Congress. Her absence from UK shores is something that many no doubt hope she will repeat as often as possible. But she’s still watching events here.

So it was no surprise when she latched on to yesterday’s news that there had been a number of stab injuries following an incident at the Manchester Arndale centre. As the BBC has reported, “Three people were stabbed and two others were hurt when a man with a large knife started ‘lunging and attacking people’, according to police. He chased two police community support officers (PCSOs) before being detained, the force said. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) believe he was acting alone”.

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There was more. "The centre was put on lockdown as officers confronted the attacker, with some shoppers taking refuge in stores … Within five minutes armed officers detained the suspect on Market Street outside the centre … GMP said … two women, including a 19-year-old, were in a stable condition in hospital, while a man in his 50s was being treated in hospital for stab wounds”. None of the wounds was life-threatening.

That did not stop the usual far right suspects. As this was a suspected terrorist incident, amateur comedy kidnapper Daniel Thomas pitched in with “Cordon erected around one victim at the Arndale centre terror scene who is fighting for their life”. And once someone had started to shout “terror”, Hatey Katie was never going to be far behind.

And so it proved. “Five stabbed in a shopping centre in #Manchester … 1 male lunging at shoppers … Please follow standard procedures … 1) let them tell you it has nothing to do with terror … 2) listen to politicians tell you about their thoughts and prayers … 3) wear a bumble bee and feel better”. Way to insult Mancunians there. And it’s a worker bee.

On she droned, managing not to say it was about Scary Muslims™, even though many of those responding to her got the dog-whistle. “#ManchesterStabbings … Man held. No description. No motive. No connection with anything to do with religion … Keep drinking the Kool Aid”. Just mention “religion” and they know just what Hatey Katie means.

Whatever she is trying to infer, she is once again plain flat wrong. As Sky News has let us know, “Manchester stabbings: Greater Manchester Police says a 40-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of committing a terrorism offence has now been assessed by specialist doctors and has been compulsorily detained under the mental health act”.

Mental illness affects many people, and affects them in very different ways. It is a serious issue, and not one to be trivialised and dismissed by the likes of Katie Hopkins in her witless pursuit of More Scary Brown People to blame for the country’s ills.

So she won’t be retracting or apologising any time soon. I’ll just leave that one there.

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