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Sunday 21 June 2020

Reading Stabbings And Disinformation

Late yesterday afternoon, a lone man entered Reading’s Forbury Gardens, a park to the south-east of the town centre. The area was filled with people enjoying conversation, having an al fresco drink, or perhaps just chilling. He then took out a bladed weapon and seemingly at random stabbed several individuals before he was tackled to the ground. Several have been injured. Worse, three poor souls are now dead.
That much was bad enough, but then came the reporting of the event. Here, the tendency to disinformation took hold from the start. There had been a - totally peaceful and otherwise unremarkable - Black Lives Matter protest at the same location earlier in the day. But this ended hours before the stabbing. It did not stop the disinformation.
Like from where? Try RT for example. “Several people reported killed in multiple stabbing at #BLM protests [sic] site in England's Reading”. “England’s Reading?” But there was more. “Stabbing at #BLM protests site in #Reading, UK … At least 3 killed, several injured … 1 man arrested, police says”. This links the stabbings to BLM.
Only later did RT concede “Police say 'no indication' a stabbing attack in #ForburyGardens linked to #BLM protest, that took place earlier”. But by then, Arutz Sheva from Israel had joined in the attempt to link it all to BLM: “Stabbing at BLM protest”.
Then the brains trust rocked up. “The attack in Reading took place at the site of BLM anti-racism protest but police said it was not connected. Yeah just a coincidence that the stabbing took place after BLM spouted their venomous vitriol against white people. Bet there will be no bending of knee for the victims … These #blm protesters giving the police shit have no respect for our police forces when they put their lives on the line”. Do go on.
The media are trying their hardest to distance the BLM protest and this stabbing in Reading. I bet if there was a white nationalist march then a stabbing after they wouldn’t have the same tone … ‘The police are killing us’, ‘Defund the police’, ‘abolish the police’, ‘f*ck the police’: obviously all sound cool to the fools screaming them on #BLM marches! When terrorists turn up, they can only be heard screaming: ‘CALL THE POLICE!!’
Charlie Bond was unimpressed. “Anyone who wants to try and link the horrific stabbing in #forburygardens in Reading to the #blm protest today - the protest ended two hours ago … Forbury Gardens is literally 10 minutes walk from my house. Keep your racist comments out of this tragedy”. Another local confirmed it. “The stabbings in Reading are NOT due to the BLM protest. The protest finished at 4pm, the stabbing was at 7pm”.
One Tweeter tried to point out the obvious to the people at Sky News. “Just say ‘mass stabbing’ in Reading at Forbury Gardens. I don’t care if you say ‘after’, you are tying it to BLM”. And then the convocation of the irredeemably batshit otherwise known as Breitbart proclaimed “Security sources have told PA the man arrested in connection with a multiple stabbing incident in Forbury Gardens, Reading, is a Libyan national”.

Which means normal service is resumed, and the right-wing can blame it all on Scary Muslims™. Different disinformation, same racism, same target group. Depressing.
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

These "lone" killings have one common denominator, why try to tell us otherwise?

Stephen said...

16.45 - Can't you read?

grim northerner said...

Twats like you commenting?

Anonymous said...

There are a number of pictures of the assailant in the media with a spliff in his hand, translates as "mental health issues".

The link between "soft drugs" and criminality is being deliberately ignored, as is the obvious evidence that marijuana use by youth can cause changes to the developing brain.

grim northerner said...

Oranges though.

Andy McDonald said...

Linking factor?

Alienation, mental health, sense of exclusion from society, sense of nothing to lose, access to bladed weapon.

Having trained in the Prevent programme, I can tel you that the warning signs for potential terrorists, whatever their skin colour or motivation, are exactly the same.

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 10:58, let's not forget the other contributing factor, that the rags prefer to play down: being subject to constant racist and islamophobic abuse by people in his neighbourhood.

Anonymous said...

14:51 yeah, absolutely justifies is actions.

it now appears that apart from being a user of marijuana he was also homophobic.

Lefties dilemma, what is worse islamophobia or homophobia?

Anonymous said...

Whatever, clearly this isn't a terror incident. It is a violent teenager who has raddled his brain with marijuana (every picture of him has him holding a spliff) who went on an homophobic murder rampage.

But of course it suits the powers that be to put these incidents down to "lone wolf" Islamists when the reality lies elsewhere. No Prevent program would have stopped him but enforcement of the drug laws and his deportation after committing serious crimes might. Somehow this doesn't suit the progressives agenda.

Take a step back said...

Mental health issues, drugs use, alcoholism, convert to Christianity.

grim northerner said...

What's worse, false dichotomies or false dichotomies?