Why Should You Be Treated With 'Understanding And Fairness' When You Haven't Shown Any?

Asylum seekers housed in an Essex hotel that has been the target of protests and far-right incitement for two weeks have told the Guardian how the Bell hotel, where they had previously felt safe, has been transformed since demonstrations began. In a letter sent to the Guardian one of the men living in the hotel, Nabil, who said he had previously been attacked while out walking, called to be treated with “understanding and fairness” and for people not to resort to harmful stereotypes.

Yes, of course it's in the 'Guardian'... 

We, as refugees, are frequently labeled with harmful stereotypes – that we came only for benefits, that we live off taxpayers, or that we are uneducated or disrespectful. These assumptions hurt us, hinder our integration, and most importantly, do not reflect the truth. I did not come here seeking wealth or running from poverty. In fact, I had a stable life back in my country, Yemen. I had a job, a house, a car, and everything I needed to live with dignity. What forced me to leave was not economic hardship, but persecution and fear for my safety and the safety of my family.

Yet we aren't told where your family is. And I can't believe the 'Guardian' would pass up the chance to challenge the 'myth' that the invasion is made up of mostly single men if they could, so I'm suspicious already that they are back in the Yemen. 

We refugees are not here to take advantage of the system. We are here to rebuild our lives, to work, and to contribute. We will pay taxes like anyone else, not to “drain the system”, but because we believe that mutual respect and responsibility are the foundation of any strong and united society.

I believe the same of national borders and immigration laws, both of which you've knowingly and willingly ignored. So you'll understand if I treat you exactly as you deserve based on your actions. And your claims that you will pay taxes ring hollow, when we didn't ask you to come here in the first place, and you came anyway regardless of our wishes and our laws. You're not a desired worker or guest, you're a burglar.

Maybe The Judge Should House Her, Then?

A judge has granted the supervised release of Slender Man stabber Morgan Geyser in a dramatic decision that goes against the wishes of the victim's family. Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 when they attacked Payton Leutner, also 12, in a sickening attack that shocked America in 2014. The teen defendant, now 22, has been held in a psychiatric facility for years, but today a judge granted her release with conditions.

I guess she's all cured now? 

A psychiatrist also told the court Geyser is now transgender and identifies as male.

Guess not... 

Leutner's family were hopeful the judge would keep Geyser incarcerated.

The triumph of hope over experience again... 

Lundbohm said that her treatment team found no evidence that Geyser had psychosis or any other mental condition that inspired the change in gender identity.

But isn't believing you're not who you really are a mental condition in itself? It always used to be. 

Dr. Kenneth Robbins recommended then that she be moved to a supervised group home, saying that she has 'improved quite dramatically.' Dr. Kayla Pope, medical director at the Winnebago hospital, also argued for her release. 'She has actively participated in therapy, medication management and all the treatments that are available,' Pope said. 'At this point she is safe to return to the community. I don't know that much more could be done to make her safer.'

I can think of something.  

Much of Lundbohm's testimony revolved around how Geyser blames family members and how she has negative feelings toward them.

And that didn't ring warning bells in anyone? 

'Frankly a lot of people in the community don't have great relationships with their family and in and of it itself that doesn't necessarily suggest that [Geyser] would be at a higher risk for violence,' Lundbohm said.

Apart from the fact that she's where she is because of violence? God, these shrinks aren't the sharpest tools in the box, are they? 

Maybe if they were the ones taking the risk, by having to clasp this viper to their own bosom, we'd all be safer. 

But The Justice System Doesn't Believe Women Who Deny Domestic Abuse, Abigail

And I'm pretty sure you'd have been in favour of that....

A Bolton man who is on the run after being recalled to prison indefinitely has made a direct plea to the justice secretary to intervene in his case. Matthew Booth, 33, is wanted by police on recall to prison for a crime he committed when he was 15 and for which he has served a sentence. He was given an indefinite imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence, meaning he can be recalled without notice for breaches of strict licence conditions.

The 'Guardian' has a bee in its bonnet about these, considering them cruel to criminals, and so paints a 'Robin Hood' picture of this wanted felon. 

He has pleaded with the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to intervene after being accused of restarting a relationship with his former partner, Abigail Vernon, with whom he has two daughters, aged 10 and seven, without notifying the authorities. Booth and Vernon both deny this. They say the Parole Board is also under the misconception that Booth has been abusive to Vernon in the past. They say he has not.

Well, yes, I've no doubt they do. But prevailing wisdom in the justice system has been to no longer take the woman's word for it. Because it now recognises 'coercive control' i.e. women being stupid about what's really going on. 

IPP sentences under which offenders were handed a minimum jail term but no maximum were dropped over human rights concerns in 2012, seven years after they were introduced by New Labour.

Vernon denied the Parole Board’s claims that Booth had been abusive to her in the past, and she has asked that he is allowed to be managed in the community.

But why should anyone take notice of what she wants? 

Shirley Debono, a co-founder of IPP Committee in Action, who has supported Vernon and Booth, said: “Shabana Mahmood must intervene and stop Matthew from being sent back to prison.”

Must she? Why? 

The Nature vs Nurture Debate...

...looks like another 'Guardian' article trying to drum up sympathy for criminals might have inadvertantly provided us with the answer:

Nicol and Mooney grew up in a chaotic household in London. Their mother had six children and, Mooney says, terrible taste in men, who were unreliable at best. Her and Nicol’s father was from Saudi Arabia and left their mother when she was pregnant with Mooney. As a family, they stood out: “We were all different colours. Me and Tommy are brown, we have a white sister and the dads of my two younger brothers and sister are Jamaican.” They moved from home to home, sometimes living in refuges, escaping the violent men in their mother’s life.

And yet, despite similar upbringing, the two couldn't be more different. 

Mooney lives with her husband and two boys in a stylish, modern house, but asks me not to disclose the location because she has been attacked in the past for her campaigning. She looks around and says it couldn’t be more different from her and Nicol’s childhood. Her husband, a marketing executive, has done well for himself. As has she. Mooney taught nursery and primary schoolchildren before becoming an education adviser and academic.

She's a campaigner for her brother, the recidivist career criminal who the courts finally lost patience with and imposed a 99 year sentence to give the public some reprieve from his petty crimes. 

She thinks about the life Nicol could have led. “That’s what makes me so angry. The education system, the prison system; it’s all geared towards damaging the most damaged.”

As usual, no sympathy for the victims of her brother's depredations. 

"We don’t train officers to pick up something and throw it at a suspect..."

Well, why not? It works!

Law enforcement officials have said Duprey had been trying to sell narcotics to a group of plain-clothed narcotics enforcement officers. As Duprey tried to flee on a motorbike down the sidewalk, an officer identified as narcotics Sgt Erik Duran flung the cooler at him.

He fell off and died. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.  

A witness also told the Daily News that Duprey was moving north on the bike with the police in pursuit.

“Then he took a U-turn and was riding on the sidewalk … The cop then took my cooler, which was filled with soda cans, water bottles, and hit him,” the witness said.

So he prevented this animal mowing down an elderly person or a child. He should be given a medal, not a suspension.  

A lawyer for Duprey’s family, Jonathan Roberts, called it “tragic” that “yet again a poorly-trained NYPD officer has taken the life of another young man so unnecessarily”. He added that the family planned to seek justice.

You got that. No, we did, the law abiding majority. And it seems what the US starts, we here in the UK slavishly follow...