The sentencing of a 15 year old Blackburn boy – 14 at the time he committed his thought crimes – to life imprisonment is grossly inhuman. It is not quite as evil as the decision of the appalling Saudi regime to crucify and behead a child dissident, but it is recognisably a product of the same world view. History books will look back on this era as one of astonishing state cruelty.
As I have posted repeatedly, Islamic terrorism in the UK is virtually non-existent. It has killed precisely one person in the last decade. As a massive security industry employing many, many thousands depends for its very existence on this tiny threat, the work of the government, media and security services in exaggerating the “danger” is unceasing and increasingly desperate. It is based on an endless series of stories of thwarted terrorist plots.
The most famous was the liquid bomb plot which in fact had no bombs and no air tickets, and where the traces of “suspicious chemical” found in baby feeding bottles was Milton baby bottle sterilising solution. Then there was the ricin plot with no ricin, and the Manchester “Easter bomb plot” where the “bomb ingredient” found in a kitchen was an ordinary bag of sugar.
In the event of the absence of any terrorism, the focus has shifted to thinking about terrorism, and the result has been the conviction of a series of fantasists who can be held to “prove” the terrorist threat. Of these the very saddest is the State’s crushing of this young child. He had no bombs, owned no weapons, harmed nobody. He was however the “mastermind” behind the dreaded “Anzac Day Beheading Plot” where jihadists in Australia did… nothing whatsoever. Nobody attacked anybody. Some people texted about it.
Aha! But don’t we realise that, but for the tens of billions we lavish on the security services, somebody in Australia definitely would have got beheaded by someone? It was only the arrest of a schoolboy in Blackburn that prevented beheadings in Australia, just as it was only the execution by drone of two men in a car in Syria that prevented something absolutely awful from happening in the UK, somewhere by someone, somehow. “What they are yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth.”
I don’t understand how stupid you have to be to buy into this stuff. But then I don’t understand what a vicious callous bastard of a judge you have to be to sentence a child to life imprisonment. He is doubtless a very disturbed child and probably very unpleasant to deal with. But he did not harm anyone; pretending he could have is part of the charade of the security state.
I also do not understand why the child’s beheading fantasies get him locked away for life, yet it is apparently OK for the Saudis to behead and crucify anyone they like, and still be grovelled to by the entire British establishment, up to and including the monarch. So far as can be ascertained, the Saudis behead more people than ISIL and for identical reasons, yet I see no Conservative demands to bomb them. One interesting result of the Russian bombings in Syria is that the media are for the first time openly publishing that the CIA and Saudis are funding and arming some of the most dubious combatant groups in Syria.
The power players in all of this, on all sides, are cruel men. Justice Saunders in a British court has just proven that includes the British establishment.
Hi Mary,
Of his ‘previous’ there doesn’t seem to be anything there which most people would have a problem with. Prsoecuting the corrupt ‘troughers’ in the Lords should especially endear the Hon. Justice Saunders to you!
As for making a comment on the boy’s education, what sort of ruling were you looking for? I don’t believe it is usual for Judges to rule on a criminal’s education requirements. .
Is locking up a 15-year-old boy for a minimum of five years likely to make him more or less radicalized and hostile to the British state?
Kind regards,
John
Have we stepped into “Thought Crime” or maybe “Minority report” territory?
It seems we can now be guilty of thinking things, even if we have no power (or real ability/desire) to carry them out. THIS is what the fake “war on terror” has led us too. All done bit by bit, incrementally, and subtly.
I am reminded of this quote: “The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.”
“Who was the victim of this “attempted murder”? Where is the weapon with which the “attempted murder” was carried out? Exactly at what time and what place was murder attempted?
A great many people openly fantasise about killing Muslims with drone strikes. On the opinion columns of the mainstream media every day. Nobody arrests them for it.”
– – –
Victim? — The community. Sometimes members of a class of a community. Like jews, muslims, christians, women, employees of an abortion clinic. That’s “who” and that’s how terrorism works – by making everyone dysfunctionally fearful of being a victim.
Weapon? — Before it happens, we can’t be sure of which one.
Time and place? — Mostly irrelevant, just like the exact time and place of actual murders for which the victim’s corpse has been moved but the offender is known.
Nobody arrests other fantasists? — That’s because there is less material progression in their “fantasies”. As soon as two people agree to commit a mutualy understood offence, they have commited an offence of conspiracy. It’s noteworthy that you don’t use the actual terminology of the criminal law that prosecuted this kid. Why is that?
The result of your apologia Craig is that you lose credibility in discussing incitement and conspiracy to commit violent crimes. The US can now openly fantasize about regime change and you have no steam to blow them down.
Thanks for pointing to the cesspit that is everything that comes from there. Hollern is a boot licker and she knows too much about Straw and Castle, she tried everything to frustrate our Independent candidate in 2010, when she was running the council.
I hope Jeremy Corbin steers clear of her and keeps her at arms length.
“I once asked a policeman if I could be arrested for what I thought? He said of course not, why do you ask? I said because I think you are an effin idiot, I was promptly arrested.Hej”
Nicely put. I don’t think the same applies in my part of the world. I’ve called cops “fucking nazis” to their faces and they’ve never charged me.
“Have we stepped into “Thought Crime” or maybe “Minority report” territory?”
Correct, Tony. Crime prevention can only take place when the crime DOES NOT happen. It depends on an impossible convergence of knowing that it will happen and how it can be stopped. There is a big grey area that is exploited by both criminals and authoritarian regimes.
I have thoughts of standing outside the Saudi embassy, with pictures of all the Saudi pervert princes hanging from lamp posts. I genuinely hope and encourage the Saudi people to carry out the deed for the sake of humanity.
I don’t see anything new here or unusual here, the laws on conspiracy and incitement have existed for a long time both in common and statutory law. If a hundred years ago letters between two people planning a murder had been presented to a court they would have been enough to convict on a charge of conspiracy to murder whether any actual steps had been taken to carry out the murder or not. The intent was the crime and a crime punishable by life imprisonment even then.
Jemand
What about the case of the so-called Cannibal Cop stateside? His guilty verdict was eventually overturned.
Not terrorism, but certainly falls under what is and what is not fantasy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilberto_Valle
Even though I think a mental health detention for de-radicalisation would have been the appropriate sentence for this boy, I can JUST ABOUT understand a prison sentence. What I cannot understand is a lifetime supervision order. That is not the hallmark of a healthy society.
Thinks: Thank god no-one ever discovered my plans to behead Mr. Redacted, the geography teacher….
However, there is a problem. Back in the good old days, when dinosaurs roamed the planet, a stroppy 14-year-old was a stroppy 14-year-old*, and not too big to endure physical chastisement. Nowadays, he’s electronically connected to any wacko in the world and can actually act out his fantasies if they coincide with the wacko’s. And if Dad gives him a belting, Dad can be arrested.
Seems to me that although the lad has to be put away for a while at least, in the public interest, this is not the way to do it. It gives him credibility among his peers, with a measure of martyr status – ably enhanced by your piece, Craig – and access to/by much more dangerous people in prison. And that is partially the consequence of treating terrorism under separate legislation. The pre-existing law would have dealt with this on its demerits without elevating it an anyone’s mind to a political issue.
Was incitement even proved? From the MSM reports it appears that the Australian who didn’t explode on Anzac Day was perfectly prepared to immolate himself without any help, and didn’t follow the extremely teenage suggestion that he find someone to behead for extra lulz.
Bring back the birch. It’s the only language those fantasy terrorists understand.
*OK. You win. It was me.
“I have thoughts of standing outside the Saudi embassy, with pictures of all the Saudi pervert princes hanging from lamp posts. I genuinely hope and encourage the Saudi people to carry out the deed for the sake of humanity.”
Me too, Harry. But ‘thought’ transitions to action with the word “encourage”. May I suggest you replace the offending word with the phrase “wish others to encourage”?
Sixer, that is an excellent example of a conundrum residing in the grey area of dilemmas. It’s a good thing most conspiracies are black & white and not conducted in the smoke and mirror corridors of fantasy chat rooms. That cop was smart. Innocent or guilty? I don’t know. A pervert, to be sure.
Reminder – I did not support the harsh sentence for this kid.
Ba’al Zevul 3:03 pm
I wholeheartedly agree that existing laws were quite sufficient to deal with all crimes.
Jemand@303pm I concur with your sound advice. I hope my wishes are carried out when the Saudi masses rise up and sweep this scourge of humanity away. Can’t add any more there is a loud knocking at my front door.
The racist cretin goes on record without any irony either!!!!!!
Then proceeds and pontificates the anecdotal evidence:
Interesting indeed, which cop? where and under what circumstance? are not at issue. But cops are fair, and the justice system that declares a fourteen year old boy a “mastermind” terrorist! Is the kind of justice that this supremacist miscreant interloping as an Atheist, who is for ever defending zionistan 24/7. Conflating all manner of rubbish that it can throw at the keyboard, equating Charles Manson with a fourteen year old boy!
AS per the earlier brainfart of the said racist cretin The profile management software can hide IP, geolocation, ……
but the profile management software cannot fix stupid.
Found here, As well as additional data as recently as a week ago
But what did the racist cretin tell us all?
============
Robert Crawford you put it succinctly;
@Sixer
I would say the lifetime supervision thing is proof that the judge has ZERO faith that he will be in any way reformed or deradicalised in prison.
This is what the UK does best. It imprisons those who need help. It did the same thing with Talha Ahsan, another terrible travesty. If you are a follower of Islam the powers that be are ready to vilify you at any opportunity to try and perpetuate a war on non-existent terror. In the sixties we fought long and hard agaisnt this shit. Now we get the establishment joining in the vilification. It’s a sick society.
“I think a mental health detention for de-radicalisation would have been the appropriate sentence for this boy”
It’s a sign of the times that statements like that can sound reasonable.
John Goss, if the authorities are ready to vilify followers of Islam, how do you explain this?
“David Cameron calls Islam a religion of peace 26/6/15”
https://youtu.be/w_hk95zRngY
I generally agree with CM but not this time; the judge has set a very low minimum period of five years before he can be considered for release and voices the hope that he will be released at that juncture. Look at what he actually did and the evidence that he still poses a threat: ie read the sentencing remarks. Had he been passing a determinate sentence on S after a trial the sentence would have been 15 years. It’s actually lenient in context. Not every decision taken by a figure of authority is a neoliberal plot to subvert democracy and justice.
O/T?
What about all those social media people who just thought that Chris Mercer in Oregon was another fantasist?
The best joke so far!
The name of the juvenile is given as “S” because the law prohibits identification of young children. Why does the law decree thus?
This child cannot be named, but he sure as hell can be sentenced to life. There is nothing wrong with the case at all, and it is not neo McCarthyism, at all, at all! (shades of comical Ali)
His accomplice whom was sentenced not so long ago had been searching for the images of Michael Adebolajo on the school computers. The girl pleaded guilty too! These days teenage girls must be very careful who they choose as their heart throb! Certainly they should not entertain and anti heroes or they will be sentenced for having a crush on a terrorist!
I read this peace the day after finishing
‘Psychopathic Cultures and Toxic Empires’ by Will Black a mental health professional turned journalist.
A brilliant yet chilling book.
I am now under no illusions that Great Britain is now a toxic empire controlled by psychpaths.
Is it just a coincidence that the James Bond film
‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ about a crazed, deranged,, psychopathic media mogul and his attempts to start World War Three was released in 1997…the same year Tony Blair became Prime Minister.
From the BBC article:
–In one exchange of messages, the teenager suggested Mr Besim get his “first taste of beheading” by attacking “a proper lonely person”.–
That’s incitement to murder, not a thought crime.
The warmongers who got this country to invade Iraq should be prosecuted too.
We may not (yet) have a Big Brother, but it would appear that we do have Thought Police.
Since Orwell was cited in a recent thread for a writing about nationalism, let me note that he had great sympathy for Catalonia.
“O/T?
What about all those social media people who just thought that Chris Mercer in Oregon was another fantasist?”
– – –
Well said, Trowbridge. I heard that the Oregon shooter laid out his plans on social media but no action was possible due to timing. If they had arrested him prior to the massacre, Craig might have defended him on the grounds of him having commited a “thought crime” and “fantasy”. Incidentally, I also heard that he asked his victims to declare their religions before executing them. Haven’t heard anything more on that since.
Muscleguy 3:41 pm
It may be that the judge had zero faith. But then, how do we explain the charging and sentencing of the 20-year-old Eccles man who had actually built a nail bomb. He came from an extremist family. He held extremist views which he did not disavow in court. He expressed no remorse, nor a change of view. He HAD A BOMB. And yet, no terror charge. A 2 year jail sentence. No LIFETIME supervision order. “Prosecutor Roger Smart accepted McGee was not a terrorist but an immature teenager.”
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/28/soldier-jailed-nailbomb-ryan-mcgee-manchester-bomb
MJ 3:55 pm
“It’s a sign of the times that statements like that can sound reasonable.”
Could you elaborate, please?