George Floyd

[Meg]

Now that is interesting. To achieve an average of nine there must be a great number who are unable to read. I wonder how many of these are of ethnic origins? What is the source of this info?

General Teaching council - not the GTCS - and it seems the ethnic origin who were born in the UK, ie native speakers are slightly higher. Mind you, post war, the reading age was 11.

[John Donnelly]

God help us. And the've got the vote. No wonder we're in the mess we're in.
JD.

[meekan]

John,
I wonder at what point it is considered criminal to destroy or attempt to destroy public or for that matter private property. Is it ok for a mob to drag down public artifact or to loot a private property?. Is it different to vandalise public property than it is to vandalise private?. The protests which led to the statue being unceremoniously dumped in the river was less about peaceful protest more like the actions of rent a mob.
Whether the statue should have been erected in the first place is an argument for a by gone age when different values were acceptable, never the less it is /was there and belonged to the community, and it was for the community to decide whether it should or shouldn't stay. For any other item belonging to the community that was willfully damaged by a riotous mob would I'm sure be described as criminal. I wonder how many local people were involved or was as I mentioned earlier rent a mob.
Regarding Saddam Hussain's statue's destruction; that took place again by a mob in a country that at that time had very little law and order in force. We in this country pride ourselves or did pride ourselves in having a law and order system that allows peaceful demonstration.

By the way I heard earlier on the news that the London police had been tipped off about a plot to infiltrate the protests today with trouble makers.

[Meg]

We in this country pride ourselves or did pride ourselves in having a law and order system that allows peaceful demonstration.

Meekan, I wonder where you talk about when you say “in this country”. Today 4 people turned out in Aberdeen to protest, one with a car wheel hub strapped to his head with a some obscure message written on it - and NO ONE turned up to Glasgow or Edinburgh. My country seems to be observing our lockdown laws - not sure about the Nazi (they were displaying Nazi flags/Union Jacks and using the Nazi salute) right wing activists wanting to protect Churchill’s statue - not sure they got that right btw) in London - who were NOT observing social distancing, nor wearing masks as is now the law in England, and were attacking the police, who were meant to be on the same side. Btw no BLM people turned up today in London so they were protesting against themselves, and still managed to fight.

[meekan]

Meg I was referring to the UK in general and we do allow peaceful demonstrations that are carried out within the law. But there are those in this country who are not there because of any empathy with the protests but are merely there to incite trouble.

[brian f]

No one talks more sense than meekan on this topic - Straight down the middle..........

[Jim McCreadie]

Interesting article here in Australia with regard to “local” BLM. For what it’s worth, here it is.

One Aboriginal lady is continually in strife with her fellow Aborigines for telling it the way it is. 
 
Aboriginal activist Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has slammed Black Lives Matter protesters as ignorant 'narcissists' who don't understand indigenous problems. 'Just watching the footage of protesters and the conversations around white privilege make me sick to my stomach,' she told Sky News. 'These are narcissists. They don't have to do any hard work just appear as though they care.'

Ms Price, a Warlpiri woman and Alice Springs Town Councillor, said more Aboriginal people die outside of police custody than within it, with the majority of Aboriginal people killed and maimed by other Aboriginal people. But because the violence is out of sight, out of mind, protesters don't care, she said. 'You don't care because the perpetrators are also black, and that's the big problem,' she said. 'People only care if there's seen to be a white perpetrator.'

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014–15 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, more than one in five or 22.3 per cent of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 15 had experienced physical violence or threats in the previous 12 months. Half of all of those who had experienced physical violence over the 12-month period said that their most recent attacker was a family member. 'This is the reality that goes on in the remote communities that these protesters care zero for,' Ms Price said. 'They do not care one bit. They stand there virtue-signalling and acting as though they're so terribly sorry for the racism that Aboriginal people are faced with.

Ms Price says people in the cities have no idea of what goes on in indigenous communities and don't care a jot about the majority of black lives taken by perpetrators who are also black. 'It's not racism that is sexually abusing our kids and it is not racism that is killing our people - it's the actions of our own people.'  Ms Price's own nephew died on Friday - allegedly stabbed to death during a wild fight in Alice Springs. Northern Territory Police said more than a dozen people had been 'fighting with weapons' at a home in the Central Australian town when the 36-year-old man was stabbed. He bled to death at the scene despite the efforts of ambulance paramedics and police officers to stem the bleeding and to save him with CPR. There were more than 12 people involved in the mayhem but only two men were arrested, ABC News reported. 

Ms Price said Aboriginal people are the most incarcerated people in the world - because of violent crimes and that if people were serious about protecting Aboriginal lives then they would focus on lowering the rate of family violence in indigenous communities. 'It's a horrible cycle that continues and the ignorance is gobsmacking,' she said. 'If you wanted to reduce the rates of incarceration then you would begin with being honest about the fact that almost 70 per cent of Aboriginal people - men and women incarcerated - are incarcerated for acts of violence against their loved ones,' she said. Ms Price said for women it was largely because they were fed up with repeated beatings and had retaliated. 'On the other side of the coin we've got nasty individuals who think it's their right to hurt and maim and kill their own loved ones,' she said.

[brian f]

This filled my eyes. But on reflection starting to feel it was set up. Us wee guys on the streets know nothing?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53044138? ... ink1_.auin

Everybody gets things wrong .... Just to be sure.

[bonzo]

On the other hand there's this clown.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-engla ... n-53051096

Protecting the statues??? Aye right.