Thursday, June 05, 2008

The Consequences of Another Tragic Killing

Just been watching the statement on Sky by the family of Arsema Dawit, the young girl who was stabbed to death in South London earlier this week. "We came to London to live in safety," said her mother. "We went to the Police to ask for protection, but it never came". It seems clear that this was not a standard knife based killing and that her daughter's killer had previously appeared threatening to her.

The Police have some questions to answer in this case, but it is not one sided. When the girl's mother went to the Police, it took them twelve days to follow it up. But when they did, Arsema Dawit denyed the alleged attack in a McDonald's had taken place. To their credit, the Police did not take that at face value and continued to pursue enquiries. But whatever they pursued, it was not enough to prevent a tragic killing.

The mother's grief is terrible and understandable. She clearly blames the Police for not protecting her daughter from further attacks. From all that we read, I think it is fair to say that it is not quite the full story.

15 comments:

Richard Nabavi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I read yesterday, in the Standard?, that the alleged stalker was a frequent visitor to their flat.

Anonymous said...

The mother blames the police.
Victoria Climbe's mother blames social services for her daughter's death.
They were both killed by Africans.
Would the children have been better off in Africa?
I think the answer is that children are safer in this country, provided their families offer them proper protection.

Anonymous said...

The police are suffocated by ideologically inspired Home Office targets, cf. education, health or any other public service that this government is busy simultaneously politicising and micromanaging to death.

Under the anonymity of the blog, police officers are quite open about how they fiddle with recorded crime figures. Senior managers pressure them to lie, in order to satisfy their own political masters.

One of the leading police blogs posts on this subject too:

http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/

Whenever Jacqui Smith says 'recorded crime has...' whatever comes next is a work of numerical fiction.

Britain resembles a banana republic, we should expect high levels of violent crime.

Anonymous said...

anonymous at 11.27am.

I speak as someone who grew up in Africa and 'survived' what you clearly believe to be a hazardous experience.

So just because someone came to the UK from the 'dangers' of Africa, their families have no right to complain if the child is killed here?

Yak40 said...

It took decades for the UK to descend to these depths so any positive changes will take a while too.
That being said the MP should examine Giuliani's success in cleaning up New York City.

"We went to the Police to ask for protection, but it never came".
Which of course is exactly the reason people should be able to defend themselves vigourously without fear of being second guessed by some prosecutor afterwards. Sadly this freedom is long gone from the UK.

Anonymous said...

Boris problem now.

If this had happened a year ago, you would all be baying for Kens blood.

Things will only get worse under Boris' watch.

Anonymous said...

I Can`t believe it, the police getting the benefit of the doubt.

Someone please get back on message. It was all the police`s fault along with global warming and why I got a speeding ticket 4 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"If this had happened a year ago, you would all be baying for Kens blood."

Knife crime in London seems to have increased since Boris took over as Mayor.

Twig said...

Anonymous said...
"If this had happened a year ago, you would all be baying for Kens blood."
Knife crime in London seems to have increased since Boris took over as Mayor.
June 05, 2008 6:00 PM


Dear Anon,
What exactly did Boris do that has caused this effect? Is it banning alcohol on the tube or closing the free propaganda paper that no one ever read?
Can't wait to hear your reasoning.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand this mentality of blaming the Police. Surely the blame here is squarely at the individual who stabbed the girl to death. It is a fact that Somalians have brought over their culture of violence with them to this country. It is unbelievable to blame the police when the attacker was also somalian.

Anonymous said...

There seem to be a number of confusing elements here - there are rumours that Asema may have been 18 and lied about her age to get into education - sadly this happens quite a lot. Some colleges now run eye iris tests for age after a spate of hulking 23 year olds "refugees" turned claiming to be 17 to get into local FE colleges (I worked at one).

Then there is also the fact that young Somalis are a group who carry knives routinely and will use them. And brought the habit with them from Somalia. You can argue all you like about the reasons, but whenever someone in authority points this inconvenient fact out, as both Asian MPs and senior policemen have done in recent years) the howls of rage go up from the liberals in Hampstead, and from some self appointed spokesmen of the Somali community, claiming that they are being unfairly stigmatised.

Realism, recognising there is a problem and tackling it, goes out of the window in a government where everything is spun to make it appear they are in control of events (to an increasingly disbelieving electorate).

instead we are constantly told there less crime these days and we are all much safer since New Labour came to power. Any complaints, contact Hazel Blears.

Anonymous said...

I agree to an extent, I do think that the act of stabbing has become "dehumanised" in this persons social environment and that this context contributed in a small part to the nature of the act, however the intention behind it, was not gang motivated.

Anonymous said...

twig said... Dear Anon,
What exactly did Boris do that has caused this effect?

Maybe it's what he didn't do.

Twig said...

Anon. June 07, 2008 10:18 AM
Maybe it's what he didn't do.


Okay tell us what it is then.