I seldom read the Independent, but today the blogosphere lead me to this story, about an Indy journalist, Jerome Taylor, who got beaten up for the crime of investigating electoral fraud in East London.
I also learned something that I did not know, about the art of being beaten up:
As their fists and feet slammed into me, all I could think about was some advice a friend had given me. She’s a paramedic and has dealt with countless victims of assault. “Whatever you do don’t get knocked to the ground,” she once said. “Blows on the floor are much more dangerous.” …
I never knew that, but it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Punched in the face is not good, but you really don’t want to be kicked in the kidneys. Presumably Taylor managed to remain standing. It reminds me of an old Elton John song that I have always quite liked.
Luckily for Taylor, he was saved from further punishment by a nearby onlooker who intervened, which was enough for the beaters-up to go away, two of them “into the candidate’s house”.
Good bit of journalism, that last bit. Your face is a mess, but you still clock the vital fact about your attackers. I hope (a) that Jerome Taylor’s career prospects improve as a result of his ordeal, and (b) that both the barbarians who did this and the barbaric puppeteers they were doing it for live more miserable and complicated and dysfunctional lives from now on.
Raedwald, the blogger who lead me to this story, says that it was “naivety or foolishness ” that got Taylor into this fracas. Maybe so, but that strikes me as a bit harsh under the circumstances. Isn’t trying to learn the truth about things, sometimes naively and foolishly, going where people who already know it all are too wise to venture, what journalism is all about?
Also, was that Good Samaritan onlooker who chased away the villains also perhaps being rather naïve and rather foolish? Again, maybe yes, but it’s a good thing he did what he did.
The “stay on your feet” advice is one of those things that is obvious if you think about it, but those of us who do not often get in fights have often not thought about it. A kick can do more damage than a punch, and as well as the torso and kidneys, being on the ground makes your head vulnerable.
Also, was that Good Samaritan onlooker who chased away the villains also perhaps being rather naïve and rather foolish? Again, maybe yes, but it’s a good thing he did what he did.
Naive and foolish might be two words to describe it. Brave and decent are two more. The more brave and decent people there are the less naive and foolish it becomes, of course, which is why such people need to be applauded and praised to the skies. I hope also that it is possible for police to track down these thugs and properly punish them for this, but perhaps I am hoping too much. It would also be nice to know who the actual candidate in question who was being interviewed was. On the other hand
Both the local Conservative and Respect parties in Tower Hamlets have been looking through the new electoral rolls for properties that have an alarmingly high number of adults registered to one address.
The Liberal Democrats don’t have much of a presence in that part of London, either.
Brian,
it is clear from the article you linked to that the journalist was, in fact, thrown on the ground and if he was lying there under the blows of his attackers for more than a minute (as he says), he might had more injuries. He did not manage to stand.
Also, it was the man who saved him who noticed the direction Mr. Taylor’s assailants left – and he wasn’t a journalist, just somebody who lives in one of the neighboring homes. Which makes his bravery even more impressive.
Funny, none of the press coverage mentions the party which might benefit from the alleged fraud. Yet another reason, if I needed one, not to vote Labour.
Even in fairly bad neighborhoods, candidates are usually happy to see reporters. (Free publicity!) Gangmembers are usually bored by election and civic stuff, unless they’re actually making money off it somehow; so obviously these guys were in on some action. If they’d thought he were a policeman investigating them, that would be something else; but it doesn’t seem they thought he was.
Blows on the ground are more dangerous, especially to the head, because the body has no where to go. If you get hit on your feet, the head can move away from the punch, decreasing the damage. Put if you are on your back, there is no place for the head to go.
This is the sort of attitude that got your nation into this sorry state in the first place.
If you are standing, you can be punched or even kicked in the head, but if you are on the ground, you can be “head stomped.” That is how the underclass fights over here in the USA.
Note to useless Lefty media – this is the sort of thing you should be doing. Actual, real journalism.
More ammunition for Yasmin Alibhai-Brown baiters.
I guess it depends on who is administering the beating. There are a lot of people who will keep attacking until you go down and then stop.
Of course it’s probably not wise to rely on the good character of the people who are attacking you.
I suppose you have to depend on your American cousins for verification on this kind of topic.
Never, ever, let yourself be knocked down. You’ll get killed.
There’s just no way to defend yourself against the avalanche of violence you are going to recieve from all sides and above.
This gives me a feeble excuse to tell my one noble anecdote. I once saved a man from getting beaten up on the tube, some years ago.
There was the group of brawny, rowdy, tipsy lads you see. I was heading home from the pub and was not drunk but not entirely sober either. And I was sitting next to one of these lads, while they were all making a hullabaloo, and thinking, sort of in a detached, idle manner, what would I do if a fight starts? Because I hadn’t been in a fight since school to be honest, although my hirsute, rockerish “style” might have given a different impression, not that it probably did.
So then this little sort of sociology lecturer looking chap, he pipes up with this sneery, “can you keep the NOISE down!”, which really wasn’t what was needed. And the chap next to me leapt up to go for him and, because I’d been foolishly imagining myself doing something heroic in a hypothetical brawl, found to my astonishment that I’d leapt up and grabbed him in a vague-nelson, as the other lads all sprang up.
And I looked down the (quite crowded) tube train in this second that lasted a very long subjective time, and saw all these blank faces looking back, and realised nobody was going to help me, and I was going to get my fucking head kicked in.
And then, as proof that there is a God after all, the alpha male of the group says, “Awright, les’ carm down,” amazingly. And we all sat down again in an awkward kind of a way, and passed the rest of the journey in a strange silence. And I looked across at the man I’d in some way saved, and he looked back at me like he was looking at something sticking to the sole of his shoe, and I surmised (perhaps wrongly, though I think not) that he would have considered me as much to blame for a fight occurring. His demand for silence had all the hallmarks of a weed who has been on an assertiveness training course, and been assured that stating your position confidently and clearly will always lead to others crumbling before your Mighty Will. I bet he was a Mac user.
So anyway, that was my moment of heroism. Except for the time me and a friend pretended to know this girl who was being harrassed by some lads on a late night tube platform. Dangerous place, the Underground. Oh yes.
The moral is probably that any time a third party intervenes, I think it often has a beneficial effect, because of the mere changing of the situation forcing everybody to do a mental recalculation, or something. I’m glad I did. But if you could re-run that situation a hundred times, I bet I’d get my head kicked in the other 99.
So anyway, about the article. Do a google on voter fraud in the UK, and you’ll find the names coming up are overwhelmingly of a culturally enriching kind. Am I allowed to say that these days?
Nope, sorry Mr/Ms paramedic, it’s not poverty that’s the problem. That’s not it at all.
In a sort of counter-intuitive sense, it’s good to get into a few scrapes now and then because it teaches you to be aware of the body language of potential attackers, which is vital to avoiding fights. If you do get into a street-fight, you’ve got to make sure you finish it and finish it as quickly as possible, which means being quicker and more evil than the other guy.
ROFL!
Some people sound like tourists with a phrase book, in their own country, in their native language.
It’s too bad bad people show cowardice in the face of truth.
If your going to commit voter fraud, at least be brave enough when your found out to face it, rather than attack someone simply trying to report it!
Makes me sick.
Yes “never let them get you down” is something that everyone learns from being attacked at school – even puny me learned that (that and “take revenge when you catch one on his own” and all the other basic things of this world).
What is important is the following:
Who was engaged in electoral fraud?
And.
Who attacked this journalist?
Was it Labour party activists? The post (and the original article) are written in such a way as to make this unclear.
The closest I can find to something of interest in this article is the line that the Respect Party and the Conservative Party were investigating – so that points at the Labour party.
But the article (and the post) are unclear.
What is the matter with people?
A quick google of “electoral fraud” and Bow gave a couple of results – not least of which was a follow-up article from the Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/police-investigate-electoral-fraud-claims-after-journalist-is-beaten-up-1962536.html
Salient quote – “reporter Jerome Taylor was attacked and badly beaten by youths shortly after calling at the house of Khales Uddin Ahmed, a Labour candidate for the Bromley-by-Bow ward.”
The full article looks to be worth reading though.
Oh, those ‘youth’ yet again.
Multiculturalist meets multiculturalism. I don’t expect he’s had any sense knocked into him though.
Had there been a lot of complaint over this “Labour activists engage in VOTE RIGGING”, “Labour activists ATTACK JOURNALIST”.
There might have been a reaction by the people against Labour (at least in Bow).
Instead the story was how a man managed to keep standing up even though he had a bloody nose……….
I do not blame Brian for this – he was just carrying on the story in the way it was originally written.
But talk about missing the point…..
People will now understand that they can rig votes and beat up journalists and the only reaction (at least till follow up stories that no one will read) will be to write about how the journalist managed to remain standing up.
Self obsessed, story missing, tosspot.
Yes I am sorry Mr Taylor was beaten up – but HE IS NOT THE STORY.
If Mr Taylor wants to prevent British politics turning into one big Chicago (where, according to Mayor Daley, opponents should “expect” to get their legs broken) then he should have written a lot less about his inner mental life – and a lot more about LABOUR VOTE RIGGING and LABOUR THUGS ATTACKING PEOPLE.
He should use himself as an example – “I was investigating the story and this is what they did to me” nothing more.
“But you do not understand Paul – Mr Taylor could have been killled”.
Yes – and Glenn Beck (and many others) get death threats every day (which is why he always carries a gun and his home is a fortress).
If you investigate a corrupt political machine, this is what you get.
I think it will be good for you to practice martial arts for self defense!
tal
Martial Art Training
I think it will be good for you to practice martial arts for self defense!
tal
Martial Art Training