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Misinformation flows into the vacuum created by official and media obfuscation

I was going to write a post about the riot in Southport that followed the random knife murders of three young girls in that town carried out by Axel Rudakubana. Prior to Rudakubana’s name being released, a false rumour spread on social media that the perpetrator was a Muslim, leading the rioters to attack a mosque. Then I remembered I had already made the same points in this post about the riot in Dublin that took place in November 2023 following the attempted knife murder of three young children by Riad Bouchaker. I am not re-using the old post merely to save time: I am doing it to demonstrate that the two incidents have a great deal in common.

“Despite police not revealing the suspected knifeman’s identity or motive”

In the following quote, replace “Irish” with “British” and “would-be child murderer” with “child murderer”:

It does not excuse the riots in the least if the rioters are correct to think that the would-be child murderer is any or all of a migrant, legal or illegal, or a Muslim, or from an ethnic minority. But the obfuscation from the Irish authorities and media on this point is making the situation worse.

The usual flashpoint for riots throughout history has been a rumour of crimes committed by a member of Group A against Group B. The riots in the Lozells district of Birmingham in 2005 have been almost forgotten because whites were not involved, but they were a typical example of the type, having been sparked by a completely unsubstantiated story that a black girl had been gang-raped by a group of South Asian men.

Sometimes the rumour is true, sometimes it is not.

If, as in that case, the inciting rumour is not true, the best tool for squelching the false claim and quelling the violence is a trusted press, taking the term “press” in a wider sense than just newspapers. If the rumour is true, the best tool for quelling the violence is still a trusted press. It can do things like publicising condemnations of the crime from leaders of the group to which the perpetrator belongs. What a pity that Ireland, like much of the Western World, no longer has a trusted press because it no longer has a trustworthy press.

It’s not “Despite police not revealing the suspected knifeman’s identity or motive, far-Right thugs emboldened by “misinformation” descended on the streets of the capital”, it’s a damn sight closer to “Because of police not revealing the suspected knifeman’s identity or motive, far-Right thugs emboldened by “misinformation” descended on the streets of the capital”. If the official sources of information won’t do their jobs, don’t be surprised when people turn to unofficial sources instead.

11 comments to Misinformation flows into the vacuum created by official and media obfuscation

  • Discovered Joys

    Despite many opportunities for change the police, the CPS, and the legal system still observe the stately dance of the previous century. At every stage people take their time making decisions and the court processes are beset with delays for ‘reasons’.

    From Wikipedia: “Justice delayed is justice denied” is a legal maxim. It means that if legal redress or equitable relief to an injured party is available, but is not forthcoming in a timely fashion, it is effectively the same as having no remedy at all.”

    Since we now have to sort our own rubbish, fill out forms for passports, weigh up our own health options, reply to official letters to a tight timescale, then it is hardly surprising that we turn to our own efforts to secure ‘justice’. Full of peril of course and possibly leading to mob violence or vendetta – but ‘justice delayed’…

  • Woodpecker

    Aside from the lack of timeliness, the release of the data-point ‘born in Cardiff’ engendered distrust. His place of birth is of no more or less immediate relevance than his ethnicity, but the police selectively released his birthplace, seemingly because that addressed one suspicion (‘illegal immigrant’) while keeping silent on ethnicity (fueling the other, incorrect, suspicion, ‘Muslim’) If the police can’t release the full story, it would be better to say nothing other than age and sex of suspect. Picking and choosing facts to release creates the impression of attempted misdirection.

    https://www.merseyside.police.uk/news/merseyside/news/2024/july/statement-from-chief-constable-serena-kennedy-following-major-incident-in-southport/

  • Kirk

    How long does it take for it to sink in with the average person that they’re not the people that their government is working for?
    What does it require, to open their eyes?

    I remain in awe of the ability for the average person to maintain “willing disbelief” in the face of what is demonstrated for them each and every day, which is that their government isn’t acting in their interest, but in the interest of the foreigners that that government brought in…

    As well, when you examine things, the policies of these governments are what are driving the low birth rates and departures of their original home populations. They’ve taxed and regulated them into penury, using those monies to support the “new people” that they’re bringing in by the boatload. What, pray tell, do the “authorities” think will happen once the majority figure out what is going on?

  • Paul Marks

    They refuse to tell the public anything – and then the blame the public for believing “misinformation” (they are already adding “Russian” disinformation).

    And the Prime Minister reads out a statement denouncing the local community as a bunch of thugs who will feel the full force of the law – and I am sure that they will, whether they took part in the disorder or not.

    Everyone is soon to face “the full force of the law”, regardless of what they do, that is the country we are becoming.

  • Joe Smith

    There was also a RoPer arrested taking a machete to the vigil which was part of the reason for the unrest – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/crime/video-3242929/Video-Man-wearing-black-arrested-near-vigil-three-girls-died.html

    Strangely enough, that hasn’t been mentioned very much in the Leftist MSM.

  • Barbarus

    Joe Smith – “RoPer arrested taking a machete …”

    Do you have a reference for that? The Mail article sort of suggests that was another EDL type.

  • Roué le Jour

    As Tim Worstall has pointed out, it maters little whether the powder keg is ignited deliberately by a malcontent or a casually discarded cigarette butt, the key point is that the powder keg exists in the first place.

    If Starmer is going to crack down on the white working class, he may well find that his “far right” are actually Labour voters.

  • Of what relevance is it that this top cop prefaces her statement with ‘As a mum of two daughters, and the nanna of a five-year-old granddaughter…’?

    She’s employed as a cop, could she not react as one?

  • I think Starmer’s disgraceful public address last night will have gone a long way to ensuring the scales fall from even more eyes, Kirk.

  • John Tee

    I think Starmer’s disgraceful public address last night combined with the (unprecedented?) no notice shutting down of central London mid week for a ropers’ victory parade will have resulted in increased applications to join the EDL.

  • Paul Marks

    John Tee – the EDL has been inactive for quite some years now.

    Yes the media blamed the EDL for the violence – but they might as well have blamed little green men from Mars.

    JuliaM

    Sir Keir Starmer does make his disdain for ordinary people horribly obvious.

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