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More that unites us
Some responses to the Manchester appalling and sad attack at the Ariana Grande concert. Not so much a polemic, nor is it particularly complete.
- Twenty-two people were killed in a bomb blast at the Manchester Arena on Monday night 22nd May, including an eight-year-old girl and an off-duty female police officer, moments after US singer Ariana Grande finished performing around 10:30pm. The concert attracted a large number of young women and children.
- As we would hope, the community response was one of solidarity and compassion because there is more that unites us, than divides us.
- Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester's unityA Muslim man comforted an elderly Jewish woman and the pair prayed together at a floral tribute in the centre of Manchester in a symbol of the city's unity following a suicide bomb attack which killed at least 22 people.
- Manchester Arena: Taxis drive people home for free as city unites after terror attackTaxi drivers turned off their metres to offer free rides home to those caught up in a terror attack in Manchester, which claimed the lives of 22 people and left at least 59 people injured.
- Emotional Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham vows 'terrorists will never beat us'Andy Burnham has issued a moving statement claiming terrorists will "never beat us" following the attack at Manchester Arena.
- Corbyn speaks as does May.
- Disgracefully and unusually, details of the police enquiries leak from the US, twice which leads to the UK ceasing the intelligence sharing.
- Britain stops sharing Manchester attack intelligence with US after leaks continueGreater Manchester Police have stopped sharing intelligence relating to the Manchester Arena attack with US government agencies after concerns that US intelligence officers are continuing to leak confidential details of the investigation to the American media.
- Tim Fenton writes about the black ops response by the mainstream media but the story rapidly moves from the unsustainable position that Corbyn & Labour had some form of culpability as argued by the Sun & Mail, towards Manchester adopting Liverpool's settled position of not buying the Sun and a look at Police resourcing, the responsibility of Theresa May for six of the last seven years.
- The results of the Police cuts, which have removed 20,000 police posts since May took over as Home Secretary are spoken of here, and the possible need for army personnel to cover for police shortages.
- Operation Temperer: Theresa May is first PM to deploy up to 5,000 soldiers on streetsThe plan will see soldiers on the streets
- Police forces 'sleepwalking' away from communitiesPolice forces could be "sleepwalking" back to an old model of policing where they are "isolated from communities", HM Inspector of Constabulary warns.
- Jon Snow challenges Michael "Bollocks" Fallon on police numbers, followed by Richard Murphy and Glyn Moody who comments on the effectiveness of the surveillance state's machine.
- perhaps MI5 lacked resources to keep an eye on him; perhaps there are too many false positives arising from UK's mass #surveillance... https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/867343082114740225 …
- Last February, the BBC reported on internal work by the police looking at the decline of community policing and it's consequent loss of intelligence
- Police forces 'sleepwalking' away from communitiesPolice forces could be "sleepwalking" back to an old model of policing where they are "isolated from communities", HM Inspector of Constabulary warns.
- 'The police service is living hand to mouth' | Anonymous police officerMy town had 18 officers on the beat 10 years ago. Now there are four. The service we provide is woefully inadequate - but not for the want of trying
- And Simon Jenkins speaks for as al as he criticises Theresa May for her militarisation of the response, and her diminishing of the nobility and grief of the people of Manchester. He says,
- Above all, a tough response would point out that terrorism is aimed at our freedom to congregate. It is the price of that freedom. For all its horror, the risk of death from terrorist violence is minimal. True toughness would downplay it, avoid the grandstanding and empty rhetoric, the machismo of soldiers and gunships. It would avoid the easy slither into a bruised and weakened liberty that is now the most menacing threat.
- Enough of Theresa May’s outrage. We need a tough response to terror | Simon JenkinsThe prime minister is playing into the hands of terrorists by politicising the Manchester attack. Her job is to allay public anxiety, not promote it
- The threat is that we become like the USA, a flawed democracy.
- Colin Talbot writes at the Public Investigator and accuses the perpetrators of the Manchester attack of an apolitical nihilism.
- Manchester – why there is no scope for ‘negotiations’ with these sorts of terrorists (my take from 9/11)The column below was written immediately after 9/11 and published by the US magazine PA Times. You can find the archived online version here. I think it is still relevant today after the awful atta…
- It's important to understand the often orthagonal roles of injustice and criminality in the incubation of Terrorism.
- It reminds me of Clutterbuck's writing in the 70's that dealing with political violence required a political & police response often because the violence was tacitly supported by many perceiving an injustice; dealing with Marcusian influenced terrorists who were attempting to get a repressive response required a police response but today I would add that in this case it is probably better to not exacerbate the oppressions that they claim to be fighting. I tend to agree that there is little negotiation to be done with ISIS, but we can avoid making the threat worse.
- Image Credit: Pablo Fernandez CC 2013 BY-ND-NC (cropped, cropping is not a derived work)