Abigail

Abigail Who?

Adam, turn off your computer and turn on the TV.

Yes.

whilst It was a horrific attack to have been carried out anywhere, it was carried out on a Young White Mother with a child from a very wealthy area. The sad thing is, if it had been a member of an ethnic minority,asylum seeker, Black person or someone from a Council estate as has been proven time and time again, it would have been a five minuet wonder.So in short NO.
oldie.

Well Oldie, you say that, but the Damilola Taylor case was given full coverage; black kid, council estate.

Victoria Climbie took a lot of newspaper space

Oldie and Central

Your sorts of coments infuriate me. As has been shown in the case of both Talor and Climbie, horrific reports of this nature ar not race or gender or class specific. What we have here is a needless random brutal attack on a young mother in front of her young son.

What is the purpose of your coments, other than to try and trivialise the nature of the attack? Hopefully the wide publicity will help the attacker be brought to justice as swiftly as possible.

Simon

I did not make a comment, i asked a question.

I think the answer is 'yes'.

Irrespective of her race or background it's the fact that the attack took place in front of her baby (who allegedly had a knife held to his throat as well) that makes this particularly newsworthy.

Also Abigail regaining her ability to communicate gives us real hope that her attacker will be captured quickly - another reason for turning up the news when this item comes on.

Regards
Steve M

I have to agree with Simon.

This was a brutal, cowardly attack on a young woman who was in a vulnerable situation. The filthy low life who performed this act saw her as an easy target for robbery or whatever other peverted motive they had. Would this scumbag have attacked a 6'6" 20 stone weightlifter? Obviously not because they wouldn't have stood a chance.

I am hopeful that the bastard is caught. But what about poor Abigail and her family? She will be permanently disabled as a result of this and it's something all the family will have to live with. How long will it be before something like this happens again?

My 17 year old godson was recently attacked while walking alone in a respectable suburb of Sheffield during daylight hours. A car pulled up at the side of the road and four youths jumped out, beat him up and stole his mobile phone. Thankfully he wasn't badly hurt (just a few bruises) but he is traumatised by the incident and wary of going anywhere alone on foot.

Like the attack on poor Abigail, this was in a respectable area for god's sake! Not some rough estate.

What can be done about this? Why do we have to put up with this? What's the answer? Do we need more police on the streets? Or perhaps vigilantes.

A customer was openly mugged in a Shepherds Bush pub a few evenings ago, with a knife to his throat and his wallet pinched in front of many witnessess (who may, or may not at a later stage all of been in the toilet or using their phones at the time). The Abigail incident which I mentioned on here three days ago, as horrific as it qwas/is I feel will be stealthily used for election purposes, putting yet more pressure on the police for a 'result' 'Safe³?' than they already have.

Fritz Von That is the question, in that if an unsafe conviction ensues, their reputation is even further down the pan, and one can't change what's already occurred, innit.

Stewart your penultimate sentence speaks volumes.

Rasher,
yes what you say is quite true, but, unfortunatle,and sadly Damilola was killed in a horricic manner in daylight in a busy highly populated area and by children ,and imo that was what made the act ,again unfortunatly,and very sadly more "News worthy".

Simon,
I am genuinely sorry that you find my answers offensive ,but an opinion was asked for, and that is my opinion, I dont see how that trivializes what happened. It happens unfortunatly virtually every day in deprived city areas and goes in general unreported. The only thing that would assist in apprehending the attacker would be a increase in the police manpower, more police "on the beat"and not in their cars,
a reduction in the number of "care in the comunity" releases when there is obviously no care in the comunity and "they" are not ready for release,but finances dictate ,and not imo the usual tabloids sensasional head lines,that are in reality only for sales increases.
oldie.

Well said Sir

quote:

Originally posted by Stewart Platts:
I have to agree with Simon.

My 17 year old godson was recently attacked while walking alone in a respectable suburb of Sheffield during daylight hours. A car pulled up at the side of the road and four youths jumped out, beat him up and stole his mobile phone. Thankfully he wasn't badly hurt (just a few bruises) but he is traumatised by the incident and wary of going anywhere alone on foot.

Like the attack on poor Abigail, this was in a respectable area for god's sake! Not some rough estate.

What can be done about this? Why do we have to put up with this? What's the answer? Do we need more police on the streets? Or perhaps vigilantes.

Does the fact that these attacks were carried out in a " respectful area" make them any more important than those carried out in deprived areas?, Sorry but imo any attack ,carried out on anyone, regardless of colour, creed, social standing or gender is equally abhorent.and it's standing should be regardless of social area.

oldie.

Nail on the head Oldie, which unfortunately has to be repeated often in Britain (England) as unlike other home-truths, it doesn't belong in the bleedin obvious catagory, innit.


Fritz Von Rolls Royce in Toulouse

quote:

Originally posted by Stewart Platts:
Like the attack on poor Abigail, this was in a respectable area for god's sake! Not some rough estate.

Isn't this central's point? If violent crime is expected to happen mainly on poor estates [i.e. not to "us"] then isn't it only natural for those who live in "respectable areas" be more shocked when it happens to strangers in their own neighbourhoods?

But if this kind of emotional reaction leads to reporters paying less attention to attacks on those with whom they least identify then is this not readily interpretable as a devaluation of those victims?

Finally, I'm sorry to hear about your Godson. Is he actually trying to go places on foot? If not, it is best for him to try sooner rather than later, as the longer one avoids the problem the more difficult it can get. If necessary, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help reduce the anxiety.

Oldie,

You are, of course, absolutely right; any attack is equally serious irrespective of the social standing of the area in which it is carried out.

The point I was making was that these attacks were carried out in areas which are not regarded as rough and where such an attack is least expected. Every town/city has its rougher, "no go" areas where people are advised against straying into, for fear of mugging etc. But that doesn't make an attack in these locations a lesser issue. I am absolutely sick and tired of hearing about these wanton acts of violece against vulnerable people (it's never Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalikes that are picked on) simply because the perpretrators know that they can do it.

From the age of 14 right up to age 34, when I lived in Sheffield, I regularly travelled from one side of the town where my friend lived to my home at the other end of tow. This journey involved a walk across the city centre to change buses and never once was I threatened or did I feel insecure. Fast foward 10 years to the present day and, alas, it is a different story. Now I would not feel safe undertaking such a trek.

Years ago my Polish uncle (smallish, but built like a brick shithouse) and his son were waiting for a bus in the city centre one Saturday night when two thugs thought it would be fun to take the piss out of his accent and threaten him with a roughing up for being "johnny foreigner", all this in the presence of his son and other people waiting for at the bus stop.

No one stepped in to help him but what these two wankers didn't realise was that this man had fought for this country in WW2 as a commando and despite being in his late 40s was still as hard as nails. The incident ended with both tossers getting a severe twatting and wishing that they'd never opened their mouths. Bet they thought twice about pulling that stunt again.

Now that's what I call justice and there is simply not enough of it in this world today.

quote:

Originally posted by JeremyD:
If violent crime is expected to happen mainly on poor estates [i.e. not to "us"] then isn't it only natural for those who live in "respectable areas" be more shocked when it happens to strangers in their own neighbourhoods?

Exactly - but that doesn't make it any less shocking in less afluent areas - just a bit more likely - which still isn't right.

AFAIC, they need to be damn certain they've got the right person when/if they've got them; a witch hunt isn't the right approach.

Either way, it just goes to show that the "it won't happen to me"/head in the sand approach to crime is wrong; at least Abigail was on the ball enough to know some bad stuff was about to go down and made some attempt to get away from it - which unfortunately didn't work.

It's modern life - bringing back hanging or whatever won't neccessarily solve the problem. The lowlife scumsucker that did this has destroyed someone's life, and here's hoping said scumsucker gets their karmic comeback with full measure.

quote:

Originally posted by JeremyD:

quote:

Originally posted by Stewart Platts:
Like the attack on poor Abigail, this was in a respectable area for god's sake! Not some rough estate.

Isn't this central's point? If violent crime is expected to happen mainly on poor estates [i.e. not to "us"] then isn't it only natural for those who live in "respectable areas" be more shocked when it happens to strangers in their own neighbourhoods?

But if this kind of emotional reaction leads to reporters paying less attention to attacks on those with whom they least identify then is this not readily interpretable as a devaluation of those victims?

Finally, I'm sorry to hear about your Godson. Is he actually trying to go places on foot? If not, it is best for him to try sooner rather than later, as the longer one avoids the problem the more difficult it can get. If necessary, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help reduce the anxiety.

Thank you for your comments and advice. I appreciate your interest in my godson's wellbeing. He's a good lad and his pleasant nature leads me to the believe that he's put the incident behind him, although his mother says he's still wary. But then again, the issue appears to have been resolved.

It may be a sign of the times but as a result of this, his parents decided to buy him a car so that he wouldn't have to walk anywhere. It's fortunate for him that they are in a position to do this.

Hardly the ideal solution but who can blame them?

As evil as the Kray twins were deemed to be, their existence, and the subsequent fear emerging from any business rivals stupid enough to cross them was real, and the streets of their manor were in general very safe places to be for the average jonnie, cum old lady, and strangely enough policemen to-boot. I am not advocating a return to organised gangsters to do the police's job, but it must be said a certain code on the street was very effective. In today's little Britain, if drugs were legalised for instance (an old argument I know) the need to deal with criminals and get money through crime to support the habit would vanish pronto, the Abigail incident, being possibly a likely example of such motivation, though that remains to be seen.


Fritz Von Old ladies shooting Ruffians with handcuffs, innit

Graham,
one has to forget the mythology that has over the years built up over the Krays,An old [as in no longer] friend lived in their patch,and the only thing that made it,if you'll excuse the expression, crime free, was because they terrorised EVERYBODY and not just other villains.

This reporting on this horrific attack only shows up the chasm between the haves and the have nots .In a area adjacent to where I live ,within a half mile radius, in the last few years there has been :- One man shot with both barrels of a twelve bore shot gun in the head that threw him over a four foot wall and almost decapitated him and left his body lying outside a local Social Club, One very quiet young boy of 16 years old stabbed through the heart by another group of young people for no proven reason, just because they had very little to do.And finally in the same Social Club one visiter was beaten about the head with a billiard cue before he was finally killed, he managed to crawl across the road and died in someone's front garden but not before his assailant had beaten him so badly that his face was unrecognisable as a face, and his head was reduced to a mush, and what did he do to deserve this ,well he supported West Ham United.
All of these incidents occurred in a socially deprived area, in broad daylight with a considerable number of people around, and not in an area of affluence. The interesting point being how many of you on this forum had been made aware of them by the media?
oldie.

A "Social Club"? Is that when a group of friends beat someone to death?

Nigel,
And I refrained from making any comments/gags about supporting West Ham United.
oldie.

One thing is for certain if it wasn't election time this would not have had nearly so much news space. Many Many times news items have started by highlighting this situation before moving onto party manifesto on crime, its shit really isn't it?