Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

London, United Kingdom - There are some days that will stain our collective conscience for generations to come.

April 22, 1993, was one of these. This was the day that black teenager Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death by a group of young white men in an act of racist abuse in Eltham, south London. The victim was 18.

January 3, 2011, was another of these days. Almost two decades after Lawrence was killed, 35-year-old David Norris and 36-year-old Gary Dobson were convicted of perpetrating his racially motivated murder, and later sentenced to a minimum of 14 years and 15 years respectively.

The verdicts may have been cathartic in the minds of some, a sense of relief that Britain and its attitudes toward race have come a long way since 1993. Stephen's race-related murder, London's Metropolitan Police Service's (MPS) abysmal investigation of it and two failed prosecutions forced the country to take a long, hard look at itself. And we didn't like what we saw. For when Stephen's future was stolen from him, the UK was also robbed of the comfort blanket that it had cocooned itself in.

But though societal attitudes are changing, progress in addressing systematic institutional discrimination has been far too slow. Legislation is only as fair if it is correctly implemented. Nowhere is this more evident than in police stop and search figures, conviction rates and the sentencing of black and Asian people. These are controversial litmus tests against which the police, courts and broader criminal justice system continue to fall short.

Convicted blacks and Asians are more likely to be imprisoned than white people - around 27 per cent of all prisoners in Britain are non-white. Black people are also 27 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police under laws designed to tackle gun, drug and gang crime. This is an ugly reality that 19-year-old student Marc faces every day. The Computer Science undergraduate, from Brixton in south London, said the police often follow him.

"I would become a lawyer, but the police? You can't the trust the police - especially when you are black - for the same reason, they always target you," he said. "It's not just the police, it's everyone. If I'm standing at a bus stop, there will be an older woman and she will have a bag on the floor. She will see me and grab her bag. They either move away, or take their bag and hold it very tightly. They think you're a thief."


http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/20121248196599606.html

[bigverne]

[Julius]

lol when I saw the title of this thread I just knew bigverne would be the first to reply.

[stilicho25]

These stories crack me up. I was back in the states recently and happened to drive through some of the rougher areas of Baltimore, and wow was it bad. Not a couple blocks from the gentrified waterfront it was a burnt out wasteland. When whole areas breakdown, it is a government management problem.

To my mind it goes like this
initial problem: Area is working poor
solution: Government institutes poverty reduction which means lots of outside aid, and a raising of taxes through property and other methods.
result: poverty reduction fails
side effects: biz leaves, small uptick in crime
solution: increase security efforts (war on drugs)
side effects: anyone involved in the illegal economy which grows after the legitimate economy dies goes to jail
result total destruction of the family and the social network on which people depend if they are to be well adjusted.

meanwhile more and more of the money needs to be poured in from outside the hell hole in order to meet the daily needs of the people stuck within it. over a couple of generations of this you end up with baltimore or detroit

Anyway, I think liberals screw everything up and then blame their own incompetence on racism. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

[ED209]

The article doesn't blame all black people's problems in the uk on racism. What should be seen is that a young innocent black man, who had a promising future, who came from a family that had worked hard to fit in and be good citizens, was destroyed by a bunch of knife wielding racist thugs. That at time under a conservative government, not sure how that fits into any liberal conspiracy.

This case revealed the institutional racism in the police service that existed then and still does today. Stephen's mother on a recent visit to the Met's HQ was told by one worker she should be ashamed to show her face. Stephen's brother has been stopped and searched on several occasions, each time the police found nothing. The mother was also falsely stopped while driving and accused of been drunk, demanding a breathalyser test they then claimed she was driving a stolen car.

At the time of the incident police did not help Stephen and left him to die on the street. They assumed, since 'you know' blacks are most likely the culprit, his friend was the assailant, and wasted valuable time catching the true culprits. Witnesses came forward with names, but it took four days before the police acted on this. Arrests weren't made until two weeks later, wasting the chance to gather valuable forensics.

Yet, here we are blaming the victim. If the Met are going to continue their stop n search tactics, fine. I'm not arguing against this. And the police shouldn't be hindered by a fear of ending up in the newspapers or getting complaints. But fishing the streets for criminals is poor policing and alienates communities. Stop n search needs clear guidelines that are apparent to those being searched and to the general public.

(White male, London- never stopped or searched)

[stilicho25]

I guess I don't think its racism at all. More like an attitude of occupation by police. They act like they are fighting an insurgency rather than keeping people safe. Checkpoints, searches stuff like that seems totally counterproductive to gaining peoples goodwill.

[bigverne]

[ED209]

[Squire]

The problem is the number of asylum seekers (real and fake) from violent countries in Africa coming to the UK and refusing to live by it's laws. There will be resentment as long as that is the case. The UK is a very tolerant country when you compare it to somewhere like Korea, but I'm not sure that will continue indefinitely when you consider how disproportionately crimes are committed by minorities compared to how much of the population they represent

[bigverne]

[Kimbop]

Race relations are fine. Cultural relations are dismal, as one group's culture remains superior to another's. Contrary to what liberals think, culture matters.

Oh, and expect cultural relations to remain dismal, so long as potential is stifled and inferiority is accepted and encouraged through liberal policies.

[Captain Corea]