Sunday, May 26, 2013


"Multiculturalists" revolting in Sweden too

STOCKHOLM police have called in reinforcements from across Sweden to quell a possible sixth straight night of riots in the capital's immigrant-dominated suburbs, with Britain and the United States warning against travelling to the hotspots.

Nearly a week of riots have put Sweden's reputation as an oasis of peace and harmony at risk.

The unrest has also sparked a debate among Swedes over the integration of immigrants, many of whom arrived under the country's generous asylum policies, and who now make up about 15 per cent of the population.

"We will be getting reinforcements from Gothenburg and Malmoe tonight," police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said on Friday, referring to the country's second and third largest cities.

He would not disclose how many additional police officers were due to arrive.

Another police spokesman, Lars Bystroem, told the Swedish news agency TT he had never before experienced unrest that lasted so long and was spread over such a wide area.

The nightly riots have prompted Britain's Foreign Office and the US embassy in Stockholm to issue warnings to their nationals, urging them to avoid the affected suburbs.

Firefighters were dispatched to 70 fires the night between Thursday and Friday, extinguishing torched cars, dumpsters and buildings, including three schools and a police station, the fire department wrote on Twitter. This was down from 90 blazes the night before.

Parents and volunteer organisations who have patrolled the streets in recent nights have helped decrease the intensity of the unrest, Lindgren said.

He said 13 people had been arrested overnight, bringing to 29 the total arrests since the start of the riots on Sunday.

Police, who have so far concentrated on putting out fires, are beginning to round up people suspected of criminal acts, according to TT.

"Even if we don't intervene, we regularly make video recordings and get information from the public. That way we can get people a couple of days later," said Bystroem, the police spokesman, to TT.

The troubles had begun in the suburb of Husby, where 80 per cent of inhabitants are immigrants, triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 69-year-old Husby resident last week after the man wielded a machete in public.

Local activists said the shooting sparked anger among youths who claim to have suffered from police brutality and racism.

One of the rioters in Husby told Swedish Radio racism was rampant where he lived, and that violence was his only way of being noticed.

"We burned cars, threw rocks at police, at police cars. But it's good, because now people know what Husby is ... This is the only way to be heard," said the rioter, identified only by the pseudonym Kim.

In the suburb of Rinkeby, six cars parked alongside each other were torched on Thursday night.

A police station and several shops in another area Aelvsjoe were set on fire, but the flames were quickly extinguished.

Each of the country's major insurance companies If, Folksam and Trygg-Hansa has received 20 to 30 claims for cars that have been torched, according to Swedish Radio.

Stockholm county police chief Mats Loefving said on Friday the rioters were local youths with and without criminal records.

SOURCE





Boycotting Israel does not bring peace closer or benefit humanity

Foreign Secretary William Hague should be applauded for signing an agreement to strengthen scientific cooperation between Britain and Israel

In Jerusalem yesterday, William Hague and Yaakov Perry, Israeli Minister of Science, Technology and Space, signed an agreement to strengthen scientific cooperation between our countries. Building on research programmes in areas such as regenerative medicine, the initiative expands cooperation into the fields of advanced materials and nanotechnology; agri-sciences, neuroscience and space research.

Marrying Israel’s passion for innovation with Britain’s ability to scale up and commercialise technological advances has helped UK-Israel trade more than double in the past decade. But the partnership sends a deeper message. It reflects a shared commitment to scientific research as an investment in a better future. Already, in a number of areas – most especially medicine, water treatment and alternative energy – it has made significant contributions to aid and development projects globally.

As such, the Foreign Secretary’s signing of this agreement stands in stark contrast to the small but strident boycott campaign that seeks to break down channels of cooperation and dialogue with Israel. Most recently, the campaign has pressured Professor Stephen Hawking into cancelling a trip to Jerusalem to participate in President Shimon Peres’s conference on “Facing Tomorrow”. Held annually since 2008, this brings together leaders, thinkers, innovators and academics of all faiths and nationalities to address pressing international challenges. It is a unique forum for discussion and debate which should, one would hope, appeal to anyone committed to progress and genuine scientific inquiry.

Dissuading Prof Hawking from attending a conference with a focus on Israeli innovation seems particularly invidious in view of the many ways in which Israeli technology has changed the lives of those with special needs. It was an Israeli bionic walking device that enabled the paralysed British horse-rider Claire Lomas to rise from her chair and complete the London marathon. Indeed, Prof Hawking’s own speech-generation device is operated by a silicon chip designed in Israel.

It is hard to see how spurning the conference could advance the boycott campaign’s declared goals of promoting Palestinian interests or the prospects for peace. Every year – including this year – the gathering has included senior Palestinian officials and academics. In the highly charged atmosphere of the Middle East, surely those rare spaces where genuine dialogue between the parties takes place should be cherished and not shunned.

But the campaigners have little interest in scientific inquiry or peace. Their aim is to isolate Israel – even if that involves the loss of innovation that benefits humanity or the rejection of the fundamental principle of academic freedom or the dismissal of genuine overtures of reconciliation.

Those who care about the prospects for peace work to support and strengthen those who seek peace on both sides. When the author Ian McEwan was subjected to a similar campaign of pressure to boycott Israel after being invited to receive the Jerusalem Prize, he insisted on attending. “My feeling was that I wished to engage with the best elements of Israeli society,” he explained, “and I don’t want to isolate those people.”

Wholesale rejection of the forums in which minds can freely meet and true engagement takes place is anathema to science and to reconciliation. If the moderates, innovators and visionaries are beyond the pale, who are you hoping will actually make peace?

SOURCE





Grandmother won't make Double Gloucester for cheese-rolling event after 'heavy-handed threats' from British police





Police have been criticised after banning an elderly grandmother from making a giant Double Gloucester wheel for an annual cheese rolling event.

The event started in the early 1800s and sees competitors chasing the massive 1ft diameter cheese down the 200-yard Cooper's Hill near Brockworth, Gloucestershire, as they race to reach the bottom first.

Farmer Diana Smart, 86, has been making her handmade cheese for the downhill run for a quarter of a century and it is something, she said, that brought her 'such joy'.

This year, however, Mrs Smart, who has provided the large piece of cheese since 1988, has now been warned off doing so after a visit by police.

Three officers visited her farm and told her not to donate five 8lb wheels of her cheese in a bid to prevent the "dangerous" event.

Mrs Smart said the "heavy handed" police visited her home last week and told in a "threatening" manner she would be responsible for any injuries caused – and so has pulled out.

"They threatened me, saying I would be wholly responsible if anyone got injured," she said. "I'm 86, I don't have the will or the cash to fight any lawsuits. It's crazy."

It is the first time in its 200-year history that police have banned a cheesemaker providing the cheese – leaving organisers outraged by the polices warnings.

A spokesperson said: "It's outrageous. Completely unbelievable. You cannot stop someone selling cheese. If they try and stop us we will use something else"

It has been found, however, following health and safety fears, 2009 was the last official cheese rolling event but unofficially the event is still held every year – without proper medical cover or insurance.

A Gloucestershire police spokesman said: "Advice has been given to all those who have participated in any planning of an unofficial cheese rolling event. We feel it is important that those who could be constituted as organisers of the event, are aware of the responsibilities that come with it so that they can make an informed decision about their participation."

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, slammed the police for threatening Mrs Smart.

He said: "Taxpayers will be appalled that the valuable time of three police officers was wasted trying to scare an elderly lady into withdrawing her involvement in a centuries-old tradition.

"People expect the police to be keeping us safe and solving crime, not badgering innocent old ladies.

"Anyone participating in the cheese-rolling needs to take personal responsibility for themselves and the idea that Diana Smart should be liable for any injuries is frankly ludicrous."

SOURCE




Useless British police again

If you "offend" someone they will be after you -- but stolen property does not matter to them

When Dean Parnell realised his iPad had been snatched from a table in a busy city centre bar, he was determined to get it back.

Within an hour, the quick-thinking solicitor had traced the £750 Apple tablet computer to four possible addresses ten miles away thanks to an in-built tracking application.

But despite repeatedly asking police to recover the device, he was told they were too busy to attend.

So he travelled from Birmingham to the village of Water Orton in Warwickshire to recover the iPad himself.

Last night, Mr Parnell, 45, condemned West Midlands Police for failing to help him.  He said: ‘I went to the police station. I was able to demonstrate that an apparent crime was taking place and I was turned away.

'I guess I am more angry about the way I had been treated at the police station than I was about an opportunist who had pocketed my iPad.’

The drama began on Friday last week when Mr Parnell realised the 32GB retina display iPad had been taken from a table in a bar.

Staff at a nearby Apple store showed him how to use the inbuilt tracking system and quickly pinpointed it to a train heading out of Birmingham.

Mr Parnell, from Northamptonshire, said: ‘The train stopped at Water Orton and the iPad began moving slowly as if someone was walking to a car park, then it began moving quickly.

‘I called the police and they said someone would be along shortly but no one turned up. I then rang them again and they said someone would ring me back, but they didn’t.’

At a local police station he was told nobody was available until the following day – even when he said there was a greater chance of ‘an incident’ without assistance from officers.

Four more calls to West Midlands Police proved fruitless - and during the final attempt he was told it was now Warwickshire Police’s problem because he was now within their jurisdiction.

Mr Parnell then had to ‘go through the whole story again’ and was told a patrol car would be there within the hour. It didn’t arrive, and when he called back, he was told the nearest car was still 30 miles away.

The commercial litigation partner eventually got the device back when he knocked at one of the four doors pinpointed by the GPS tracking application and recognised the stunned householder as a fellow patron of the bar he had been to.

The suspect returned the tablet computer – claiming he had found it and was planning to hand it in to Apple the following day. Police later gave him a ‘stern warning’.

Mr Parnell, who has now received an apology from police, said: ‘The whole event took some four hours from beginning to end. Had it not been for my persistence, my iPad would have ended up as another statistic.  ‘I appreciate the police may have been busy but it was their total lack of interest that was what really bothered me.’

Superintendent Danny Long, of  Birmingham West and Central Police, said the ‘standard of service’ fell short and that officers should have been dispatched quickly.

An investigation had found that a crime had not been committed, he said. Warwickshire Police declined to comment.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICSDISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL  and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine).   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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