Business owners in Finsbury Park are furious after the recent police raid involving over 600 officers. In angry scenes at Finsbury Park mosque local traders in the mostly Algerian area said the operation was “heavy-handed” and targeted businesses instead of the real criminals (a cynic might ask the difference).
Marxist sarcasm aside it seems that this assault on the community has had entirely the opposite effect to that intended with some locals vowing never to co-operate with police again and others promising revenge.
At least one person was injured in the raid which saw 81 people arrested, 36 of whom have been charged.
Whilst some locals claim that this area had become unsafe with several reported muggings and assaults it seems that the police may have targted their attack dogs in the wrong direction. Mohamed Malik, of the Arab Advice Bureau, said:
“People feel there was a real overreaction. They have been asking police to take action against petty thieves for a long time but nothing happened. Then they came in their hundreds.”
“Instead of targeting criminals they targeted honest businesses. It’s not a crackdown on criminals, it’s a crackdown on Algerians. They are alienating the whole community. We’ve worked for years to get people to integrate. It has reminded many of the treatment they had at the hands of police states in other countries. It humiliated the community, wasted public money and brought down business.”
One thing is for certain, there are places in the surrounding area which have a far greater crime problem, however few of these places are currently undergoing gentrification.
2 responses so far ↓
battlteofalgiers // April 9, 2008 at 1:46 pm |
Hi johnny
I still have to ask what consitutes a community? In media and politico speak in seems to be shorthand for ethnic business interests. I don’t think it’s that straight forward. Or is it just Thatcher’s ( and the BBC ) dream come true. There is no society/community. In London we have so many cultures that used to mix freely. Since multicuralism we seem to have more racism ( and the crap documentaries recently on TV with their middle class interviewers who can apparently only find white working class who have been lobotomised seem to support the myths that it all our fault. ) The reality is social engineering with middle class from various ethnicities jumping on a grant bandwaggon and throwing in their lot with the state to police us – civil servants, NGO/charity workers/ teachers/ etc. But then the state tried this malarkey on Class War ( and still does with their MI5 trot mates ). Fuck the middle class – they are the problem ( as well as the working class traitor soldiers and pigs on higher wages ). In retrospect I better write this out more clearly as there is an articles worth. Do not forget London is the beacon and centre of woprldwide fascistic capitalist expoititve greedy shite, or summat.
ajit8 // April 9, 2008 at 7:57 pm |
I’d have preferred to send an email than stick this on your blog, but if you want to tell the BBC about democracy and it’s reporting there’s a momentum building here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2008/04/the_glass_box_for_wednesday_41.shtml