Saturday, 22 January 2011

Another Triumph For The Mental Health System..?

Some few details are emerging from the Tottenham stabbing case, and they aren't pretty, though they do have an awful ring of familiarity:
Taxi driver Yilmaz Yuce, who works for West Green Cars, said he saw officers raid a Turkish cafe and take away a man in his 30s, who had blood on his hands and face. He claimed the man, a regular at the cafe, had a mental illness but was regarded as "harmless".
That's despite the constant, low-level harassment that residents claim he subjected the schoolgirls to...
Last night horrified residents living nearby told how he was a constant "nuisance". One raged: "If he was that safe, why was he apparently carrying a knife?"

"The people looking after him have got the blood of this young boy on their hands."
If only someone had been 'looking after him', instead they appear to have wanted him released into the community.
Arslan was under the care of doctors from the Enfield and Barnet Mental Health Trust.

He had been sectioned but was living at a hostel after being released back into the community.
Presumably, if these doctors have daughters, they don't go to this school. Probably don't go to any school that finds it necessary to have private security guards. Yes, really!

One drawback, though:
A team of private security guards patrol the school where a 14-year-old pupil was stabbed outside the gates last July. But it was claimed they were nowhere to be seen at the time of the latest stabbing.

“One of the teachers told me the security team were all in a meeting when it happened and that’s why none of them were outside.”
If there's a more perfect vignette of modern Britain, I've yet to hear it...

6 comments:

Malcolm Stevas said...

Why was he carrying a knife? Because he's Turkish. I visit Germany regularly, where there are of course a great many Turks: ethnic German children who play with Turks know that Turkish boys carry knives; when these grow up, they still carry knives. Not Swiss Army knives to whittle things, you understand, but stabbing jobs to stick into people who could be said later to have impugned their honour, or something. I read an interview (in Germany) with some young Turks about their experiences of visiting the motherland; they said it was scary, because young men there were even more prone to carry knives than their emigre cousins in Germany, and they were even more aggressive to boot. There you go, another of the world's fascinating & lovable little cultural quirks.

Rob said...

You could have 140 guards and they couldn't stop someone stabbing a person if they were determined enough.

Pavlov's Cat said...

I think there's a lot more to come out about this.

Just going by the tribute 'Born a soldier, died a soldier' posted on the young mans tribute page

Angry Exile said...

One raged: "If he was that safe, why was he apparently carrying a knife?"

That's not possible. Carrying knives and other weapons is against the law, and since we all know criminals and nutjobs are law abiding citizens any knife seen must have been a figment of imagination. It must have been a particularly sharp menu or something.

JuliaM said...

"I read an interview (in Germany) with some young Turks about their experiences of visiting the motherland; they said it was scary, because young men there were even more prone to carry knives than their emigre cousins in Germany..."

Oh, splendid! Three cheers for 'multiculturalism'...

"...and they couldn't stop someone stabbing a person if they were determined enough."

Indeed, but reading between the lines (and noting Pavlov's Cat's point about the 'tribute') it seems the boys were the physical aggressors in this case...

Would the security guards have intervened?

"I think there's a lot more to come out about this. "

Me too. Can't help but feel that in starting a fight, they have brought a lot of this on themselves.

Perhaps they watch too much 'National Geographic', but always switch off at the point where the harassed lion decides he's had enough of the hyaenas and it's time to show them who's king of the jungle?

"It must have been a particularly sharp menu or something."

:D

Mark said...

The scenario around this murder appears to be as follows-

1.Lone nut Turk pesters local schoolgirls
2.De boyz in da Hood try to teach him a lesson for dissin' one of de sisters.
3.De boyz get more than they bargained for, one of them fatally.

All in all, a perfect vignette of the vibrant way of life down Tottenham way.