The rider of the second bike, who had been travelling quickly down the cycle route, does not see the first commuter pull out from behind a parked van until it is too late.
Wouldn't have seen anything in time to stop, so thank god it wasn't a pensioner or child...
An official inquiry will find that the mayor of London wrongly ousted Cressida Dick as commissioner of the Metropolitan police, the Guardian has learned.
The findings come from a special commission conducted by Sir Tom Winsor, the former chief inspector of constabulary, after Dick’s decision to resign in February. A draft of the government-ordered report finds that Sadiq Khan did not follow due process and that Dick was unfairly treated, branding the mayor’s actions and decision-making as “irrational” and “unreasonable”.
A furious Khan is consulting lawyers, and believes the report to be biased and factually flawed. The report also says the mayor’s treatment of Dick was “oppressive”, and that she was placed under unfair pressure.
Delicious!
Heard, 36, then blamed star attorney Camille Vasquez and Depp's other legal experts.
'I believe Johnny's attorneys succeeded in getting the jury to overlook the key issue of Freedom of Speech and ignore evidence that was so conclusive that we won in the UK.'
Different country, different laws. It's to our shame, and the shame of our debased justice system, that you won that one.
Of course, the 'Guardian' can find someone to agree with Heard:It will have a devastating effect on survivors, who will be silenced, now, with the knowledge that they cannot speak about their violent experiences at men’s hands without the threat of a ruinous libel suit.No, only the ones that are lying...
More than 20 LGBT organisations, including Stonewall, claimed the EHRC has worked to remove legal protections for the transgender community in Britain after it said it would review plans to change the law on gender recognition in Scotland.
Writing to the United Nations, the collective have argued for the commission to be stripped of its status as an impartial body, with Stonewall going further and describing the EHRC's statement as an attack on trans equality.
But EHRC chief executive Marcial Boo shot back on Friday and defended the commissions' track record on prosecuting those who discriminate against minority groups.
Yousef's grieving father Ghaleb Makki shouted: 'F*** you! Where's the justice for my son! Where's the justice?' as the jury delivered the verdict today.Looks like it's right there in front of you:
The stabbing was an 'accident waiting to happen' as all three indulged in 'idiotic fantasies' playing middle class gangsters, the jury heard.
Despite the privileged backgrounds of both defendants, they led 'double lives'.
Calling each other 'Bro' and 'Fam' and the police 'Feds', the defendants and Yousef smoked cannabis, road (sic) around on bikes, 'chilling' and listened to rap or drill music. They would post videos on social media, making threats and posing with 'shanks' or knives.
The court heard how hours before the stabbing, Boy B arranged a £45 cannabis deal and the teenagers planned to rob the drug dealer, a 'soft target'. But the robbery went wrong and Yousef and Boy B fled, leaving Boy A to take a beating.
Boy A then later pushed Yousef who called him a 'p****' and punched him in the face. He told the jury Yousef pulled out a knife and he responded by also taking out a knife and his victim was accidentally stabbed.Not really a tough one for the jury, was it? And this so-called 'father' should be ashamed of his self-pity when he reads about this case:
The grieving father of a four-year-old who was killed by the driver of a stolen car has slammed the criminal justice system for 'letting his daughter down'.
Violet-Grace Youens's parents are not allowed to read out their full victim impact statement, including details of her horrific injuries, in court in case their daughter's killer is upset by it.They have legitimate grounds for anguish.
Courtney Motton, 23, from Southend, said she and her son, Arthur Collins, were at Electric Avenue on Southend seafront when the seatbelt reportedly came loose and the baby fell.
Miss Motton claims the belt was faulty but the firm claim it was not secured properly.Hmmm, chavmum vs likely-to-be-pikey amusement park owners. Gotta confess, I'm conflicted!
She called Essex Police following the incident and officers attended but confirmed it was not a police matter.They actually attended! Wow!
The spokesman said: “The police also inspected the ride for us and spoke to the mother.
“A man, believed to be the baby’s father, became aggressive and the police asked them to leave.
“We think she had not strapped the child into the ride correctly.”Who believes he's the baby's father, the amusement park staff, or Courtney?
The mother-of-two said: “They were trying to pass the blame onto me.
“I have been going to this arcade for years as I live in the area but I won’t be going back again.
“It ruined the whole day as we had to spend too much time trying to sort it out.
“I also wanted to go home straight away after the incident.
“Police asked us to leave and I was being made to feel like a criminal when I hadn’t done anything wrong.”Still conflicted!
Two cyclists needed hospital treatment after a police car answering a 999 call knocked them off their bike on Friday.
The unit was answering an emergency call at the time, using blue lights and sirens. The bicycle was not a tandem.If that seems an odd thing to add, well, there's actually good reason.
The matter has been advised to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.Ah. Of course. Couldn't possibly have been the cyclist!
Louise Ankle, 31, was having dinner with her friend Matthea Fearon, 32, at The Botanist, in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, on Sunday evening.
Miss Ankle, who works in retail, said they enjoyed their meal and asked for the bill, which was presented in a hardback book. It was designed for customers to open the front cover and find the receipt.Blimey, I didn't realise this modern trend had spread to the delivering of the bill too!
But they flicked through the rest of the pages - which were supposed to be glued together, but had come unstuck - towards the end of the book. And they discovered a page in the book, which displayed the N-word as part of a page heading. The book is believed to be a collection of essays by Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), who wrote in 1849 arguing in favour of slavery.*shrugs* So...?
Miss Ankle said: 'We did realise at the time we were the only two black people in the restaurant. Although it did not bother us, we were aware. 'When [the bill] came, it came in a book which was closed. I did not see the N-word.
'Matthea opened it and flicked through to the back of the book. Her first reaction was, "Oh my God". She said it again and was hesitant to show me.
'[It was] at the back of the book. We both were in shock, we were both flabbergasted. The initial reaction is shock then it quickly turns into anger and upset.'And you got a free meal out of it. Was that enough? No, of course not. Not when you can climb up on your soapbox and gain the adulation of the anti-racism industry too...
She added: 'We have [since] been emailing the manager of the restaurant and we are talking with them at the moment. 'There's nothing in particular I want. I do not want an item or to go back to the restaurant. We want to make people aware that these things do happen.'What, total accidents whereby you come across the word 'nigger'? I guess you've never read any books, or heard any rap records, for that matter...
Miss Fearon, who works in the hospitality industry, said: 'As racial as the word is, this is more to do with ignorance and education.
'We were just shocked more than anything. You do not expect to go out anywhere and see that word.
'There were children in the restaurant who could have opened it.'*rolls eyes*
Chris Hill, CEO of the New World Trading Company, which owns the restaurant chain, said: 'First of all we are horrified, apologetic and distressed, as you would imagine. We would like to reaffirm our apologies to them and anyone else offended by this.
'We buy vintage books from our supplier. They arrive to us hollowed-out and glued together. We ask for them to be old and vintage-looking.
'What looked to have happened is in the book presented to Ms Fearon... the glue came away and the page revealed content and this awful language.'Look, you had an idea for trendy bill-presentation, and the supplier supplied what you wanted - old books. That's all.
He added: 'We do not specify at all what we want. We have withdrawn the books from across the sites and will not reinstate them unless we can be 100 percent satisfied that an incident like this will not reoccur.
'We will be going back to the supply chain to understand how this would have happened.
'We withdrew the books immediately the following morning, this was across the country.
'There's no title on the front of the book, it had Carlyle on the side. The vast majority of the content had been hollowed out. It was the few pages at back of the book. We had no idea.'That's certainly true. No idea that you are simply a pawn in these women's public display of outrage. No idea that you are merely making it harder for the next target of their self-publicity drive.
“Excuse me,” an affronted Mr Lucas tells the policeman as he drives by. As Mr Lucas overtakes the car again, he is asked to pullover, which the cyclist eventually does.
The officer then asks him: “Do you want to explain first of all why you’re cycling in the middle of the road, making it difficult for a vehicle to pass you?
“And then also when I did safely, you shouted, what was it you shouted to me?”He didn't take the hint.
“I thought you were too close to me, sir,” says Mr Lucas. When asked to give more space to traffic, Mr Lucas refuses.
“No sir,” he says, “I’m entitled to use this whole road and you’re entitled to do 20mph on this 20mph road too.”
“Which I was doing,” says the officer. “Now you are getting to a fine line of obstructing vehicles.
“You are getting very close to the way you are cycling to obstructing vehicles from passing you.”He really, really doesn't want to take the hint...
Asked to “take on board” that he is obstructing vehicles, Mr Lucas refuses again. He hits back “No sir, you take on board you passed me too closely, sir.”
As the policeman continues to speak, Mr Lucas interrupts him, saying: “Are you detaining me sir? Because I’m going to work, thank you.”
He then cycles off, saying: “You need to get on board with how the Highway Code is, sir. You’re a police officer.”There's only one answer to this sort of insolence: "Taser, Taser, Taser!"
A radical social centre is on high alert after right-wing extremists made a secret visit and posted threats online.Oh noes! But note the phrasing - one is 'radical', the others are are 'extremists'.
The Cowley Club, a “collectively run libertarian social centre” in London Road, is used as a meeting place for radical left-wing movements from across the city.Now maybe it's me but...do those two things go together?
A message from the nationalist organisation claimed the photographs of the front and back of the building had been secretly taken by two members “on a scouting mission”.How very 'Special Forces'!
...attacked Martin with a knife in the street after violently losing his temper over the Hyatt family's noisy pets.In the blue corner: Martin Hyatt whose family
...have Staffordshire bull terrier Zeus and collie cross Zack – had clashed a number of times with 30-year-old Platt over their dogs since moving to Causeley Road, Bucknall, in 2011.Anyone thinking they might have a bit of sympathy with the attackee rather than the driven-out-of-his-mind attacker should take a good look at the details:
Martin, who lives with wife Suzanne, is father to three children and stepfather to three more.It's a wonder he has any time to walk poor Zeus and Zack, isn't it?
Suzanne, aged 39, said: "When I saw Martin had been stabbed I just started panicking.
"There was blood all over the floor. It was shocking. You just don't expect your nextdoor neighbour to do something like this."Really, Suzanne? Really..?
“just to set the record straight,i am mrs hyatt and that night my dogs wasnt barking it was our other neighbours dogs and they do not constanly bark,they are well behaved dogs,we have put up with **** off that nutter next door and his children,throwing glass bottles into our garden for our dogs to hurt themselfs we got up one morning to a shredded can on our childrens trampoline,oh and spudder who ever you are martyn has never been in prison so get you facts right before you make coments like that,and adam plant has been arrested before over carrying a knife but was never convicted and also other things but never convicted,our son saw his dad get stabbed that night and he still has nightmares about it oh he isnt no chav or is my husband,so what they had their stoke shirts on,so everybody that wears a football shirt is a chav then...”*gets popcorn to read rest of thread*
A constable is now known to have falsely claimed he witnessed Andrew Mitchell’s encounter with two other officers in Downing Street when he is alleged to have called them ‘f***ing plebs’.
And CCTV footage screened by Channel 4 News last night cast doubt on the widely-publicised police version of the incident on the evening of September 19.Ooops! Cue frantic spinning from those who pinned their hopes of unseating the government on this.
Pan-African human rights organisation Ligali complained to Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, in High Barnet, over its use of a controversial Powerpoint presentation after a parent exposed the issue.
The slideshow, seen by the Times Series, dictates a classroom exercise in which pupils aged 13 and 14 are encouraged to carry out their own “slave raid” on the West African coast.Whoops!
Students are given imaginary tools including manacles, a whip, thumb screws and iron brands, to capture as many slaves as possible before building cages on the beaches to contain them.
They are encouraged to “bribe African chieftans” and “get them drunk to buy the slaves cheaper” or, as one slide reads, “even better, have an affair with a beautiful African girl”.
Finally, every pupil is asked to give a Dragon’s Den-style business proposal to explain how they plan to capture the slaves and what they will do to control them.Ligali, you see, found this 'morally repugnant and disrespectful'. And hey, they ought to know!
The slideshow, adorned with what Ligali described as comical caricatures and sound effects, has been used in Year 9 lessons by a history teacher at the school for the past three years.And no-one turned a hair, until...
Ligali’s action arose after one student, who has African heritage, was left “offended and humiliated” by the lesson plan, created by a teacher at the High Street school. Her mother complained, and after receiving what she deemed an unsatisfactory response from the history teacher and head of department, took the issue to Ligali.Because they specialise in, ummm, de-escalation and polite resolution of conflict, I guess?
Speaking to the Times Series this week, Mrs Webster said she had written to parents explaining the situation. She said: “I felt the slideshow was clearly inappropriate and I spoke to the teachers involved but what I said will remain private.
“I’ve been in correspondence with Ligali and I think we’ve been very clear about the mistakes that have been made. The resolution was to move on in the knowledge that lessons have been learned.
“ Clearly mistakes have been made but we have acted properly and the matter has been resolved.”Am I the only person to wonder if what Ligali found so 'upsetting and distressing' about these lessons was the revelation that it wasn't 'just white people' involved in the slave trade after all, but other (opposing) tribes of black people?
The Labour MP today challenged Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to also take a stand on the issue. Mr Clegg had previously said it would be "deeply illiberal" for the government to dictate the content of newspapers.It must be like a Chihuahua attacking ….errr, a slightly larger Chihuahua!
Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms McCarthy said: "The Deputy Prime Minister, not for the first time, disappointed many people this week by refusing to support calls for the editor of The Sun to take the long overdue step of dropping page three, saying that it would be illiberal to do so.
"Does his version of liberalism really prevent him from taking a public stand against the objectification of women? Whose interests is he most interested in protecting?"Stung by the yapping emanating from the small fluffy inconsequential creature, the other small fluffy inconsequential creature yapped back:
Mr Clegg said the Bristol MP had "entirely twisted" his words.
He added: "I said - I would be interested to know whether she agrees with this - that it would be wholly illiberal and wrong for this House to seek to compel any editor to determine the content of their newspapers. If that is the kind of authoritarian nonsense she believes in, then I am perfectly content to say that we entirely disagree."Ouch! Those little teeth can leave a mark…
Speaking afterwards, Ms McCarthy said the No More Page 3 campaign was not looking to ban the pictures, but to persuade the newspaper to stop running them.
She added: "He ought to be supporting the campaign."Be quiet, dear. Stop stamping your little feet. The grown-ups are working...
But it is really only now, after all these years – at a time when sex service advertising is as ubiquitous and available online as oxygen – that main street censure has really scored a direct hit. This opprobrium has involved a sustained campaign by media, politicians, and amorphous citizen groups directed against the company's management, investors, and advertisers. So why now? And about what exactly?It seems ‘The Village Voice’ – once the darling of the counterculture - has fallen foul of today’s modern progressives. Not for them the freedom of the permissive society, not any more.
The ostensible charge is sexual perniciousness: the Voice and its advertising, say critics, aids sex trafficking. The evidence here is awfully slim, but sex-trafficking is one of those phrases, like weapons of mass destruction, that requires little factual support.Gosh, you don't say? You mean it now comes down to who can shout (and emote) the loudest? Do tell...
The Voice's foremost antagonist is Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times op-ed columnist, which has rather set the weight of the liberal establishment against the company and its ads.Yes, it's even more upsetting when it's one of your own, eh?
Kristof is an unfortunate enemy. Alone on the op-ed page in his lack of style, specialty, or point of view, he has compensated by adopting a mission with the greatest zeal: he's a one-man NGO for girls forced into prostitution in Africa. Trying to push his campaign into America (encouraged, no doubt, by his editors to ground his story a little closer to home), he's focused on the Voice. His are highly personalized columns in which Kristof introduces us to a particular victim – someone he has gotten to know and who he's taken a personal interest in helping to save – who then stands as a personification of countless more like her. Almost all his columns on the subject are written like this. And his personalization is always much stronger than his case.Oh, dear. You mean he's used the time-worn, hackneyed old trick of 'Never mind the facts feel the emotion!', eh? Tsk tsk...
While, for nearly two generations, it has been hard to make much of a case against pervasive sexuality, the argument suddenly has new legs. It's not about promiscuity, which makes you sound square; it's not about prostitution, which makes you sound dirty; it's about sex-trafficking, which makes you sound like you're on the side of the angels, know-nothing though they might be.Heh! Yes, it's awful when you are suddenly hoist on your own petard.
Beverley Reid, 43, will not send her son Malachi to the Quest Academy, in Farnborough Avenue, Selsdon, in a dispute over their strict uniform policy.You’ll never guess what the issue is…
She explained that the 11-year-old wears his hat due to the family's Rastafarian beliefs.
And she is unwilling to carry out the school's request of writing in and explaining why the hat – called a Tam – is a religious requirement.And so we’re at an impasse. The irresistible force of racial grievance meets the immovable object of school uniform policy...
Beverley, who lives in New Addington, said: "I feel strongly about having to write in.
"I'm sure they haven't asked a Sikh to identify their religion or a Muslim to identify their religion.
"It's like a Freemason school and I'm not into sending my son to a place like that. "Malachi's father works for the prison service, he works for the Queen, and he has got permission to wear his hat.
"This is my child they're talking about, they're trying to challenge his culture. It feels like we're in invisible chains."Oh, my giddy aunt! Pass the smelling salts, Aunt Bertha!
Beverley added: "We didn't apply for this school. Croydon Council gave me this school.
"At the moment, my son hasn't got a school.
"It's like everyone's looking and thinking why is your little boy not at school? I could cry for him."So could I. But, I suspect, for vastly different reasons.
Meanwhile, principal Andy Crofts has defended the academy's stance. He said: "We have a published uniform code which we apply consistently to everyone.
"We allow head coverings that are required for religious reasons. We have asked this parent to provide us with evidence that this headwear is a religious requirement on several occasions and she has refused to do so.
"If we agreed to every parental request to modify some aspect of our uniform code, then it would cease to be a uniform."Well, indeed! And I suspect that's the point of this woman's squawking. That, or getting her kid transferred to some other unlucky school.
Bentley Huggins, aged 42, was yesterday found guilty of murdering Desirie Thomas at their home in Elliston House, Wellington Street, on December 23 last year.
During a short appearance in court today, Huggins, who ditched his defence lawyers halfway through the Old Bailey trial, fumed at the way his case had been conducted.
Asked by Judge Anthony Morris if he wanted to be represented at sentencing, Huggins raged: "From the beginning of this trial I was never going to get a fair trial.
"The manner in which the police have conducted their investigation - they have strong-handed, intimidated and invented witnesses."Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell it to the jud…
Judge Morris said he intended to adjourn sentencing for pre-sentence and psychiatric reports, but Huggins continued to complain.Heh!
He said: "Your honour, it will not happen. You might as well sentence me today. It would not happen. Period."
Huggins went on: "You've conducted this trial in a most utterly and absolutely despicable way."
The killer branded his case a "Willie Lynch trial", a reference to an American slave owner, and told the judge: "You've brought people speaking ****** about me."That's some very US slang he's using...I wonder?
Huggins, in the UK on a marriage visa, had always claimed he acted in self-defence when he stabbed his 35-year-old wife 10 times in the head and neck.
But jurors unanimously agreed he had killed her in cold blood after finding out she planned to divorce him.
Sentencing was adjourned until October 18.*orders popcorn*
The Old Broad Street offices of Malleson Stephens Jaques was cleared as Scotland Yard’s a Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear unit was called in.
The alert was sounded after lawyer Lisa Hirsowitz opened an envelope at her office and a grey powder fell out.Oh noes! What could it be?
But it turned out to be a £700 cheque from her former landlady covered in puppy’s excrement, the court was told.Powder? Either she needs to take her puppy to the vet STAT, or that letter had been kicking around the postal system for a hell of a long time!
“When I spoke to police they told me that as I was in an office block we had to turn off the air conditioning, which a colleague did.“I thought it was specifically fans you had to watch when in contact with that stuff, not air-con in general?
Yanina Heuberger, 53, had sent the cheque to her former tenant Ms Hirsowitz after losing a case in the small claims courts.Ah! The penny drops…
Heuberger allegedly kicked Detective Constable Giles Cunningham in the groin when she was arrested at her home in February.
She has pleaded not guilty to harassment without violence and assaulting a constable in the execution of duty.
The trial continues.I can’t wait!
Justice Livingstone berated Judge Jeremy Gold from the dock for not dealing with the charge of carrying an imitation firearm on a stationary train at Norwood Junction, when he appeared at Croydon Crown Court on Friday.
He was Tasered by police, following the alleged incident last November.Oh, boy!
Livingstone, who refused to remove his flat cap before entering the dock, citing "personal reasons", became angry and launched the verbal assault because he wanted Judge Gold to deal with the charge that day.Which is pretty stupid of him, because as we all know, while judges are fantastically lenient about the most heinous acts, they tend to be very, very prickly where their own authority is challenged…
In the first of two animated rants, rising from his perch after Judge Gold refused to deal with the charge that day, Livingstone told the judge: "You are quite rigid in your reasoning in terms of not listening to me."
The heated words forced Judge Gold to interject ruling: "Mr Livingstone doesn't run the court. I do."By now, I suspect a US judge would have had him gagged!
But about ten minutes later before the hearing's conclusion, alluding to his "son of God" status, Livingstone rose again to attack Judge Gold: "There is one other thing I want to tell you. I have become too big to be charged or arrested. It is in the best interests to deal with this [now].
"I'm very sad you have avoided to deal with it today. I'm absolutely heartbroken. I know it would be more cost-effective to this country if it had been dealt with today."
Judge Gold angrily countered for a second time, saying: "I'm not going to enter into an argument with you. All the matters will be dealt with in the court case.
"The matters are for a trial and I'm not prepared to make any rulings on them today."I can’t wait for the trial! It promises to be rather amusing.
Shiraz Aziz, defending Livingstone, told the court 14 witnesses would be called for the trial. He said the charges of assault would be "deeply contested" by his client, and that the imitation firearm alluded to in the charges was a toy gun.
Livingstone was granted unconditional bail until the trial, listed for November 19.*orders popcorn*
