Thus Spake Gerry

I think of Gerry McCormack as a smug, fat, grey Nero who fiddles as the Holyland burns. He sat, addressing a meeting with his back to us, and fiddled with imaginary game consoles.

"We had 30 complaints from one individual about students next door playing computer games. Now I don't think that merits expulsion, or a fine, or a disciplinary. If we expel someone from university, we're giving them a life sentence."

This was at a meeting to discuss St Patrick's Day.

"How many students, have you disciplined?", asks a resident.

"This year we and UU have disciplined 218 of which 50 were fined. Our system is meant to be transparent, accountable...blah...blah...blah"

"We...at...U..U...take...discipline...very...seriously", says Una Calvert in that slow, ponderous voice that...fakes...sincerity...but...shows...she...doesn't...give...a...fuck.

I have much to say about the PACT meeting, and want to spread it over several articles to tease out the issues and savour the absurdity of the whole thing.

How many students, bar St Patricks Day, have you expelled for anti-social behaviour?"

"None"

Gerry's proud of this and incites the wrath of the articulate graduate from Queens,
"Since I graduated in 2001 I've noticed it gets worse every year. These people have no respect for anyone. We have to make it clear that if you're going to behave like an animal you will lose the opportunity to complete a third level education."

Until a week ago such views would have been considered extreme. I've been called that for voicing them. Now we've had our wake-up call.

"These people have filmed themselves and put it on YouTube", voices the chairman with passion,"I would like to think that people identified from these videos would be expelled"

Gerry's not listening. He's playing with his imaginary games console.

"We saw students coming out of court giving one fingered salutes".

It's the graduate. His shock and disgust pour out with admirable force.

"These...weren't...students..."

Una's right. She doesn't say it'll never be students, unless they're working class and therefore scapegoatable.

"Why were people taken into a prison van and then released?"

"We only have 15 cells in South and East Belfast."

Gordon the new, new, new inspector informs us. These people come and go so fast I can't keep track of them.

"We take their details and then let them go to come back and be processed later."

"There's an empty jail up the Crumlin Road you can use!!"

She may be a pensioner, but she's no dope.

The teachers in Botanic Primary School were so scared for the children they canceled the clubs meetings. They had despaired of calling the cops to deal with the mob of hostile "students" floating around outside. They called the parents to come and collect their terrified children. Thursday was an exception, not because of the menace that oozes from our "students" like sweat. What was different was the presence of four landrovers in the area; tactical support units. What's interesting is that their presence was felt necessary then, 2 days after the "cultural event", but not today, or tomorrow or any other day that these people own the streets and act out their dominance day and night under the noses of cops who drive on by, legitimising it with their deliberate inaction.

Jimmy Spratt pulls Gordon on resources. He can't get an answer other than that the Holyland has the largest single share of manpower in the sector; at least they did last week. Normal service will be resumed shortly. Jimmy's angry at Gordon's evasions, and is taking this to Orde at the next policing board. I hope Hugh has his figures ready. Jimmy's on a warpath, but as we'll see in later articles, he's easily fooled by the whole "partnership" number. I like Jimmy. I never thought I'd say that about a DUPer.

Aftermath: Part Three

"Can I ask you a personal question?"
This is interesting.
"OK"
"Why do you stay here?"
Aaaaah
"I don't. I've left. But the others........they can't get rehoused."

It was the evening. The rioters had gone to the pub. We're talking as he waits for his taxi. It could take some time; the drivers have refused to come into the area. We've discussed the day's events and I've played ball as he pulls out the tiny minority argument despite having witnessed the mayhem on his doorstep. Then he lets it slip,
"Jordanstown had me up for anti-social behaviour. Well I said fuck them. I threatened them with Human Rights and all the rest. I threatened to sue the cunts"
He might have a case. The Holyland is "Off-Campus". However most punishments are so trivial that they are not contested. Why go to court over a hundred pound fine? And that will only happen after you've had your wrist slapped a couple of times for previous antics. However if someone chose to fight them they would probably win. There is no contract for off-campus behaviour, nor will there be. A "code" is not a contract. It's not like forty years ago when Bernadette Devlin was fucked out of Queens' School of Psychology just before her finals. They have other ways of fucking their students these days; other excuses for expulsion, money being one.

If you're a bogus student they don't give a fuck. You can do what you want and they'll still give you your degree. Just keep the money rolling in. It's a business. It's no longer academia.

His question was an honest one. Why would anyone want to live there? It's no longer a community. A handful of disparate and demoralised people is just that. They've turned on each other like the survivors on The Raft of the Medusa. It's such a shambles they need an outsider to speak for them. Why are those who want out ignored? How can the lie of "regeneration" be taken seriously? What Tuesday has made clear is that there is no longer, and can never again be, a community in the Holyland. How longer can people be kept imprisoned there? Who can justify such torture? People have served their time in hell. Give them new homes.

Aftermath; Part Two

This is Henry McDonald's piece from the Guardian Website. He's kindly let me publish it here along with my detailed reply.

There is an inconvenient truth at the core of the controversy over student misbehaviour in one square kilometre of south Belfast and it is all to do with sectarianism.

On St Patrick's Day the issue of student drunkenness and hooliganism came into sharp focus once again. The battleground was of course Belfast's Holylands, a small area running from the edge of the university district down to the River Lagan where the streets are named after the cities and biblical place names of the Middle East.

Scenes of drunken students taunting police officers, setting fire to cars, throwing bottles and stones at PSNI riot lines and blocking off streets while they held al fresco parties have reignited the arguments about whether it is right to shoehorn so many third level students into a tightly packed area.

Amid all the outrage and anger, most of it from the few remaining indigenous residents of the Holylands, two facts about those causing the trouble are rarely amplified. The first is that judging from the Gaelic football and Glasgow Celtic shirts as well as the names of those the PSNI decided to arrest, it is clear the overwhelming majority of the raucous revellers come from Catholic/nationalist areas of rural Northern Ireland. This is the unspoken truth of the culchie-student "invasion".

The second is that the dominant presence of these students has transformed what was once the only non-sectarian working-class/lower middle-class district to survive the Troubles into an eight-months-a-year nationalist ghetto. The most important lesson to draw from the brazen behaviour of the rural lager louts on St Patrick's Day is how tribalism actually solidified and grew during the years of the peace process.

It would be inaccurate to say that an area such as the Holylands escaped the Troubles. There were a few incidents of bombings and shootings where people living in the area lost their lives. Nonetheless the numbers were far fewer than say across the River Lagan in north Belfast, where almost a quarter of all the deaths in the conflict took place.

Throughout nearly 30 years of civil strife, however, the Holylands remained an enclave for the lower-paid leftwing lecturer, the aspirant teacher, the radical fringe, the punks from both Northern Ireland and beyond (many, for some inexplicable reason, from Bristol in the 1980s) in their squats or those simply wanting to live in an area where territory was not marked out by flags or painted kerbstones.

Among those who grew up or spent decades living in the Holylands even in the darkest years of the Troubles there is a common perception today that the influx of a monoreligious, rural student population, many reared on an aggressive nationalist diet, has altered the nature of the area.

Conversely the main driving force behind the St Patrick's Day violence may have been nihilistic and drink-fuelled but in the background lurked a collective belief among the third level revellers that this is now somehow "their area", that this is now "their territory". Indeed, during a previous television documentary about the rural student influx, longer-term residents who remonstrated with them were dismissed and told this was now "our area".

Back in the 1980s it would have been shocking to witness the sight of, say, an Orange band playing loyalist party tunes marching around the streets of the Holylands. People who wanted to escape parades and paramilitary murals felt relatively safe there even if just south of the river, across the Ormeau Bridge for instance, the UDA was engaged in a campaign of sectarian assassination. Even by the beginning of the peace process it had still survived as a haven for the aspirant worker and the radical leftwinger.

At present the devolved government in Northern Ireland is officially committed to a "shared future" programme that is designed, on paper at least, to create more common space in areas such as housing, sport or education between the two communities. It faces major challenges such as what to do about the so-called "peace walls" that have become near-permanent symbols of division between Protestant and Catholic areas.

The blueprint for social integration also has to tackle a divided education sector in which the overwhelming majority of Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren are still educated apart. There are serious doubts about how much the programme can achieve in terms of creating non-sectarian environments – especially on the big issues of the physical walls or the separate schools.

Perhaps the first place to start would be the Holylands, where the power-sharing coalition could create financial enticements for families to move into the area and conversely to encourage landlords not to turn their houses into homes of multiple occupancy; to persuade the two universities to build more on-campus halls of residence and ensure they become socially, ethnically and religiously mixed; to launch an education campaign within education aimed at persuading second level students, particularly those from rural nationalist Ulster, about the benefits of not following their mates from primary school all the way to Queen's and the UU and instead to go out and meet new people, maybe even in a university outside Northern Ireland.

In short, restoring the Holylands as a unique area of integration, both in terms of religion and class, would be one small step in that "shared future".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/mar/20/holylands-students?commentpage=1&commentposted=1

This is my reply:-

Hi Henry,
I disagree with you fundamentally about what can be done with the Holylands. Six years ago the Extern organisation survey found 200 residents besieged by 5,000 students. Today there are between 50 and 80 residents left. Most want rehoused, but the authorities will not do that. The area is gone. The landlords have demolished most of the houses in Rugby Avenue and replaced them with flats. They're pulling the rest down as I speak. Theree is no community left there, and there never will be again. This is profoundly sad and unbearably true. No-one should be rehoused in that area, and no-one will willingly choose to live there.

We have to face up to the fact that the ethno-political conflict continues in a different form. It has metamorphosed into the destruction of neutral spaces like the Holyland, and now Stranmillis. The Universities are being homogenized and the brain drain is not just that of protestants. Anyone who thinks for themselves and can afford to is leaving to study elsewhere, whether below the border or across the water. It's not just the chill factor within the student body. The quality of tuition in Queens is atrocious and it is rightly viewed as an academic slum.

The new middle class from mid-ulster will not study elsewhere because this is where they want to be. They're also not that keen on studying. It's an excuse to party for three years and get a degree at the end of it. What value can anyone place on such a qualification? This is a frightening issue. If our brightest and best are leaving this ignorant bunch will be our future professionals. They will be the glue that holds society together and that should scare everyone shitless. Do you want them teaching your kids, treating you in hospital, representing you in court? A society in intellectual meltdown is doomed and we have to face this rather than hide from it.

Our political class are working together,sometimes I think for their benefit rather than ours. On the ground however, the two communities are pulling further apart. Look at mid-Ulster and South Armagh. The triumphalism of its demon offspring comes from the aggregation of brutal victories by its parents' generation. Every protestant farmer shot off the back of a tractor, every protestant family driven from their home becomes a "fact on the ground". And this mentality plays itself out in the Holyland. It's "their area" and residents, especially protestants, can get lost. A community was driven out, deliberately and systematically by landlords and their tenants. The journalist Suzanne Breen tells her own story. A gang stopped her on a dark night and told her to,
"Sell your house and get the fuck out of the Holylands. This is our area now"

It is.

Aftermath; Part One

Click to enlarge:-



















Apologies for not pouncing on this immediately. I wanted the press to have their head before I turned around and said "I told you so". Apologies also to commenters, I wanted to get this published before I got round to you.

The chickens have come home to roost. The universities can't PR their way out of this one. No-one's listening to their fake residents' group, who will have run out of nice things to say about them. Having said that, there's no depths to which some people will not plumb (I expect colourful comments in reply to that ;-)

I want time to reflect on this because I have much to say. However, I do note that it was not students that were charged. None will be, unless they're working class. The new middle class in Mid-Ulster must not be alienated, no matter that they are sectarian ethnic chauvinists. It is wonderful to contrast the cosmopolitan parade in the city centre with the ugly truth that lies within. What did the wider world see? The manufactured image of the "New Northern Ireland" was drowned out by who we really are. Your future lawyers, teachers, doctors are waving pizza boxes and throwing (badly) bottles. They couldn't riot for shit; Designer Republican Arsewipes. They really are good for nothing. What a waste of public money.

How did she fail to get elected?

When she grows up she wants to be Christine Bleakley. Hide the fake tan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feck Fees

People have been complaining about these. I don't know why. We should be immune to the vulgarity and it's hard to disagree with the sentiment. What the fuck are people paying for? Why are genuine students (unlike our friend above) excluded from higher education because they can't afford £3,500 a year? Queens, Academic Slum Extraordinaire, are planning to up it to £10,000 a year. Who are these cunts fooling? Not our brightest and best who are queuing up to get the fuck out of Dodge. Good luck to them, I wish I could join them.

Shane Boylan was not elected, much to the relief of Queens. Let's have a look at his manifesto.

Click to enlarge. You might want to have a closer look at this:-

Click to enlarge.

You couldn't make him up. Note the "extremely small minority" myth, those who's misdeeds are used to "blacken the name of the student community". Residents are given a "disproportionate voice", perhaps because they actually do live there. How someone who has a "home address" and a "term time address" can claim to be a resident is beyond me. The distinction is obvious; the "home address" is not in the Holyland. Shane might well have wondered how it became a "student area", but that would address the fact that an entire community were driven from their homes, and we just can't go there can we?

It is "discriminatory and totally unfair" that those imprisoned in "student areas" should be heard. Six years ago the Extern organisation found 200 hundred residents beseiged by over 5,000 "students". Today there are about 50. If they're outnumbered 100 to 1 perhaps they should have one hundredth of a voice. Queens would love that.

He hasn't gone away you know

Apologies for my absence. Some of us have lives (that's a hint to my pet Troll). I've also been having technical problems with Blogger. They have still not been sorted. What are "HTML errors"?
Computers drive me crazy.

Still, It's good to be back.

Alan

Student Culture

Is it any wonder no-one can live among them.

Friday 6 March 2009

STUDENT SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS’ DETENTION FOR MANSLAUGHTER

Summary of Judgment

Mr Justice Hart, sitting today in Belfast Crown Court, imposed a sentence of two years’ detention on Ciaran Laverty, aged 19, for the manslaughter of Aaron Montgomery outside the Skye nightclub in Belfast on 15 February 2008.

Aaron Montgomery (aged 23) was standing outside the nightclub with his brother and his friend. A large number of people were leaving the bar at this time and there was some congestion in and around the doorway. Ciaran Laverty was head-butted and was mistakenly told by his friend that it was Aaron Montgomery who had attacked him. Mr Laverty then punched Aaron Montgomery on the side of the head or neck and he fell to the ground. The court heard that such a blow can cause very rapid death.

Mr Laverty remained at the scene and was arrested by police. He expressed remorse and regret for has actions immediately and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. Mr Laverty had no previous convictions. The court heard a number of testimonies about his previously excellent character - at the time of the attack he was a first year student at Queen’s University. He told the court that in the course of the evening he had drunk ten bottles of beer, two pints of beer and a cocktail.

Mr Justice Hart was provided with victim impact statements from Aaron Montgomery’s parents, brother and sister and other relatives. He said that they “eloquently and movingly expressed the acute loss and deprivation each has suffered as a result of Aaron’s sudden and unnecessary death”.

The judge accepted that Mr Laverty’s conduct that night was out of character. He said that Mr Laverty was “an able and intelligent young man of hitherto excellent character”:

“Sadly the reason for his behaviour is all too familiar with cheap alcohol readily available and large numbers of drunken young people spilling onto the streets when pubs and night clubs close. The events of this night were brought about by the combination of heavy drinking and a mistake on [Ciaran Laverty’s] part as to who had earlier assaulted him”.

Mr Justice Hart noted that a custodial sentence will clearly have a severe effect on Mr Laverty and his future but said that “it has to be remembered that his conduct brought about the death of a young man of blameless character who had done nothing whatever to provoke this unjustified attack which it appears was because of a case of mistaken identity”.

He sentenced Ciaran Laverty to two years’ detention.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The full judgment is available on the Court Service website (www.courtsni.gov.uk).

2. The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland in the case of R v Ryan Arthur Quinn [2006] NICA 27 held that the proper range of sentence in this type of case on a plea of guilty falls between 2 and 6 years’ imprisonment.

ENDS

Blood Money

QUEENS TAKES

BLOOD MONEY


You may not have noticed this:-

Amnesty Urges Action on QUB Corporate Sponsor Caterpillar

Posted: 08 May 2007 Amnesty International is urging Queen's University and its students at to bring pressure on Caterpillar Inc for their role in the destruction of Palestinian homes. As reported in The Gown, the Queens University student newspaper, The company - which has recently given $100,000 to the university towards the costs of its new library - is one of the biggest equipment suppliers to the Israeli army. Amnesty International has previously reported how Caterpillar bulldozers are being used to destroy thousands of homes of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The company's bulldozers have also been used in the construction of the fence/wall built around and through the West Bank. In 2004 the International Court of Justice declared the fence/wall to be unlawful. The company has donated $100,000 to the University towards the cost of its new £45 million library, due for completion in 2009. The library is due to have an area named after the company's charitable wing. Amnesty International's Northern Ireland Programme Director Patrick Corrigan said: 'Caterpillar produces the bulldozers used by the Israeli army to destroy the homes of innocent Palestinians. This is clearly illegal - a serious violation of international law which deprives innocent people of the right to a home. 'Amnesty International has asked Caterpillar to adopt a code of conduct which complies with the United Nations Human Rights Norms for Business. To date, the company has refused to do so and to take steps to prevent their products being used to commit human rights abuses. Peter McGovern, chairperson of the Amnesty Student Society at Queen's University said: 'Caterpillar's sponsorship of Queen's University provides the perfect opportunity for the university to ask some hard questions of the company. Meanwhile, the student body and faculty should bring pressure to bear on the company to abide by international human rights standards. Caterpillar may see this donation as a positive PR opportunity - let's see them prove their bona fides as good corporate citizens by ending their complicity in these abuses.' Background Excerpt from the Amnesty International report, Israel and the Occupied Territories - Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property, published in 2004. "Tens of thousands of men, women and children have been made homeless or have lost their livelihood as a result of house destruction by the Israeli army. Thousands of other houses have been damaged, and tens of thousands of others are under threat of demolition, their occupants living in fear of homelessness. House demolitions are usually carried out without warning, often at night, and the occupants are forcibly evicted with no time to salvage their belongings. Often the only warning is the rumbling of the Israeli army's US-made Caterpillar bulldozers beginning to tear down the walls of their homes. "The victims are often amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged. In most cases the justification given by the Israeli authorities for the destruction is "military/security needs", while in other cases it is the lack of building permits. The result is the same: families are left homeless and destitute, forced to rely on relatives, friends and humanitarian organizations for shelter and subsistence."

The link to this on the Gown blog is now dead; down the memory hole. Google it and see.

Rachel Corrie was murdered with a Caterpillar bulldozer.

Queens are naming a wing of their new building after Caterpillar. It is apt that having sponsored the destruction of the Holyland they take money from a corporation that has profited from far worse crimes.


Caterpillar Foundation's $100,000 donation to new Queen's Library

The Caterpillar Foundation, the philanthropic arm of global company Caterpillar Inc, which includes leading Northern Ireland firm FG Wilson, has made a $100,000 donation to Queen's University's landmark new library. In recognition of the gift, the Periodical Collection area on the Science and Engineering (3rd) Floor of the library will be named in honour of the Caterpillar Foundation.
Queen's Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Gregson said: “We are very grateful to the Caterpillar Foundation for this very generous donation. This gift is an excellent example of how local companies can support the communities in which they operate. The University's new library will not only enhance the Queen's Experience for our staff and students, but in doing so, will also play a leading role in sustaining and expanding the local knowledge-based economy.

“This donation will further enhance the links between the University and FG Wilson. We have enjoyed a productive relationship for many years, with the company's sponsorship of a major schools outreach project, ‘ABC for Life’, under which medical students teach CPR skills to Year 7 primary school children in order to create a generation of young people with the skills to save lives.”

The Caterpillar Foundation was founded by CAT in the early 1950s and since then has invested over £125 million in a wide variety of projects around the world. In 2005 some £15 million was distributed, with more than £600,000 awarded to projects in the United Kingdom. Since 2003 the Foundation has been active in the UK, working in partnership with CAT's UK businesses, especially in the area of education.

The decision to support this education based project lies comfortably within FG Wilson's philosophy and approach to social responsibility. The Company is a major employer in Northern Ireland and aims to support projects which impact the whole community in a positive manner. To date providing support for education based projects has been a key focus of FG Wilson’s sponsorship activity.

“The Caterpillar Foundation is delighted to work in partnership with FG Wilson and Queen's University to assist in this most important project. As its first direct investment in Northern Ireland, the Foundation sees this as a flagship for its future endeavours in the Province, and in association with FG Wilson looks forward to identifying further projects with the University”, said Dick Elsden, Director for Government Affairs for Caterpillar Inc in the United Kingdom.

Building work has commenced on the £45 million library, which is due for completion in 2009. Designed by Boston-based architects Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbot (SBRA), the new building will accommodate 2000 reader places and house 1.5 million volumes.

For further information contact:

Anne Langford, Tel 028 9097 5310

ENDS

The blurb from the QUB website will probably follow the gownn article down the Memory Hole, so I have published it here.

Gregson and the Caterpillar people can be seen in the photograph above. A dying Rachel Corrie can be seen in the photograph below.

What have they Regenerated?

Click to enlarge.

Five years after the University of Ulster invented a fake residents' group it's time to ask "What have they Regenerated?"

When called upon to help, the Extern Organisation could only find 204 residents. That was five years ago. Less than a hundred remain. The Universities have got their campus for free, courtesy of the taxpayer who forked out £24,000 for each property converted. That was generous of us don't you think? The Cancer of Landlordism has spread throughout South Belfast, raping community after community. Stranmillis is being pulled down house by house just like the Holyland. Now there's massive oversupply. Those crazy landlords just keep on going, driven by a compulsion called greed. Now they're invited back to the meetings from which they had previously been ejected. It's Grounghog Day, only there's fewer residents present. Soon landlords will outnumber residents at these things. How could anyone seriously beleive that that place would be turned around?

Denial's a dangerous thing. It enabled a handful of mediocrities to act as a PR front for the Universities and silence the cries of pain from the remnants of a community. What do they have to say for themselves now? Sorry? Mea Culpa? Don't hold your breath. They have no remorse. Instead they mourn the loss of their importance. There's nobody left for them to feed off. They're all that's left on The Raft of the Medusa.

Laugh Out Loud

I laughed out loud when I saw this. Click to open:-

All that money and Declan Boyle has no life. I'm sure he prefers to be rich and miserable.

Declan Boyle, former head of the Landlords Association, sits munching his sandwiches in the squalor of his rusty white van. It captures his moral decrepitude. I wonder is he still cruising the Holyland at night in his black Merc or 4 wheel drive?

I bet he still listens to the Bay City Rollers. He probably wanks to their videos.

Licence to Kill

I've had a week straight out of Franz Kafka.
"What is Mr Catney charged with?"
"AOABH, Threat to Kill, Interfering with an Officer in the course of an investigation"
"What, no GBH? No GBH with Intent?"
"No"
"What evidence has been submitted?"
"Police reports. Interview statements. Mr Catney is contesting the charges. He's made countercharges."
"No photographs have been admitted?"
"No"
"What about medical reports?"
"No"
"What???!!! No medical evidence and no photographs?"
"No"
"Well how am I supposed to get them in?"
"You have to give them to the police"
"The police are trying to keep them out!!"
"You have to give them to the police"
"So they're the gatekeepers"
"Ah, yeah"
"Can the Ombudsman not give the photos to the prosecutor?"
"You have to give them to the police"

I needed valium and an afternoon to recover from that.

Round Two.

"No Mr Murray. Those photographs are for our own use."
"But you have the Continuity of Evidence Statement?"
"It's not our job to conduct the investigation. We investigate the police. Your complaint is a disciplinary matter. This is misconduct, not criminality. We would only give the photographs to the prosecutor is we were pressing charges against the police"
"But they're withholding evidence. The prosecutor has tried and tried and tried to get medical evidence off them and they haven't given it. How could the prosecutor press charges for AOABH in the absence of medical evidence? They cannot get a conviction without it"
"Um, ah. I was going to discuss this with my line manager. The medical evidence is your best bet. The photographs might not be admissible."
The cops insisted they weren't. Stuart Cassells insisted they were inadmissible and was, interestingly enough joined in this by Inspector Jim Young and Sargeant Alan Bell who just, as it were, happened to be passing. That's why the Police Ombudsmans' office sent investigators out to get the photographs and a Continuity of Evidence Statement. I want you to give the photographs and the statement to the prosecutor"
"But they're for our own use. And anyway they were collected six months after the assault."
"They're digital photographs. Each image is a file containing the date and time it was taken and if it was modified."
"But they were collected six months after the asssault."
"That's because the police refused to investigate and only did so after it was revealed to them that my assailant and his six alleged witnesses were party to the giving of a false name. On the day of my assault I went to a neighbour's house and was told to go straight to the police. There were no officers in the station, but the auxiliaries called an ambulance.. The paramedics said I had a serious head injury and had to have it X-Rayed. The police came, the ambulance went away and six officers confronted me in a small room in a somewhat unpleasant manner and told me not to press charges. They said that Katrina O'Neil had six witnesses who heard me threaten to burn down the house with her and the kids in it and then attacked her boyfriend, but they didn't want to press charges. Now I had concussion, but still had the wit to say,
"Why does she not want to press charges. If someone threatened to burn your house down with you and your kids in it would you not want to press charges? Maybe they don't because I'm the one sitting here covered in blood."
Then they cautioned me for the crime of criticising this man's girlfriend, a public figure, for her failures in her public role. I note that you've closed the case on that"
"Oh? I don't think I'm dealing with that case. No, no, I'm not."
"You know that it went to trial and I was acquitted on all three charges and am sueing the cops for false arrest, malicious prosecution and Human Rights abuses. I would have thought the Ombudsman would have been interested in the Human Rights aspect"
"Um, Ah"
"There was another complaint that was closed. I was arrested for criticising another member of that committee. The Ombudsman's office took the police line that because I had been cautioned and placed on this thing called "The Harrassment Register" and had criticised this public figure on the internet again the cops had no case to answer. The Human Rights issue just didn't exist for them."
"Um, I'm afraid I wasn't dealing with that case, but I'll be speaking to my line manager today."
"Do you have the disk with the photos there?"
"Yeeees???"
"It'll only take you a minute. Just pop it in and have a look at it"
"Ummmm"
"I really think you should look at it"
"Um...I really should go.......my line manager....."
"What about the medical evidence?"
"You really need to argue that with the prosecutor. I'm afraid we can't help you"

I will deconstruct this for you, and the line of reasoning is perfectly logical and coherent, and thus very terriffying:-

• The police are determined that Mr Catney not go to jail. That much is obvious.
• The police are gatekeepers for the Prosecution Service and decide who gets charged with what. The prosecutors just shrug their shoulders and go along with it. They clearly have no interest in justice. Thus murder charges get reduced to affray and so on. They just don't care. They even press charges in the absence of medical evidence knowing that the case will fail. It's no skin off their nose. They get paid no matter how crap they are.
• The cops have insisted that Mr Catney be charged with the minimum possible offense. He could have pled guilty and walked, but he's contesting it.
• This will be an opportunity for Katrina O'Neill to throw one of her Performances. I can picture it now. Every lie under the sun will be thrown at me. I will have no opportunity to answer those allegations in court. Her performance will be suitably extreme. For her this is Apotheosis, pouring her efforts into an emotional incontinence of Hollywood proportions.
• A scapegoat is needed for the debacle that has become the Holylands. Why not blame Alan Murray for everything from arson to intimidation to this, to that, to the other thing. The police surely have a file, but curiously, no evidence. I must be a Holyland Ninja, despite having no criminal history. Either that or they're incredibly stupid and incompetent. Or perhaps their "intelligence" is defective or false (hint hint).
  
• The cops really, really, really don't like me. This is Northern Ireland (that's another hint). By making sure Mr Catney gets off because they have withheld evidence and got Katrina O'Neill to throw the performance of a lifetime, and thrown every smear in the book at me, they have given him a licence to come after me again. Even someone as incredibly stupid as him can work it out. He doesn't need to be given instructions. Thus there is no direct link to the cops. This is very convenient.
  
• Mr Catney has no fear, no consequential thought and a history of extreme violence. His last assault on me was nearly fatal. The next attack will come without warning on a dark winter night. He likes to stab people.

• The cops have given him a Licence to Kill.

This chain of reasoning is simple and terrifying and undeniable. The officer given the task of Perverting the Course of Justice and doling out death warrants is a mere willing pawn. He could certainly have chosen not to do this. He could have blown the lid on the whole thing. He made his choice, and if it all goes tits up, will take the fall for those who gave the orders. This is Northern Ireland. It's the same old cops, the same old courts. Murder is reduced to Affray. Informers are given a licence to kill. This is not Justice. This is Northern Ireland.

Rape

You may be familiar with this:-

New Poll finds that almost half of Northern Ireland Students Believe that a Woman is Partially or Totally Responsible for Being Raped if She Flirts

Posted: 30 September 2008 New campaign to target student unions A new poll shows that almost half (46%) of Northern Ireland university students believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she has behaved in a flirtatious manner, revealed Amnesty International today (29 September), as it published a report on attitudes to violence against women. The poll, Violence against women: the perspective of students in Northern Ireland, commissioned by Amnesty International, surveyed the attitudes and experiences of over 700 students across University of Ulster campuses. The research showed that a 'blame culture' toward women and sexual violence exists over drinking, perceived promiscuity, personal safety and whether a woman has clearly said 'no' to a man. The poll found, for example, that almost one third (30%) of students in Northern Ireland believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she is wearing 'sexy or revealing clothing'. The figures are higher than those found in similar surveys carried out elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Amnesty is calling on university heads to do more to tackle the problem of violence against women on campus. Amnesty International Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said: 'This survey shows that there are some extremely disturbing attitudes swirling around our campuses. 'It's shocking that so many students lay the blame for being raped or assaulted at the feet of women themselves. If we are going to break a cycle of violence against women in Northern Ireland, we need to start by challenging attitudes amongst students and the population at large. 'As part of an integrated strategy to end all forms of violence against women, the Northern Ireland Executive should consider a comprehensive campaign aimed at preventing violence and challenging prejudicial attitudes.' Katie Morgan, President of NUS/USI (National Union of Students / Union of Students in Ireland) said: 'Sadly, these results chime with what I have seen with my own eyes on campus. We've long been calling for better services for students who have suffered violence, and these results confirm not only that domestic abuse amongst students occurs far too often, but that students don't know where to turn when it happens. The universities and colleges need to think again about the welfare of their students and in tackling the suggestion that a woman can be responsible for being raped.' Amnesty's poll also revealed that domestic violence against female students is apparently widespread in Northern Ireland. Forty per cent of students reported knowing a female student who had been assaulted by her boyfriend or partner. Meanwhile, one in 10 local students considers violence acceptable against a girlfriend who nags, flirts with other men or refuses to have sex. Revealingly, the survey also showed that three-quarters of students did not know what advice to give a woman who had suffered domestic abuse: 77% felt they did not have enough information and support to tackle the problem and 82% were unaware of the availability of any support services on campus for student victims of domestic violence. The results have prompted Amnesty International and local students unions to launch their own campaign on campus to challenge sexist attitudes. The poster, leaflet and drinks mat campaign will be rolled out in the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast student unions over the coming weeks. Amnesty has also written to Northern Ireland college heads and the Northern Ireland Executive encouraging them to take more action to tackle violence against women students. ENDS Note to editors The full survey report - Violence against women: the perspective of students in Northern Ireland - is available from Amnesty International. The survey questioned 715 students at the four University of Ulster campuses across Northern Ireland. It was conducted by a group of university students working through the Science Shop. The survey questions were similar to two comparable studies undertaken in the UK by ICM for Amnesty International and the End Violence Against Women campaign. This report also includes a description, where relevant, of the variance between the results obtained amongst students in Northern Ireland with the other surveyed cohort.

That "students" rape and beat their girlfriends and other female targets of opportunity is no surprise to anyone living in the Holyland. That the police cover it up is also no surprise. That no "student" has been or will be prosecuted is, you guessed it, no surprise. When this smug little shit says that "students" are not criminals he means that they are above the law. After all no-one was prosecuted for this. The attitude of the cops was that the victim brought it upon herself because of her mental health issues. I do not know how any woman can be a part of the RUC/PSNI. One would need to be utterly devoid of conscience, empathy, decency etc; in short, simply not human. From my own experience I would have to say that that appears to be the case.

I was at Queens freshers fair recently. NUS/USI had a stall. One of their slogans was,

"Thanks for having sex with me when I didn't want it. Duh!"

This says many things. First of all, rape is so common among the "student" body to have become banal. Why else describe it in terms that are not shocking, not voicing the outrage that comes with true violation. NUS/USI, headed by a woman no less, are treating this as a matter of "educating" male "students". Rape is reduced to some kind of childish misbehaviour that needs a lesson in good manners to sort it out. Secondly, the experience is reduced to an unpleasant inconvenience. What the Amnesty International poll makes clear is that rape is not only normal to "students", but something they beleive that young women should simply expect to happen. This is a culture of invalidation that is grotesque beyond my power of words. These people are simply devoid of human dignity and human decency. Where have they come from? They did not emerge from the womb fully formed degenerates. They have grown up in a family and school and peer environment that obliterates all humanity. What kind of parents send their daughters to "study" in Belfast knowing that they will be raped, will be beaten, will be invalidated by their peers? The kind of parents that have raised a generation of monsters and unleashed them on the residents of South Belfast, destroying community after community without remorse, but instead with brutal glee.

Now the truth about rape is out, at least until a PR campaign massages it away. Ater all, it's how the universities "perception managed" the Holyland out of existence.

Wishing for a High Wind

Taken from this, picture 7:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7504139.stm

Click to open link.

Welcome to Partyland

As you can see, they're here to study:-

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3551622943&ShowSims=Y

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=2712799375&ShowSims=Y

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4843465196&ShowSims=Y

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4119990848&ShowSims=Y

Click to open links.

Spot the Difference

What do

this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

have in common?

Almost the Worst Song Ever Written

I fell off my seat when I heard this:-

Mickey Coleman:- Belfast Holylands


And people wonder why I'm ashamed to be Irish. There's more culture in a Dog Turd.

Lipstick on a Pig

Click to enlarge.

Americans have a saying,
"You can paint lipstick on a pig, but it don't matter. It's still a fuckin' pig"
When I lived in the Holylands this article would have driven me crazy.
"Students aren't criminals and we don't treat them like criminals. It's student anti-social behaviour"
They're not criminals. It's all just "high jinks". It's good clean fun.
" The first thing a police officer will do when they come across behaviour such as shouting and yelling is give them advice and warning"
Well that's bollocks. The first thing they'll do is drive on by and systematically ignore this shit all night long.
Then,
" If they don't respond well we'll take a note of their name and address and pass it on to the universities"
In other words do fuck all. Wash your hands and let the universities do fuck all.
"If it's really bad we'll prosecute them ourselves"
How bad does it have to be? The student who invaded a woman's home and entered her child's bed has not been prosecuted. The cops bent over backwards to make sure he got away with it. To put it differently, residents are legitimate targets for students, and the cops will endorse whatever they do.
"The South Belfast police have been accused of this leniency because they don't want to alienate young middle-class catholics ........a claim the policeman rejects"

Why is it that there is an endless call by the Provos and the Belfast News Group for "Zero Tolerance" policing to be inflicted on working class kids guilty of "Anti-Community Activity"? Is it frustration because they can no longer blow the knees off children? Or is it the Debacle, a capitulation so complete that they collaborate with all the enthusiasm of Vichy France with the Nazis? It is interesting to note that no such call is made for "Zero Tolerance" to be inflicted on the perpetrators of this, and this, and this, and this, and this.

They tell me that Trevor is photogenic, some kind of 'pretty face". I can't comment on that, but have noticed the hair gel. In the photograph I see him trying to keep a straight face. Usually he wears a smug grin or cheesy smirk. Whether it's lipstick or hair gel it makes no difference. It's still a fuckin' pig.

Update: Validation

I've got some press coverage. I thought I'd share it with you. I was in fact charged under the protection from harassment order 1998. This was ostensibly introduced to protect people from stalkers. Suffice it to say that wasn't gonna fly in this case. This legislation has been consistently used to protect institutional power from accountability. The Belfast Holyland Fake Residents Group may not in itself have power, but it acts as a proxy for the cops and universities; thus my prosecution. Click to enlarge.

Validation.

Thank fuck for valium. It's a high-threat situation. Her father sits in the visitors seats glaring pure hate at me from an angry, violent face. She's giving her testimony, fear and terror with all of the usual hysteria that characterises her performances. I look from her to the furious street thug and know another beating is on the way. I can win here, but it doesn't end here. It ends out there where the cops new best friends have Free Reign and Official Sanction.

"Tell me, Constable Cassells, on the day you cautioned my client, had he voluntarily come down to Donegall Pass Police Station?"
"Yes"
"He had come to report an assault on himself by the complainant's boyfriend?"
"Yes"
"And this was a very severe assault indeed?"
"Yes"
He's squirming.

It passes like a dream. I'm giving testimony. I'm there, but I'm not there. The menace goes away, and in it's place; the challenge. We go through the witness statements. My disagreements with the prosecutor are balanced, measured, calm. My barrister talks me through the articles from my blog. We discuss the context and content; the death of the community; the need to rehouse most, give soundproofing to others and imprison no more people in that place.

I deconstruct Tony's article; the call to build no more public housing but make the homeless rent from Rachmans. Katrina could not have written it. The dense technical jargon is beyond her limited wit. Yet she sat in the witness box and claimed to have been it's author.

"The police instructed you to write no more about her on your blog." Counsel for the State has to make the point. "She is upset that you do so."
"You're aware of the cartoonist Steve Bell in the Guardian?"
"No"
I don't believe him, but the magistrate knows where I'm going. He nods to me.
I continue. " Should it matter to him how Tony Blair, Maggie Thatcher, Gordon Brown, and, this week, Boris Johnston feel about his wonderfully grotesque, funny and apt caricatures of them? Yet Steve Bell's not in the dock, nor is any other journalist. This is the first time in the United Kingdom that someone has been prosecuted for criticising a public figure. This is, in fact, a test case."
"'It may be", says the magistrate, "but I don't care."
I'm learning to like him.
"But", says the prosecutor, "she does not want you to do so."
"I consider it my obligation as a journalist, and bloggers consider themselves to be journalists, and indeed the obligation of every citizen to hold to account those who claim to speak and act on our behalf. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

In his summing up, the magistrate agrees with that. However, it has been a close call. My witnesses, credible, articulate and upstanding, demolish her account of the residents' meeting. Her performance, product of a lifetime of practice, is emotive. Without my witnesses she would have won. Only I can counter her claims about the "looking incident" at the Ormeau Bakery, but it fails to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Her performance has impressed the Judge, but it's not enough.

Justice prevailed and Free Speech won, but the perfidy of the cops and their plaything came dangerously close to succeeding. On the day of the day of the trial they tried to introduce three more alleged "incidents". What they are I don't know. They could have had the trial adjourned until September and then out of a total of six allegations they would have to win only two. Dirty tricks and thugs on the ground; the RUC haven't gone away you know.


Postscript.
The issue is discussed in these links:-

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/power-of-arrest
-used-against-belfast-blogger/

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/holylands-
blogger-cleared-of-harassment-charges/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/06/
northernireland.civilliberties

http://modoherty.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/save-the-blog/