A teenage student was subjected to a brutal beating – just for having long hair.
Harley Davies, 17, was set on by a gang of youths who shouted an obsenity (sic) at him and told him to go and get his hair cut.
The A-level student was left with a fractured jaw and broken tooth during the lunchtime attack on the Blackburn College campus.
Appalling, yes. But surely not so very surprising in this day and age of casual violence for – seemingly – violence’s sake?
But wait! There’s an angle, and people are off and running with it:
Campaigner Sylvia Lancaster, whose daughter Sophie was killed for the way she looked, said the incident should be classed as a hate crime.
I…
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding?
Police confirmed that the college CCTV camera which covered the incident was not working, but said they had other CCTV in the area which was forming part of their inquiries.
They are not classing the incident as a hate crime.
Whew!
But….there’s actually another wrinkle here:
The three men are described as Asian and aged between 16 and 19 years old.
Yeah. I bet they aren’t Thai…
We’ll come back to that later. In the meantime, that bandwagon is still rolling:
Mrs Lancaster said: “They have singled this boy out and attacked him because something in his appearnce (sic) sets him apart.
“That is a hate crime and I hope when the police investigate it they see sense and class it as such.
“It was the same with Sophie and it is not good enough. They deserve protection under law.”
Don’t we all deserve protection under the law? Equally?
Is it right that this offence should be classed as a higher crime?
In the comments, there are many telling signs that all is not rosy in Blackburn:
hometoroost says…
Again to is said by the police that it is not racially motivated because it was Asian on white, if it had been the other way about all hell would be let loose.
Who could argue with that?
Mr Knightstemplar says…
The streets of Blackburn are rapidly becoming a no go area for law abiding citizens walking on their own. Something needs to be done about the gangs of youths that hang around the Mall and college campus. There is a massive devide in east Lancashire and its only getting bigger and bigger and no matter how many posts the LET pull from this site it won’t stop growing. I have lived and worked in east Lancashire all my life and when i walk through the Mall or campus in Blackburn i feel like a second citizen.
‘Why is that’?
I wonder…
slongio says…
Not racially motivated don’t make me laugh! Anyone who thinks this and isn’t ever lucky enough to have the pleasure of walking in or around blackburn town centre or college campus any time after tea time wants to try it once in a while! Rude awakening awaits my friends!
This, however, seems to upset the father of the student, who wishes to paint himself as a concerned liberal:
Diogenes The Cynic says…
Speaking as Harley’s father, I really don’t want this debate to degenerate into ethnic slurs.
I personally believe this was either a hate or racially motivated crime – in my opinion, the two should be seen equally in the eyes of the law. Anyway, this is a matter for the police and (hopefully) courts to decide.
What neither my son nor myself want to see is tensions raised within the community. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, doesn’t it?
My son has recieved a lot of messages of support from his college friends (both white and asian) – and he won’t be cutting his hair anytime soon he says!
These louts may have been Asian, but I honestly don’t believe they are in any way representative of the Blackburn Asian community… they are a minority and a disgrace to their families.
There seems to be rather a lot of them, in an awful lot of places, for them to still be considered a ‘minority’, no?
But…leaving that aside, maybe this commenter has hit on the real issue?
Annoyedinlancashire says…
Saw this happen as I was walking towards it – the attacker was like a wild animal with so much hatred even his own “mates” had difficulty holding him back. Where on earth does that hatred come from? The poor lad who was attacked did nothing wrong yet as we have seen in the recent riots these “youths” are like ravenous wild animals, with no thought or care for anyone else but themselves. It’s disgusting and one of the reasons I sometimes feel trapped in my own home as I am scared for myself and my children to come across them.
It’s a rather interesting (in the old Chinese curse sense) future we have in store for us, isn’t it?
I wonder if Asian is a euphemism.
DaveE.
We are not allowed to say “Paki” any more.
Apart from Pakis.
I suppose, strictly speaking, referring to it as a hate crime is accurate. It was a crime and it was hateful. And there is a little bit of schadenfreude to be had watching those “Asians” (read Pakistani Muslims) getting a taste of their own victim-hood medicine back.
My advice to all my younger relatives is keep as far away as possible from muslims. And I’ve had to repeat to them on several occasions that these acts of violence are always perpetrated by muslims. For, where are the reports of gangs of Hindus, or Sikhs or Jews, or Christians roaming the streets looking for an opportunity to cause injury to a white person? Only muslims behave that way.
“An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, doesn’t it?”
Nope, just those who require it. The rest of us can manage just fine to get through the day without randomly physicallly attacking other people, thanks.
I feel so very sorry for both the boy but especially his father. The poor deluded man honestly still believes “The Law” will effectively deal with this.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite the daily sight of his own son’s smashed face and knowing the attackers don’t give a fuck about them or The Law…he still believes.
HOW the fuck does anyone STILL do that ?
Insanity.
Fucked if I have any faith in the law.
Been on the wrong side of it despite being innocent.
P.S. A house in my street was vandalised recently. They sent C.S.I. around.
WTF do they expect to find?
A toughened glass window was broken, easy, an automatic centre punch in the corner.
Spray painted insults!
Nothing to find or investigate!
DaveE.