Britain to honour its dead with vigil after London Bridge attack

[snoop1130]

Britain to honour its dead with vigil after London Bridge attack

By Guy Faulconbridge

 

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will on Monday honour the two people who were killed when a militant knife man went on a stabbing spree near London Bridge in an attack that has thrust criminal justice to the centre of the election campaign.

 

Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were killed on Friday when Usman Khan, a man convicted of terrorism offences in 2012, went on the rampage with kitchen knives at a prisoner rehabilitation conference beside London Bridge.

 

Confronted by bystanders, including a Polish man brandishing a narwhal tusk and others with fire extinguishers, Khan, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, was wrestled to the ground. He was then shot dead by British police.

 

A vigil in Guildhall Yard, in the heart of the City of London, will be held to honour the dead, those injured, the emergency services and the members of the public who tackled Khan.

 

With less than two weeks to go until the Dec. 12 snap election, British politicians sought to apportion blame for the early release of Khan - who was released despite a warning from the sentencing judge in 2012 that he was a danger to the public.

 

“I absolutely deplore the fact that this man was out on the street, I think it was absolutely repulsive and we are going to take action,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday.

 

Johnson’s Conservatives have championed tough police and prison measures, but opponents have criticised them for overseeing almost a decade of cuts to public services.

 

BLAME GAME

 

Conservative cuts to community policing, probation, mental health, youth and social services could “lead to missed chances to intervene in the lives of people who go on to commit inexcusable acts,” said Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

 

Corbyn, a veteran peace campaigner, also said convicted terrorists should not necessarily serve their full prison terms.

 

Amid the political and media rhetoric, the father of one of the dead called on the media and politicians not to use his son’s death to justify division or hatred.

 

“Don’t use my son’s death, and his and his colleague’s photos - to promote your vile propaganda,” David Merritt said in a tweet above newspaper headlines from the Daily Mail and Daily Express, both of which described a government plan for a “blitz on freed jihadis”.

 

“Jack stood against everything you stand for - hatred, division, ignorance,” he said.

 

Both the dead were involved in the University of Cambridge’s Learning Together programme to help educate and rehabilitate prisoners. Khan was attending a Learning Together event when he began his attack.

 

Sentenced to a minimum of eight years in prison in 2012 with a requirement that the parole board assess his danger to the public before release, he was set free in December 2018 - without a parole board assessment.

 

Islamic State said the London Bridge attack on Friday was carried out by one of its fighters, the group’s Amaq news agency reported on Saturday. The group did not provide any evidence.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-02

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[cyril sneer]

11 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

a militant knife man

interesting choice of words

[torturedsole]

I'm getting really, really bored of these vigils.  I'd prefer some meaningful action taken by the government.

[TopDeadSenter]

Just now, torturedsole said:

I'm getting really, really bored of these vigils.  I'd prefer some meaningful action taken by the government.

The only meaningful action you are likely to get is more censorship. Long tried and tested method to calm growing discontent, used reasonably successfully by Sweden and also Merkel's Germany in the mayhem following her open borders fiasco, although as expected draconian censorship will result to a swing to right wing parties that still value freedom.

 Lighting candles, not looking back in anger and changing facebook status to je suis whatever is just crass.

[theoldgit]

Troll post removed

[Catoholic]

A vigil, how nice. Candles, flowers, maybe a song or two?

heartbreaking...

[torturedsole]

1 minute ago, Catoholic said:

A vigil, how nice. Candles, flowers, maybe a song or two?

heartbreaking...

Making heart shapes with hands and some colourful images projected onto a building.  Give me a break and actually makes me sick as these vigils are continuous now with no resolution in sight.  

[billd766]

1 hour ago, torturedsole said:

Making heart shapes with hands and some colourful images projected onto a building.  Give me a break and actually makes me sick as these vigils are continuous now with no resolution in sight.  

Strangely enough nobody is forcing you to watch anything that you don't like or don't want to see. If it upsets you then don't bother to open it.

 

OTOH there are many people in the UK who do want to read and watch stuff like this and nobody is banning them from doing so.

Edited December 2, 2019 by billd766
added extra text

[kingdong]

5 hours ago, billd766 said:

Strangely enough nobody is forcing you to watch anything that you don't like or don't want to see. If it upsets you then don't bother to open it.

 

OTOH there are many people in the UK who do want to read and watch stuff like this and nobody is banning them from doing so.

Agree with you regarding your comments on choice,however feel this incident should not have occurred in the first place had the establishment put public safety before political correctness.

[oldhippy]

17 minutes ago, kingdong said:

Agree with you regarding your comments on choice,however feel this incident should not have occurred in the first place had the establishment put public safety before political correctness.

You are entitled to your view, even if your view is 100% different from the view of one of the victims' family.

[kingdong]

5 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

You are entitled to your view, even if your view is 100% different from the view of one of the victims' family.

So what makes the"view of one of the victims family" an expert on jihadist extremism? "The authorities need to address the real dangers facing the west not pander to someone who is understandably obviously in shock and grieving.just worry about your own country as I personally find your posts offensive.

[John1012]

12 hours ago, torturedsole said:

I'm getting really, really bored of these vigils.  I'd prefer some meaningful action taken by the government.

I agree, organ harvesting, assuming not contaminated, and incineration of remainder, ashes to be used as fertilizer. Soft words and appeasement have not worked so far, so a radical approach is required to eliminate and deter.

[billd766]

9 hours ago, kingdong said:

Agree with you regarding your comments on choice,however feel this incident should not have occurred in the first place had the establishment put public safety before political correctness.

Granted that he should not have been released, OTOH there seem to be a lot more of these incidents happening nowadays, Whilst the police and the intelligence do their utmost there will always be a few that slip through the net.

 

I believe that we are reaping what we have sown for decades and the problem with the legal system is that their powers of punishments have been diluted over the years and they have to work within those guidelines.

 

There are less police on the streets due to cutbacks, (thank you Teresa May), punishments are getting less, criminals are spending less time in jails due to overcrowding and more time and resources are being spent on the criminals.

[metempsychotic]

Thoughts and prayers. 

 

Oops sorry, wrong country.