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  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Tempo of the City
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
    • The Saga That Rocked Hong Kong's Legal Fraternity
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • The Big Game
    • The Hidden Leader
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • New World Order - Something is going on!
    • British Policing - What's to be done?
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you what life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review
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7/6/2017 0 Comments

Troubled Times.

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After Manchester and now London, I'm struggling to summons up the words that capture my feelings. Anger is there. Anger at the senseless violence against folks enjoying themselves. Pity and sadness also for the relatives of those killed and injured. Shame enters the mix. I feel helpless watching events unfold on TV. Shame that my response is noise in the echo chamber. Hovering in the background is a sense of disconnection from all the tributes, eulogies, candle burning and general hand-wringing. 

What’s the point? Will it stop another attack? That disconnection arises from the UK's lack of honesty about the threats it faces from radical Islam. For too long, political correctness has held sway.  Virtue signalling types shutting down difficult public discussions with their lazy claims of racism and Islamic phobia. 

The rote reaction seen after the London attack demonstrates nothing has been learnt. The politicians posturing, whilst pointing the finger at each other. Teresa May slashed police numbers. When they raised a cry, she trashed them with accusations of scaremongering. On the other hand, can we trust Jeremy Corbyn?  He has a track record of voting down measures to curtail terrorist groups. His expressed support for certain terrorists is on record. Not good is it.

For me, none of the politicians carries the necessary conviction to deal with the issue at hand. None is honest or brave enough to affirm that tough, across the board, measures are needed. 

Let us be clear,  no one is suggesting all Muslims are involved. Such a suggestion is plain daft. Yet, it is undisputed that some mosques in the UK are being used as centres for radicalisation. The moderate Muslims have been saying this for years, demanding action that has not been taken. There is emerging evidence that the security services failed to act on warnings regarding at least one of the attackers, Khuram Shazad Butt. He appeared in a 2016 Channel 4 documentary ‘The Jihadis Next Door’. He made no secret of his radical views.  Moreover, he was repeatedly ejected from mosques for his activities. 

I don’t wish to rush to judgement. It's unclear exactly what evidence the authorities had. Plus, whether resource constraints allowed a proper and full assessment of that evidence. That second point loops back to the strident cuts Theresa May imposed on the police. In particular, her slashing of budgets hit community-level policing and intelligence gathering. The very sort of activity that would have given a clear picture of the threat posed by Butt.

What is reassuring is that in the documentary, moderate Muslims repeatedly confronted Butt and his radical friends. These brave interventions give weight to the view that some in the Muslim community are seeking to tackle the radicals. More power to those people.

So, what can be done? Well, funding for the police needs to be adequate for the challenge faced. Reinstating neighbourhood policing teams to full manning levels would be a good start. That way intelligence and information can be fed into the system. 

The police themselves need to change. They have to shake off the remnants of their ‘Dickson of Dock Green image. Every officer should be carrying a firearm. Yes, I know a good percentage of officers cannot accept that. Then, I would ask whether they are in a position to protect the public and themselves? That’s their sworn duty. One brave officer with a baton had a go in London. He was overcome. Imagine the outcome had that brave officer had a gun. People would be at home with their loved ones, not on a morgue table. 

Soft policies weighed down by political correctness, need to go. People who express extremists views who are not UK citizens must be deported. No second chance or wobbling about their rights. UK citizens who express violent extremists views should be placed under strict control orders and curfews. Infringements of the conditions will mean detention. 

Finally, the key to success lies with the Muslim community. A robust partnership with the security services to expose those who preach and encourage radical Islam is crucial. Their support base must be removed, the roots that nourish the violence ripped up and facilitators of hate exposed. Only then we truly can address the issue. 

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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