The Colour Of Justice

In 1999 my mum and I went to see the Colour of Justice: The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry at the Victoria Palace Theatre. An incredible production that was set in the courtrooms of the initial trial hearing, not a dry eye was left in the house as we watched the actors playing Stephen’s parents superbly play the emotions as they watched justice once again evade them. I remember leaving the theatre with my mum, both of us unable to speak through tears and the conversations that followed as both of us couldn’t work out just why the case hadn’t been solved with all the hard evidence against Dobson & Norris, let alone the others that were supposedly present. It seemed horribly unfair.

It was a case that seemed unfair to me aged 12 in 1993 when it was first reported that a young man had lost his life because of the colour of his skin. In 1993 I was at my state secondary school were pupils were so mixed in ethnicity that the idea someone would discriminate against someone else because of how they looked seemed mad. Except for gingers of course. And fat kids. And anyone with crap trainers. Sure, school was, and I’m sure, still is, a horrible place. Fact is though, while the odd racist remark was no doubt made – amongst 1200 pupils odds are it will have been and I remember a large amount of Greek/Turkish bullying as well as Afro-Caribbean/Asian prejudice going on – at my young naive age, hearing that news about Stephen Lawrence it just seemed that it ‘d be cleared up in minutes. It was obviously one of the most horrible hate crimes of the time and with clear culprits and hard evidence they would be in prison for life and that would send a clear message out to preventing it from happening again. I’d seen a lot of Inspector Morse with my parents. I knew how it all worked.

Yet, only 19 years later, have Gary Dobson and David Norris been found guilty. A verdict that should have appeared back in 1993. Police screw ups, the failed prosecutions which was largely failed by the police screw ups all caused Doreen and Neville Lawrence to suffer not only from the death of their son, but also from the lack of closure on the circumstances in which he died. Tomorrow the court delivers the sentence the murders will serve but will it really be justice? Nearly 20 years on, and only two of the of the initial five suspects have been accused. All this shows is that racist crimes perhaps aren’t important enough to the police or the courts. The question has been asked time and time again as to whether the police would have been quite so difficult and incompetent with everything if it had been a young white boy that was killed. The subtle racism was evident in the whole handling of the case with one of the policewoman who spoke to the Lawrence’s famously saying that as she had spent her youth in Africa she ‘understood black people’. Ridiculous.

It’d be lovely to think that the closure of this finally means things may change but it’s not just racism. That 2012 will be a year where anyone dying is as important as anyone else but the sad truth is, with legal aid being hugely cut it will come so that only the rich will be able to prosecute. Its a horrible comparison, and yes, not an exact one to make (the differences between the cases are huge) and I don’t mean to rile anyone up about it, but do you think if the Lawrence’s had the money or the PR that the McCann’s had that this would have taken half as long? I’m not sure. I just know that while I’m extremely pleased that today the Lawrence’s finally get some justice, I don’t know if its enough.  A near 5th of a lifetime spent questioning why, hoping it wouldn’t just go unsolved, mourning someone you miss who was killed in such a horrific way. I can’t imagine anything could really make that ok.

I don’t remember a lot of the play but I have two outstanding memories from seeing that show. One was of the testament of Conor Taffe who saw two boys running along the road and said he knew something was very wrong. He saw Stephen fall over and went to help and his wife had cradled the boy’s head in her lap and told him: “You are loved.” Conor’s shirt was stained with blood and when he washed it the next day, he took the water and poured it on a rose bush in his garden. The other was the face of the actor playing Neville Lawrence when it was announced that the charges against Dobson and Norris were dropped due to ‘lack of evidence’. Completely awash with tears, he couldn’t even look up, so overwhelmed with disappointment and sadness. Despite being a recreation, a play, that image gives me a shiver of sadness even today. I hope tomorrow they get given life at the very least.

 

RIP Stephen Lawrence.

Blog History

May 2012
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Toy Soldiers

Scotland Yard have announced that on tomorrow’s Student Protest some police have been allocated use of plastic bullets (also known as baton rounds) to fire at ‘extreme cases’ but with the decision being made by the officers as to when it becomes ‘extreme’. When you hear that they are plastic bullets it almost sounds like a fun toy doesn’t it? We’ve all happily shot nerf guns at friends, pets, elderly relatives, watched the foam dart bounce gleefully off their head as they try and enjoy a sandwich amidst childish giggling that you’ve just totally taken them down. But you step up from that, even to air guns, and people lose eyes, suffer severe bruising and can get quite injured. When you get to the level of baton rounds you realise they are barely different from normal bullets. If you see the official description of them they are ‘non-lethal’ weapons and yet there are hundreds of examples of people dying after being subjected by such fire. Northern Ireland is a prime case of this, from the 70s to the 80s with lots of injuries and 14 people dying including nine children. This is most definitely not ‘non-lethal’.

So once we’ve got past the fact that making the weapons sounds like toys is a distraction and con, we have to wonder why on Earth the police have been allocated such weapons to use against students? Yes there was trouble at the last mass student protest last September, with the attack on Millbank, but it was by a very select few, most of whom have been condemned by the student population and several who weren’t even students, more just trouble makers joining in to demean the entire event. These people will always be at protests, but violence isn’t helped by provocation and announcing police have such weaponry at their disposal makes those going nervous. Nervous people react badly and on the spur of the moment and if anything is going to cause aggregation and dissent its seeing a bunch of armed, over eager, cocky, violent riot police descending on a crowd of peaceful protestors as though its a war of sorts.

Protesting never has to be violent and 99%, possibly more, of the people protesting tomorrow won’t have the faintest inclination of violence or intention of trouble starting. They will be there to oppose cuts and charges that are affecting everyone except the elite. They are there to plead for the option of higher education for the masses, to question how the pretence of a national debt that is minuscule compared to the rest of the Western world – the UK still very much holding onto its triple A credit rating while even the US cannot – has allowed a right wing government to make university only for those who can afford it. These people don’t want to take on heavily armed police in fisticuffs, they want to be allowed their freedom of speech to speak about human rights. Instead they are already being warned that even attempting to do so will be greeted by oppressive figures of authority.

If you are going tomorrow – and for all students out there who read this, or people who read this that know students or are involved in education, then you should be, because its important that as many turn out as possible to show that what is happening won’t be tolerated – then please don’t be frightened by this announcement. Its more scare tactics and all we can do to stop this happening more and more is be defiant against it. Go tomorrow, fight for your rights and any police who dare fire upon people who are the future of this country will have all hell to pay. It make this country no better than many of those Cameron is so quick to condemn for its treatment of its citizens. No one deserves to be fired at with baton rounds, and I really hope Scotland Yard realises it.

No comedy today I’m afraid, but as we edge closer and closer to Orwell’s 1984 reality of thought police, there’s really very little to laugh about. If you are a student or in education and don’t know about tomorrow, then see here for information:

STUDENT PROTEST – WEDNESDAY 9TH NOVEMBER

Stealing Time

I wasn’t going to blog today. Today and tomorrow were going to be blog free as I’m currently in the midst of my early Sept hibernation period whereby words are hard to fathom as everything in me post Edinburgh Fringe has shut down. Instead of typing I should be lying prone, staring at the ceiling, drooling a bit and scowling at my phone when it rings. This is generally what I need to do every year until Bestival (which occurs next week) where I ruin my body again and I end up back at square one. Yet instead of me doing such things (and yes I am typing this in bed in my PJs) and gaining the rest that’s due, I’m here hacking this blog out. Why? Well because after 4 and half hours of train journey plus a further 45 minutes travel lugging a huge suitcase on top of a whole month of endless performance, I returned home yesterday evening to find our flat had been burgled, again. Some of you may remember this:

LETTER TO THE BURGLARS OF METHUEN PARK

Back in early June some pricks broke in and nicked Nat and my laptop and Nat’s iPhone. Finally managing to get things back through insurance we had locks changed and generally though that despite being in a vulnerable ground floor flat with loads of big windows, they might have learnt that self-employed people have little to give and hopefully would never return. However at some point between Nat’s house sitting friend leaving our abode on the 27th and us getting back yesterday, someone had got in, rummaged through all the draws and cupboards, threw back all the bedding and had a proper scour for valubles. They didn’t get anything I’m pleased to say, completely over looking items I thought may be of worth like my satnav, my superman fronts and my collectable Radiohead albums, because luckily we had anything that was of worth with us in Edinburgh. Its just bloody horrible though. Once again someone we don’t know has been in our flat touching our stuff.

Even more unnerving is that we can’t work out how they got in. No windows were broken or forced open. All the blinds were still down, and the door was double locked. This leads us to believe that either our burglars have keys to the flat or we were robbed by Eugene Tooms from season one of the X-Files who has stretchy limbs, could fit through air vents and ate people’s livers. I’m not sure which outcome I like most. So now front door locks are being changed, me and Nat are being even more vigilant and I guess we’ll have to start looking for a new flat soon or really reading into how much damage you can do to a burglar under ‘reasonable force’.

On the plus side, we are getting quite good at dealing with this. Nat was straight on the phone to the police. I was straight on the email to the landlord. Between us its all getting fixed pretty quickly and I’m starting to wonder if we could become professional victims of crime. If any of you, for example, think you may soon be subject to criminal activity, why not contact us and see if we can take your place for a day for a fee? We’ll endure all trauma and misery involved, sort out all the damage and you can return scott free of despair just in time to collect your new laptop via insurance. I’m sure it’ll be more profit making than my current career and I may end up actually owning stuff robbers might want to steal.

I’m going back to my coma now. Wake me up when they invent burglar alarms that shoot lasers at people.

Too Far From Home

I don’t think I’ve ever felt homesick whilst in Edinburgh before. Usually the stress of performing combined with the lifestyle that entails during the month means that I remain caught in a bubble whereby nothing from outside the Scottish city seems of importance. Last night though, I wished to be home in London more than ever. I’d have thought I’d have been glad to be so far away from such horrible senseless violence and destruction, but actually I just kept worrying about everyone I know in London, family, friends, and everywhere I know in London. Landmarks, shops, streets I regularly see and pass by, now scarred by fires and damage. Despite being out last night I stayed glued to Twitter and the BBC and Guardian updates, checking every two minutes, praying that it hadn’t spread to anywhere where people I knew were, and hoping it wouldn’t hit my area while I’m away and unable to secure my home anymore than it already is. As I saw it spread in 140 character updates I became genuinely concerned that it might never end. It felt so horribly dystopian, this heartless and materialistic looting, wondering how so many can have so few morals or care for others lives and property.

 

It’s interesting seeing where the blame is being passed today. There have been horrible comments by the BNP and many right-wing comments have been popping up on my Facebook feed condemning the thugs that are doing it. I don’t mean to excuse them from blame or at any point say that it a large part of it wasn’t just opportunistic gang violence, many jumping on the bandwagon merely to take part in the fracas. However, we have to wonder how they got to this mind set. How on Earth has the capital been allowed to get overrun by disillusioned youths? Why weren’t people protected and why wasn’t this stopped before it spread all over the UK? The blame, once again, can be easily pointed at the government. Youth and support centres have been closed en mass over the last few months, prospects for young people have got lower and lower as jobs and education is cut and with most public services being cut back you can’t help but link it to the rioters’ need for damage and destruction out of boredom and despair. As for protection, well the Metropolitan police force has had some severe cuts recently, due to the ‘debt’, in both officers and back room staff, so no wonder they were overwhelmed. Sadly there’s no shortage of gangs in London, so its an unfair equation. Yet the government that have caused it wouldn’t speak on Newsnight last night. The Prime Minister didn’t even consider coming back from holiday until it had already gone too far. They don’t care. The rioters are never going to break into their mansions in the Cotswalds are they? Of course not. You really have to wonder how we let people who have so little care for the citizens they are meant to be in charge of, run the country. I feel so genuinely sad about it all.

 

I honestly didn’t know what I’d wake up this morning on the news. I had terrible fear that it would be all over the country, with every city awash with fires and abandoned buildings. It seemed so final last night, a sign that things have now gone too far and too wrong, that I passed out with tiredness and a frown on my face. Getting up today I checked my phone within seconds and saw that @riotcleanup on Twitter was already organising a mass fixing of the damage. Various repair services saying they’ll help for free, coffee shops offering free food and drinks to those that help and people all over the city clubbing together with true ‘blitz spirit’ to help each other out. The bits of information about Turkish men in East London fighting off thugs to protect their area and various other members of communities sticking together to ward them off warmed me inside. Faith in humanity isn’t lost. While a truly horrible thing has happened what it seems to have shown that we do have power in numbers and sticking together is more important and useful than anything our failing government has and will do. This has got to be a sign that things need to change and I only hope that things don’t need to get worse before they get better. Really wish I was at home to help everyone and all that are have nothing but my utmost respect, whilst those that have suffered have all my sympathy.

 

I honestly don’t know what I’m going to say in my show today but doing a topical hour I feel I can’t just ignore it. Good luck everyone coming too see me at 1.45 today…..

No Wings

DAY WASTER

Some days I do lots. Other days I meet my friend Little J (this is not her real name but she was pulling a sickie so for the sake of this blog, she shall be given a hip hop style moniker), we sit opposite each other sending video messages to each others phones saying we smell of wee and then spend ages constructing a complaint letter to Red Bull due to its false claims about bestowing wings on those that drink it. Here is that letter. If we have no response by Friday we will write again:

Dear Bull People (minotaurs?)

After much discussion we (Little J and Tiernan) have come to the conclusion that no matter how much Red Bull a person drinks, they, at no point, will develop actual wings. We have witnessed several people drink it at various times with no obvious winged development. In the last few years we have seen several cars that have artificial Red Bull cans attached to them and are not able to fly like a plane.

In addition to this I (Tiernan) have had your sugar free brand as being diabetic the normal version would kill me, and still haven’t gained bird attributes. Little J hasn’t tried either types of drink but thinks she has enough evidence of our argument based on eye witness accounts, and is therefore our control in this study.

So we put it to you, Red Bull, that are you making false claims with your advertising and should instead advertise with slogans such as ‘Red Bull – it makes you really hyper active and then you have a sugar crash.’* If however you can prove us wrong with pictures and video records of those who have actually gained physical wings from your energy drink then we will rescind our claim and assume we are sub normal humans who aren’t capable of further evolution through mass sugar and caffeine intake.

* this has also been witness by Little J ‘The Control’ as being true.

All the very

Tiernan ‘No Wings’ Douieb and Little J ‘The Control’

HORNE-Y

I went to see the Horne Section last night. I have heard many many things about it and finally managed to get along. I have to say my verdict is that its truly brilliant. An excellent concept for a show with so many lovely silly ideas and ways to keep it going that the two hours flew by. As well as being in fits of laughter from Alex Horne and his excellent band (particular favourite was the Sidemen song) my high point was seeing Harry Hill live on stage for the first time since his Hooves tour many moons ago. Its great to say the man still very much has it and there is one joke that has me still giggling today. I used to be such a huge fan of the Hill, going to see him live a few times with my brother and watching his first show, Man Alive and First Class Scamp on constant repeat. ‘What are the chances?’, ‘Goal’ and various comments on the badger parade were regular diatribe around the house during my teenage years. I still think that aside from Stewart Lee’s show, there are no longer comedy vehicle’s such as the Harry Hill show where an act can have their world fully visualized for the screen in the way Harry did. It was so great to see him still on fire at the Lyric Theatre. Not literally on fire, that’d be odd. I returned home and straight away started watching the DVD copy of have of his first VHS, remembering all the many ways to transport different types of bird.

MORE ANGRY THINGS

I accidentally read a copy of The Telegraph on my way home last night and felt angry for the duration of the journey. A front page spread about how the police are certain the anarchists from Saturday’s march will target the Royal Wedding, as though Al-Aaeda should move aside on the list of police’s pointless priorities and let some people who shout through to possibly cause a minor irritation to a hugely pointless day. Then there was the comment from Boris Johnson referring to everyone at the march and condemning Milliband from speaking at a violent event. Anyone reading that piece of wasted tree will be convinced that the whole demonstration was a terrible occurrence when, as I said in my blog on Sunday and anyone there will tell you, it was far from it. Anyway, I don’t need to tell you such things, but what you should watch is this video proving that the UK Uncut protestors in Fortnum and Mason’s were promised safe passage by the police once leaving the shop, before they were kettled and arrested. I think it helps to prove that out of those 200 ‘trouble makers’ that were arrested, most of them weren’t causing a problem in anyway and its all part of a need for the Met to look like they’re doing something and to put those who willingly accept the media’s hyperdermic needle effect to win them over and never demonstrate again out of fear.

Have a watch and pass it on

Cuts protesters claim police tricked them into mass arrest – The Guardian