IT'S BEEN A FEW WEEKS...

What wonderful news!  Martyn Blake, a Metropolitan place officer, has been cleared of murdering a black man called Chris Kaba in September 2022.  His trial has been a long time coming.  Two years of his life has been put on hold. One can only imagine the awfulness of not knowing what could happen should he be found guilty.  Mr. Blake, along with all other armed officers, is on a hiding to nothing when confronted with gun-toting or knife-wielding aggressive and potentially life-threatening ne'er-do-wells.  The story of the build-up to the shooting is well documented and easily found on-line, so I won't be trawling through the 'in's and out's' of the case here.  What Mr. Blake and 99% of the indigenous English population are pleased about is the decision by the jury to come to a 'Not guilty' verdict.  Can you imagine the reaction should it have gone the way of the Kaba family and the black population in general?  Remember, 'black lives matter' and this is 'Black history month'. (the quicker October is passed and we're over such ridiculous nonsense, the better it will be.  I'm struggling to remember which month is dedicated to 'White history'?  Oh no!  There isn't one, is there, silly me...)

Ironically. the reason for the lack of postings over the past few weeks has been due in no small way to our own dealings with the Police regarding the death of our eldest son over five years ago.  The cause and reasons of our boy's passing has caused immense pain to family and all who knew him.  Not for him a life of violent crime and high-speed chases, but a case not helped by an investigation - actually, a lack of investigation - from the very start.  We are only now being taken seriously.  It has been a long haul and still getting there, but getting there we are.  

Robert Jenrick, one of the two finalists in the 'Let's elect a leader who might get us Tories re-elected in five years' competition, described Mr. Blake as a 'hero'. He is not wrong, and so say all of us!  The dead man's family, speaking outside the Old Bailey described the verdict as being 'painful proof that our lives are not valued by the system'. There is a 'deep pain of injustice' apparently,  Other comments include: 'The acquittal of Martyn Blake isn't just a failure for our family. but for all those affected by police violence', and the family vow 'not to be silenced'.  That last statement was always on the cards, the continual bleating by the black 'community' is a cross no society should have to bear, but bear it we do, such is the burden of the natives living within our sceptic isles!. Perhaps the system they would prefer is one which would allow anyone driving a car known to have been involved in a firearms incident only the night before, refusing to stop when requested and subsequently attempting to escape from the police as 'Boys being boys'? 

This Kaba chap is not somebody one would have invited home for afternoon tea. He was not a nice man, despite the glowing rose-tinted descriptions of him by ever-so-slightly biased family members and friends.,  He was charged in 2018 with possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.  Found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2019 he was sentenced to four years in a Young Offenders Institute, costing the British taxpayer a fortune in keeping him fed and watered.  What a waste of money!  He was released in 2021.  If made to serve the full term he would still have been within the institute walls and not been available that night and/or following morning for any nefarious activities.  

Vigils were held last night,  but then they would be, wouldn't they.  Doubtless there will be demonstrations with loud voices, blasting through loudspeakers in an accent suggesting the anti-police diatribe is coming directly from Jamaica, or some other former West Indian colony as opposed to Hyde Park, the Old Bailey or Downing Street. They will be held for all to savour or decry depending upon one's sense of justice, but more likely one's colour.

During various conversations with serving and retired police officers from different forces about the handling of our own case, it has been interesting to note that on three separate occasions, I have been informed that if our name had been 'Lawrence' or we were black, the investigation would have taken an entirely different course and far more effort would have been made to ascertain the reason for our boy's death. 

We are all equal, but some are more equal than others.  The irony is that that those who feel rejected, discriminated against and aggrieved based upon their colour, are those who receive the authorities' attention due to their propensity to spend their lives involved in crime.  Read the statistics.  We do not have a greater number of black prisoners in relation to the population without reason.  I just wish members of the ethnic 'community' would stand back and see the bigger picture and come to terms with reality instead of their continual whinging and denial of their own shortcomings.  An Englishman and English woman's lot is not a happy one, but do we moan?  Well yes, obviously, but with wit, humour and a sense of proportion.  Without which, we are lost as a nation!