Matt Ashby

@StevenBillingh5 @Jonathan_K_Cook Except they were convicted by a jury. They were sentenced by a judge, as even convicted person is.

@Jonathan_K_Cook This whole case should be gravely concerning. It sets a precedent of the government becoming judge, jury & executioner. They are using the whole criminal justice system as a means of retribution rather than allowing it to be an independent instrument of justice.

There are lots of people on here drinking the security services Kool Aid over the sentencing of the Filton Four. They believe the judge was right to overturn the jury's decision to convict four anti-genocide activists of criminal damage and make it a terrorism offence instead, overturning centuries of legal precedent. Why? Because, they claim, the four activists broke / smashed / shattered a police woman's spine. But that obviously can't be the explanation because three of the activists had nothing to do with that incident and yet they were convicted as terrorists by the judge anyway. Even Samuel Corner, the activist who was convicted over this incident (which left the police woman with a minor fracture, according to the medical authorities who testified), shouldn't have been sentenced as a terrorist for it because that is not what the jury, which heard the actual evidence, decided. The jury convicted Samuel Corner of grievous bodily harm *without intent*. The prosecution had charged him with GBH *with intent* because they needed that as his conviction to build a public mood in support of the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. If Corner could be presented as having entered Israel's Elbit weapons factory with intent to commit violence, then the implication would be that the other activists were in on that plan – a conspiracy – and the government would be off the hook of violating fundamental legal norms by proscribing Palestine Action. By stripping out intent, the jury pulled the rug from under the government's feet. Judge Johnson's task was put the rug firmly back in place by riding roughshod over the jury's decision and sentencing them as terrorists anyway. The timing couldn't be more convenient. On Monday, the Appeal Court will be deciding on the government's appeal against the High Court declaring its proscription of Palestine Action unlawful. If you're peddling the "But they smashed the back of a police woman" line you've been fed by the Daily Mail and BBC, it's because that is exactly what the government needs you spouting as it upends our age-old rights to jury trials, as it stamps out an honourable tradition of direct action dating back to the Suffragettes and before, and as it gives itself cover for continuing complicity in a genocide. Stop being a cuck. Don't fall for this psy-op.

@Glen_Binnie The census data doesn’t tell us why people who speak different languages choose to live in different areas. And I’m afraid I don’t know whether any Gurkha units have ever been based at Woolwich barracks.

@LessCrime Can you explain how Greenwich became a hotbed of Nepalese? Are they all ex-Gurkhas?

I've been seeing this map all week across social media, but quite a few things about it are wrong (no Southwark, two Bexleys) that suggest it's been AI generated without checking the details. So I created a version based on the actual census data:

Domestic abuse victims who’re themselves police officers/staff (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) report receiving worse support from police than other victims, eg because investigators expect them to be more resilient than other victims, so they’re denied proper support. crimrxiv.com/pub/timmqdqx

@Brick_Cop Quite a few studies have previously shown organisational stress in officers in general is higher than operational stress, so that's not new (this study looked specifically at SIOs). Unfortunately that evidence doesn't seem to have made much difference.

@LessCrime It’s like we’ve been saying this for years and years and years. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Senior detectives leading major investigations (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) find organisational causes of stress (eg lack of resources, excessive internal bureaucracy) more stressful than outside causes (eg traumatic events, court delays, poor work–life balance). tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

🧵New polling looks at the public reaction to Henry Nowak's murder, police failings and more general views about policing. Along with focus groups, its v.clear whatever people think of wider issues Henry's murder and the police response have shaken many Brits

@petrichorror @basculerascule @yoongiatsume And, of course, it’s possible to search the epub version for the quoted text in any case.

@basculerascule @yoongiatsume i guess but when i worked as a professor i had students using different formats and editions all the time if it wasn't on page 7 if was probably on page 8 it wasn't that hard to find

DO NOT CONVERT MY TEXTBOOKS AND ARTICLES INTO EPUBS. I NEED THOSE PAGE NUMBERS WHEN I CITE FROM THE TEXT ARE YOU MAD

@RoseTho57679356 @southlondonjohn @FarRightD @jomickane @lionheart1451 When people under arrested arrive a police station, they are searched and handcuffs (if used) are removed. After that it’s perfectly normal for detainees to move around the custody suite (under escort) without handcuffs. It’s also normal for them to be offered a choice of food.

@southlondonjohn @FarRightD @jomickane @lionheart1451 It’s not about him being fed. It’s about him being able to walk around the police station uncuffed, choosing his food like he’s some sort of visitor going to the canteen.

This is on the Hampshire Police website. We know this isn't true. It says the handcuffs were removed, an ambulance was called & officers had started CPR.... The bodycam footage shows an officer calling the ambulance whilst Henry is still handcuffed and another officer says his pupils arent responding. None of them seemed concerned

@NABurkinshaw The Epilepsy Society says ‘brainstorming’ is fine epilepsysociety.org.uk/about-epilepsy…

For writing, first using the genAI tools to copy-edit should be relatively uncontroversial. They can do things beyond just identifying spelling errors, but give grammatical feedback as well. You can just tell the tools review this writing and give me back a list of potential copy-edits. They tend to be very high quality in my experience, so anyone saying "don't use it like this" is just sticking their head in the sand.

I just realised that the first time my language was policed was when I was teaching and I was told off for using the term "brain-storming" because it had some clinical meaning as well. My minor rebellion today is going to be to bring it back (I hate "mind-dump").

@PeterMoskos @JaneParkway I think if NYC spent that money to put more cops on trains that would almost certainly do more for passenger safety than having a conductor sitting in a compartment. Especially on the new open gangway trains where officers can see much farther down the train.

@LessCrime @JaneParkway I think it would be more effective in terms of safety to replace 2 conductors with 1 cop. But I still want 2 workers on a long train in case of emergency, regardless.

Remember: two-person train crews are good (for most subways in NYC). Mandating it in state law is bad. Would you want a one person flight crew on a big 747? There are more emergencies in the NYC subway than all the airlines flights in the world (Probably).

@m4k4_7 @bozhobg @PeteHegseth Amazing how brazen the boats are …

@bozhobg @PeteHegseth The boats are actually on the Danube. Migrants land on the Mediterranean shores, they move north inland, but they find the rotten West so rotten that they are then forced to migrate eastward over the Danube. Straight from the secretary's Palantír WhatsApp group chat.

@PeteHegseth Mr. Secretary, I'm sure the US intelligence community is well informed that there are no migrant boats on the beaches of Bulgaria. I urge you to correct your statement, as it may have negative impact on Bulgaria. Please find attached a map of the migrant flows. Best Regards, Bozhidar Bozhanov Member of Bulgarian parliament

@PeterMoskos @JaneParkway Not sure that analogy stacks up, does it? 33 extra bullets per officer do not cost over £100k per year every year, but each conductor on a Subway train does. I’m sure you can think of many other ways to spend that money to improve transit safety.

@LessCrime @JaneParkway An analogy could be made in requiring police to carry extra magazines of ammunition. I felt that if the first 17 bullets were not enough, having another 33 would be totally inadequate. I still think it was good to carry 50.

@PeterMoskos @JaneParkway That’s not what I’m saying – please read my post again. Essentially my point is that a second person onboard isn’t a good way to spend the safety budget. You can spend that money in much more effective ways.

@LessCrime @JaneParkway Obviously 2 people isn't enough to handle most any emergency involving >1,000 passengers on an 8-10 car train. But the idea that since 2 isn't enough therefore 1 is fine? I mean, come on now.

@MrTCHarris In your view, should police take reasonable steps to make sure that their actions don’t make historical social harms worse? Or to make sure they aren’t perpetuating those harms?

"The job of the police is to catch criminals and prevent crime not to address historic social harms." Quite.

@PeterMoskos @JaneParkway London Underground phased out their final guards (conductors) in 2000. Of all the incidents I’ve responded to on Underground trains, I can’t think of any that couldn’t either have been adequately managed by one person or (eg train evacuation) needed quite a few more than two.

@JaneParkway 1 driver and 1 cop would be better than 1 driver and 1 conductor. Only 1 driver is not safe.

@Beegie_B @FraserNelson All your points probably sound very impressive to the uninitiated, but most of them are rubbish. The arrest data don’t “exclude the highest density areas” and the crime trends he uses aren’t affected by changes in reporting over time because they’re taken from the Crime Survey.

Confounding variables: - you conflate migration with immigration - you do not adjust for changes in reporting methodologies over time - you do not look at the changes in crime distribution over time - you arrest rate data excludes the highest density areas with some of the highest levels of petty crime - you have endpoint selection bias where you can pick arbitrary points in a time-series to try to frame your argument These are just a few... I could go on

It's not just the exploitation of a tragedy. JD Vance's picture of Britain - where migrants have led to a crime surge - is the opposite of the truth. comment.press/vance1234

@Hrushworth What Canary Wharf does not have is any sort of democratic decision-making. Which may be why an autocratic government bought it, but probably doesn’t make it a very good model for development in the rest of England.

I do think there is something to be said about fully adopting parish councils London wide and allowing them to seize district level powers if they wish. Canary Wharf is sort of a mini council; owns all of its land, has its only roads, waste system, private security, etc…