UK government’s crocodile tears over burning of Grenfell Tower effigy backfire
By
Robert Stevens
10 November 2018
Millions were sickened by a vile video of a group of backward racists burning an effigy of Grenfell Tower on bonfire night, November 5.
The cardboard model had cut out paper figures with brown faces, looking out of the tower windows, with the perpetrators making derogatory comments about Grenfell Tower residents. As it is set on fire, one participant is heard saying, “Help me, help me!” and “Jump out the window!” Another says to laughter, in a reference to the failed “stay put” policy of the fire brigade, “Stay in your flat, we are coming to get you.” In a reference to a woman wearing a niqab, one states, “The little ninja is getting it at the minute,” Another comments, “That’s what happens when they don’t pay their rent.”
According to reports, the video was circulated privately among those involved on WhatsApp, but soon ended up being posted on social media and going viral where it provoked widespread anger and condemnation.
The faces of many of those involved are seen in the video and five men from south and south-east London handed themselves in to the police on Monday night. Another man, aged 19, was arrested Tuesday after attending a south London police station. All six were arrested and charged on suspicion of a public order offence before being released under investigation.
Despite the abhorrent nature of the video, it is not clear that the perpetrators have committed any crime. Arrested under section 4a of the 1986 Public Order Act, a defence against prosecution can be made if the accused were inside a dwelling and had no reason to believe what they did would be heard or seen by people outside the dwelling.
It has since…