Thursday, April 3, 2008

Another school dress code battle - Mohawks

You might think it was about punks but no this time its the American football team.


Banning mohawks, upholding dress code is a smart decision
PennLive.com, PA
When everyone from offensive linemen to punks and Goths choose to thumb the same nose at authority -- or to band together in solidarity?

Hail Mary pass for mohawks cut down
The Express Times, PA - 31 Mar 2008
By COLIN MCEVOY The school board voted 5-3 Monday against removing a specific reference in the school dress code that prohibits the pointed hairstyle.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Prime Minister on Youth Crime plus other effects

Brown pledge to beat youth culture Manchester Evening News, April 1st

GORDON Brown has vowed to root out guns, gangs and knives in a bid to end teenage yob violence. Speaking in the wake of the brutal killings of student Sophie Lancaster and father Gary Newlove, he said his government was doing `everything in its power' to make people feel safer.Mr Newlove was attacked outside his Warrington home after confronting a gang of teenagers about vandalism. His head was said to have been `kicked like a football'.Sophie Lancaster, 20, and her boyfriend Robert Maltby were attacked by a gang in a Rossendale park - both were left in a coma and she later died.

Mr Brown said that the government's policy of neighbourhood policing was intended to create a visible presence on the streets, but on top of that, expert cops would take the lead on what he called these `difficult and heinous crimes'.He said it was right to have high-profile policing on the streets as a deterrent."As for these terrible crimes of violence, we are doing everything in our power to root out guns, gangs and knives," he told the M.E.N."We will take action against pubs, clubs or hotels selling to underaged people, or allowing them to drink, so that people generally can feel safer."There must be a presumption that people who carry knives are prosecuted." Mr Brown said new contracts would be drawn up between local people and police, giving residents more say on how anti-social behaviour and drugs are tackled.Mr Brown and Home Secretary Jackie Smith kicked off Labour's local election campaign, announcing an increase in neighbourhood police schemes.Shadow Home Secretary David Davis called this `a gimmick' and the Lib Dem's Chris Huhme said the answer was to put more police on the beat.

In Rossendale there is a move to stop youth drinking in parks as a result of
Sophie's death. Why now after the trial? Why not 6 months ago?
Call to ban alcohol in parks after Sophie's murder
This Is Lancashire, UK - 30 Mar 2008

It seems it may have been appeals by local media which helped in the naming of the acccused after the trial:
'Goth' murderers named thanks to court appeal by media
HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk, UK - 31 Mar 2008


In Burnley Sophie's death and another recent murder involving teenagers has lead to questions over park safety and new plans for improved safety.

Security measures planned for parks Burnley Express, April 1st
Are Burnley's parks safe? Burnley Express, 31 Mar 2008

Kerrang has very busy comment news on the Sophie trial.

More Corporate seizure of open space

An article in the Guardian notes how massive redevelopment seems to target areas favoured by alternative shops and people.

Cities for sale
Guardian, Saturday March 29 2008
Paul Kingsnorth

Liverpool - Architecturally, the Paradise Project will certainly be an improvement on what went before: something the city council, and the developer it is working with, is trumpeting from the roof-tops. What they are less keen to trumpet is that Paradise requires the first privatisation of a city centre anywhere in England.
Liverpool city council has sanctioned the corporate enclosure of the 42-acre city-centre site, which encompasses 34 streets and a public park. The development company Grosvenor, owned by the Duke of Westminster, the country's third-richest man, has been given a 250-year lease on this area. Grosvenor, with the enthusiastic blessing of the council, is putting into practice the kind of massive, consumer-focused re-engineering of the landscape previously seen only in private malls such as Bluewater...

The thing that bothers Don, apart from the Paradise Project itself, is that
no one else in Liverpool seems to care. Perhaps no one in Liverpool: Don is from
Manchester. About the only other significant opposition to the Paradise Project
comes from the place where we're headed now - Quiggins.
Quiggins is a three-storey shopping centre. A Liverpool institution, it's a chaos of clothes shops for teenage goths, secondhand clothes, furniture and books. It's about to be demolished to make way for Paradise. Quiggins' founders, brothers John and
Peter Tierney, set up the centre 18 years ago as a conscious attempt to keep alternative culture alive in an increasingly corporate city centre. They kept
rents deliberately low, and provided a space for creative talent to flourish.
The city council says it will find Quiggins another home, but the brothers are
not satisfied. "Quiggins is committed to Liverpool's cultural industry and has
been since its formation..." they write on their website. "It houses 45 local businesses, employing 25 local people, all helping to recycle within our local
economy." It doesn't matter much what the brothers say, though. Quiggins has
already had a compulsory purchase order issued against it.
In the noisy, wholefood cafe on Quiggins' third floor, Don and I sit down to talk. "It took me a long time, and a lot of correspondence with the developers and the council, before they finally admitted what was happening with this project," he says.
"There was a very low-key public announcement - you had to know where to look to
find it - that they were removing the rights of way from 33 streets in the city
centre. It took a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, but I finally got them to admit to
me that they were replacing these rights of way with something called 'public
realm agreements.' " He looks at me with raised eyebrows.
"Well, I'd never heard of these things, so I kept pressing them, and it turned out that these 'public realm agreements' would give the public very limited access to the
streets, on Grosvenor's terms." They would be within their rights, Don tells me,
to begin access half an hour before the shops opened and end it half an hour
after they closed. There would be nothing to say that they had to allow you in
outside those times. "Remember, these are streets - this is not some private
shopping centre. Yet now you will have no right to use them unless you're
shopping. While the public are winning new rights of access in the countryside,
they're having these rights taken away in towns and cities."


Quiggins was the Liverepool equivalent of Camden and the Leeds Corn Exchange both recently "improved". There was a massive campaign in Liverpool over its move.

Meanwhile in Camden...

H&M on the High Street, but what’s in store for old market?
Camden New Journal, - 13 Mar 2008

FASHION giant H&M has confirmed it will move into Camden High Street next month, sparking fears its arrival could threaten Camden Town’s vintage market

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Goth - Media examination

An article celebrates goth's survival and discusses what goth is it also highlights Glasgow council prejudice against teenagers. [noted previously here Glasgow - Alternative teens banned from public place]

A light in the dark
Scotsman,

Kit, an 18-year-old Glaswegian goth, believes prejudice against the youth tribe is widespread. "Everywhere we go there are always people who don't like us," she says. "When I sit on a bus people will stare and shout things at me just because I'm dressed in black.

"I have friends who have been cornered and threatened because people don't like how they were dressed. Because of the area I live and people's hostile reaction I have to tone down what I wear.

"It makes absolutely no sense because we are not a threat to anyone."

The articulate teenager, who wears a skull necklace, was one of dozens of goths who were angered when Glasgow City Council recently barred them from their favourite hangout at Royal Exchange Square. Steps between Borders bookshop and the Gallery of Modern Art were cordoned off and security guards brought in. A council spokesman said large gatherings of teenagers were intimidating visitors to a "premier shopping location".


Thhis important article talks to Manchester goths who reveal an ongoing saga of facing prejudice.

Sophie Lancaster: Goths speak out
Manchester Evening News, UK - 28 Mar 2008

Sophie - More News

Long interview with Sophie's mother:
Mother of murdered Sophie: 'After looking into the thugs' eyes, I ...
Daily Mail,

Goth girl kicked to death: Grief stricken mum's sadness
Sunday People, UK

Columnist on Sophie:
We indulge yobs - and murdered Sophie Lancaster pays the price
Times Online, 29 Mar 2008


Interesting article on Bacup:

Sophie's murder prompts violence fall
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 28 Mar 2008
Police in Bacup have dealt with just one incident of violence involving alcohol-fuelled teens since 20-year-old Sophie was murdered last August.

Goth kill: Mums in hiding
The Sun, UK - 28 Mar 2008
By BEN ASHFORD

THE mums of two feral yobs who murdered Goth student Sophie Lancaster were in hiding last night.

Cops slammed the “appalling” parenting of Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, who stamped on Sophie, 20, because of her fashion taste.

When The Sun confronted both women, they refused to talk.

Herbert’s mum Christine, 49, peered through her window but wouldn’t come to the door of her smart semi in Bacup, Lancs.

Harris’s mum Martine McGuinn — who had laughed as cops quizzed her son — ran into her terraced home and stayed holed up all day.

Harris was convicted on Thursday of Sophie’s murder and GBH on her boyfriend Robert Maltby, 20.

Herbert had admitted murder. They will be sentenced in April.



Emo Wars - Update

Problems spread to just south of the Texas border.

Police raise vigilance after 'emos' incident
El Paso Times, TX - 27 Mar 2008
By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times


A confrontation in the upscale Las Misiones mall between teenage cliques of "emos" and "punks" on Wednesday night has Juárez police officials stepping in and asking for tolerance.

The mall incident, which police said might have been sparked by an exchange of words, might have been a copycat of highly publicized attacks on emos by mobs in Queretaro and Mexico City.

Juárez public safety secretary Guillermo Prieto Quintana in a news statement on Thursday said the police anti-gang unit would increase patrols at teen hangouts to discourage problems.

Prieto Quintana said that Mexico's northern border has traditionally been tolerant of all types of expressions, and he urged teens to respect others' right to self-expression.

The emo is a style and musical offshoot of punk music. Emos often sport dark hair covering part of their faces, dark clothing and an emotional outlook that has been described by some as effeminate, which might have fueled the mob attacks in the macho culture of Mexico.

The attacks on emos in Mexico have gained international attention, with television news airing videos filmed by the punch-throwing mobs chanting, "Kill the emos." On Thursday, Time magazine's Web site had a report titled "Mexico's Emo-Bashing Problem."


Latest from Daniel Hernandez:

It was supposed to have been a multi-tribe peaceful march for tolerance for the emos, from the Glorieta de Insurgentes to the one-and-only El Chopo street market, where for 25 years nearly every branch of alternative youth culture in Mexico City has gathered on Saturdays. Nevermind. It failed.

On a hot and rainy day here, emos arrived to El Chopo and were received with nasty resistance from some punks, skinheads, and darketos. It should have been expected. At the start of the march, I barely saw a single sympathetic member of any another tribu urbana.
In Mexico, violence against a youth subculture known as the emos ...
Los Angeles Times, CA - 28 Mar 2008


The YouTube Generation gets violent; “emos” shaking in their Chucks
Michigan Daily, MI - 27 Mar 2008

Even Perez Hilton has covered it:

And The Attacks Continue

Just Leave The Little Emo Kids Alone!



A number of online sources seem to blame the conservative feelings of Mexicans (with a thinly veiled feelings of racial prejudice) for the attacks. That indeed may be part of the problem but what sparked it off ultimately is in fact anti-emo trends which originated outside Mexico which have been documented on this site.

Meanwhile in Australia emos are abusing scene kids.

Inside the clash of the teen subcultures
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 29 Mar 2008
Because the movement is still young, emos and Scene kids often find themselves battling for territory. EJ said she, Kirra and Eliza received abuse from emos

Friday, March 28, 2008

Sophie - More reports

The Verdict coincided with a detailed report on Teen drinking.

Toll of teenage drinking revealed BBC News

Teenagers are drinking an average of 44 bottles of wine or 177 pints of beer a year each, a study suggests.

Almost 10,000 15-to-16-year-olds in the North West of England were questioned as part of the study into underage drinking and violence.

The report, produced by Liverpool John Moores University, found as many as 40% of teenagers in poor areas binge drink.

Recent high-profile murders in the region were carried out by teenagers who had been drinking heavily.

On Thursday, Brendan Harris, 15, was convicted of murdering 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster in a Lancashire park after drinking two litres of cider, peach schnapps and lager.


For Sophie's sake, Can It
Mirror.co.uk,

One thing is certain drink played a role in the crime. It fuelled the development of an underlying hostility into extreme violence.

Interesting to note while the "chav" word is absent from most coverage while it is ominpresent in internet discussions. In Glasgow however the Ned word is used more readily.

Drunken neds killed woman because she was a goth
Glasgow Daily Record,

We must remmber of course is that while some of the "chav" teenagers attacked others in the exactly the same group called the emergency services and tried to save Sophie's life. It is not "chavs" as a whole who are to blame but a violent minority within that group. Hating all "chavs" shows a level of intolerance which is no better than he hate they show.

One of the more interesting online discussions:

Drowned in Sound - Features - The Weekly DiScussion: wearing your ...



Remembering Sophie Lancaster - The Campaign


Sophie - The Verdict - Guilty


Sophie Lancaster 'was killed for being a Goth'
Sophie Lancaster was so badly injured that paramedics had difficulty telling what sex she was

Loads of coverage to examine it was reported in depth in all major papers and news channels here so here are the high points:

Major articles include:

The haunting last picture of the battered face of Sophie Lancaster ...
Daily Mail,

Photo of Sophie in hospital is front page on the Sun today.
Battered ... Sophie Lancaster lies in a coma after being beaten by ...
The Sun,

Teenager guilty of goth murder
The Independent

Police slam defendants' parents
Lancashire Evening Telegraph,

Very sad interview with Robert:
Sophie's boyfriend: I wish gang had killed me instead
Lancashire Evening Telegraph,
Anger of park attack survivor
BBC News,

Killer posed with baseball bat
Manchester Evening News,

Interview with Sophie's mum.
Sophie's mum begs for 'respect'
Manchester Evening News,

A few articles focus on the goth connection:

Sophie's brutal murder unites Goths against 'hate crime'
24dash, UK

This important BBC interview with Ade Varney focuses in the hate crimes petition which has gained over 1000 signatures in the last day.
The darker side of life as a Goth
BBC News

The Verdict of the trial has gone onto international news wires like Reuters and has been reported in New Zealand on TV, and in Austria with more to come.

Anti- Emo violence spreads to Chile

More coverage of this major problem.

Emo kids attacked in Mexico and Chile
NME.com, UK -

Pokemon are not the same as emo from what I make out. Similar but not identical.

Mexico's Emo-Bashing Problem
TIME -

Daniel Hernandez's blog, Intersections, which has extensively covered the incidents:

The spark came first in Queretaro on March 7. An estimated 800 young people poured into the city's Centro Historico hunting for emos to beat the crap out of. They found some. The next weekend it spread to Mexico City, where emos faced off against punks and rockabillies at the Glorieta de Insurgents, the epicenter of emo social space in the capital. There's also been reports of anti-emo violence in Durango, Colima, and elsewhere...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Risky to be an Emo?

Usual stereotypes apply in this article which reports the authorities being plain stupid. Of course the real risk in being an Emo is going to Mexico or facing a barrag of misunderstanding and lies.

The Macon County Board of Education voted at Monday's meeting at Highlands School to present a "risky behaviors" program to all of the county's students in grades five and above.

The vote followed a presentation by Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland, who showed the board and audience members a revised version of the program that was presented at Franklin High School several weeks ago. The presentation was created following the Feb. 25 death of Macon Middle School student Sarah Beck. Beck died from what is known as the "choking game," which also claimed the life of a Jackson County teen five months ago.

"We should have taken notice five months ago, and we didn't," Holland said.

The presentation will be shown to fifth graders as part of the DARE program, and it will be available by appointment for upper grades from the sheriff's office. The presentation is about 45 minutes long, and it includes information on the choking game as well as inhalants, misuse of over-the-counter drugs and the EMO culture, also known as goth, in which participants are encouraged to cut themselves.



Board OKs program on risky behavior
Franklin Press, NC 25 Mar 2008





Sophie Trial - Accused denies attacking Sophie

Witnesses praised for helping Sophie
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 26 Mar 2008

BBC NEWS | England | Lancashire | Boy blamed over fatal park attack: "March 25th"


Sophie murder accused: I threw the first punch
This Is Lancashire, UK - 21 hours ago
By Camilla Sutcliffe THE teenager accused of murdering Sophie Lancaster admitted throwing the first punch at her boyfriend, but claimed he took no further ...

Teen 'volley-kicked' Sophie
Manchester Evening News, UK - 20 hours ago
A 15-year-old boy told a jury that he did not murder `Goth' girl Sophie Lancaster in a park. But he admitted punching her boyfriend, Manchester art student .

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Mosher attacked in Rochdale

The Sophie campaign has highlighted a new attack:

"John was attacked last week and I warn you this is very disturbing

his friend has been in touch to say he was attacked for being a "Mosher" and wants to work with us on the S.O.P.H.I.E. CAMPAIGN

we send him our very best wishes for a speedy recovery

please sign the

Hate Crime Extension Bill
on our site, remember there is only 3 more days

please pass this on, we have to MAKE A NOISE ."

Gang laughed as they kicked me ... I could have died'
Rochdale Observer 22/ 3/2008

A GANG of thugs laughed as they kicked, stamped and jumped on a man’s head as he walked home from a party.

John Owen said he pleaded with the gang to stop but they continued their relentless assault, beating him unconscious before leaving him on a grass verge.



Sunday, March 23, 2008

Emos under attack in Mexico - rumours of cruxifiction

Sounds like there are some serious problems in Mexico:

Emos under attack
Austin American-Statesman, TX 20 Mar 2008

In the last couple of weeks, a particular subculture of Mexican youths, who dub themselves “emos,” have come under violent attack throughout the country. Two weeks ago in the otherwise quiet colonial capital of Queretaro, mobs of kids attacked the emos in an attempt to force them out of the city’s main plaza. A week later, the violence arrived in Mexico City, when emos who hang out at the Insurgentes Metro stop were attacked by gangs of punks and soccer fans. Rumors of more attacks in Mexico City and the northern state of Durango are floating around the Internet.

So who are these emos, and why so much hate? Emos here in Mexico are bound by a specific fashion style (black clothes, tight jeans, huge bangs, black eye makeup) and ideology: according to several Internet sources, a strong chord of sadness, depression and sense of being misunderstood by the larger society runs through emo thought. Bands like Good Charlotte are emo favorites. And self mutilation is apparently common among kids heavily into the emo scene.

Anger against the emos has come from many quarters: punks and goths who think emos are ripping off their culture, homophobes who don’t find emos masculine enough, and those who simply seem threatened by a group that is so different than the mainstream.
In Mexico, attacks on ‘emo’ teens raise tolerance concerns
Sierra Vista Herald, AZ March 23rd

Published on Sunday, March 23, 2008

MEXICO CITY — Ever since he first discovered “emo” music five years ago, 17-year-old Emmanuel Huerta has been making regular two-hour trips from his home in the sprawling suburbs outside Mexico City to the capital’s Glorieta Insurgentes, a concrete plaza and transportation hub on the southern fringe of the free-thinking Zona Rosa neighborhood.

There, he hangs out with other teens who dress in black, peg their jeans tightly to their legs, comb their bangs down over their eyes and listen to emo-core, an offshoot of punk rock that emphasizes powerful emotions like love, rejection and depression rather than punk’s traditional expressions of political and social discontent.


Emmanuel Huerta, right, stands with his friends Antonio Garcia, center, and Oscar Medina at the Glorieta Insurgentes, a popular meeting place for “emo” teens, on Friday. (Jonathan Clark-Special to the Herald/Review)
“We share our feelings, talk about bands we like, and just hang out together and have fun, like any other kids,” Huerta said of his days at the plaza.

But lately, life at Glorieta Insurgentes hasn’t been so much fun for the “emos,” as Huerta and his friends are called. Other teens have been posting messages to Internet blogs that ridicule the emos for their sentimentality, many accusing them of being gay. Videos filled with homophobic language and violent imagery have popped up on YouTube with Spanish titles that translate as “How to kill an emo” and “We declare war on you, emos.”

Then, on March 8, in an apparent response to a call to arms circulated on the Internet, an estimated 200 teens descended on a square in the central city of Querétaro and pummeled a group of emos with pipes and sticks....

On Wednesday, acting under orders from Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City Police Chief Joel Ortega announced he was instructing his officers to be more sensitive to the emos, and he called on the city’s punks and Goths to be more accepting as well.

“We are making a call for tolerance with this group of emos, even if they are a minority, because there are other kids who, because of their ideals, are also in the process of forming splinter groups,” he told reporters.


The day after Ortega’s announcement, rumors began to circulate of an attack on the emos planned for Good Friday at the Glorieta Insurgentes.

According to media reports, someone had been posting solicitations to come “crucify” the emos that day at 3 p.m., the same time that Jesus died on the cross at Calvary.

Ortega responded by dispatching hundreds of police to the plaza to stand guard over the few dozen kids, including Emmanuel Huerta, who decided to brave the threat.
Mexican news report This is one of many videos on the subject on you tube:




Kill All Emos?
antiMUSIC.com, CA - 13 Mar 2008



It is sad to think these attacks span out of the sort of stupid anti emo prejudice found online a problem pointed out here a while ago.

Thread here at Bizarre...










It’s Sex, Not Politics

Newsweek reports that Chile has problems with androgynous, gender bending, pierced teenagers having Pokemon themed oral sex orgies. True???

Chile: It’s Sex, Not Politics | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

The teens call their public orgies ponceo. On a typical Friday afternoon in the Chilean capital of Santiago, hundreds gather in a leafy urban park for a few hours of sexual experimentation. Surrounded by passing strollers, they trade partners multiple times—mostly engaging in anonymous rounds of oral sex. When the party is over, no contact information is exchanged. Same-gender interactions are commonplace, as the lines between hetero- and homosexuality are blurred, partly by the alcohol and drugs consumed, but also by shifting social mores held by Chilean youth, in contrast to their conservative parents. "Ponceo is about having fun," says Natalia Fernandez, a 15-year-old with pink hair and a pierced chin. "This time I had seven partners."

Not true according to someone from Chile:

Pokemones Are Not Oral Sexy Obsessed, Just Kissing Crazy
Kotaku.com, NY 19 Mar 2008



Saturday, March 22, 2008

Emo Jock clash at Priest River Lamanna High school

Altercation prompts gun rumors at PRLHS
Bonner County Daily Bee

Posted: Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - 09:06:42 am PDT
By NICK IVIE
Hagadone News Network


PRIEST RIVER - A suspected gun threat at Priest River Lamanna High School was quickly downgraded in the wake of rumors of possible problems Thursday.

After an off-campus altercation over the weekend sent a teenager to the hospital for stitches, fears spread of possible retaliation. A few parents opted to keep students home until the situation was resolved.

Threats of guns and knives escalated to the point where a student was reportedly carrying a type of pottery cleaning tool for protection. Reports of the threats spread through e-mails and text messages Wednesday evening, even disrupting the scheduled school board meeting.

Some students at the school felt the incident may have ties to last month's suicide death of a local teenager.


“They think he killed himself because of the jocks and the way everyone picked on him,” said one student. “The ‘jocks' and ‘emos' were going to have a fight today, then one kid supposedly had a gun and some others had knives so they're all staying in their classrooms.”

“Emo” typically refers to an expressive genre of rock music. Fans of such bands are also known for their distinctive style of dress and grooming habits.

The deceased teen was not a student at PRLHS for the last year and was working at a local mill at the time of his death.

West Bonner County Superintendent Mike McGuire said staff has been dealing with the friction between the students.

“We have been emphasizing that the students let go of this because it doesn't honor his life,” he said. “We hadn't realized how far just a few students were taking their beliefs and it just got crazy last night. There was a real fear between adults and students alike and we did everything we could to ease the fear.”

McGuire said PRLHS Principal Brad Madison met with staff after school and additional security measures will be continued.

The small group of students are not in school at present, but according to McGuire, are not suspended either. It was thought best on all parts that they stay away from school grounds, he added.

McGuire emphasized the situation stems from a small number of students and the district will not tolerate fear ruining the rest of the school year for others.

He stressed that no weapons were found on the school premises.

“There might be a lot of upcoming discipline to squash what is going on. All this drama is not good for anyone and we will respond appropriately,” McGuire said.
Interesting comments at the site.


Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sophie trial update

Sophie accused says he only threw one punch
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 19 Mar 2008
... the 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies any involvement in the death of Sophie Lancaster despite bloodstains on his shoes.

Murder victim 'posed for picture' seconds before attack
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 18 Mar 2008
By Sally Henfield SOPHIE Lancaster and Robert Maltby posed for a picture moments before they were attacked in a skate park, a jury was told. ..

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Sophie Trial latest

No internet access for the past few days hence lack of updates. Sophie case continues to get lots of coverage with local press providing the most detail:

BBC NEWS | England | Lancashire | Court witness reveals killer's id

Tearful mum flees murder trial
The Sun, UK 17th March

Witness 'saw accused kicking Sophie in head'
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 14 Mar 2008
By Charlotte Bradshaw A TEENAGER told the jury he saw the defendant kicking Sophie Lancaster in the head during the skate park attack that led to her death.

Pathologist details Sophie's 'horrific' injuries
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 14 Mar 2008
Sophie Lancaster suffered 17 different injuries during the attack in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, including a head wound where her scalp was split open.

'How I tried to stop Sophie’s bleeding’
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 14 Mar 2008
By Charlotte Bradshaw A TEENAGE witness has told how he stemmed the flow of blood from Sophie Lancaster's face. The boy, 16, told Preston Crown Court that ...

Girl in tears as she tells of fear of ‘Bacup lot’
Lancashire Evening Telegraph, UK - 14 Mar 2008
By Charlotte Bradshaw A TEARFUL 15-year-old girl has told of the night Sophie Lancaster and Robert Maltby were attacked.






Another punk killed in Russia

Neo-Nazi attacks in Russia claimed another victim. We reported on the attempted bombing/ attacks by Russian Neo Nazis earlier. This is about the fourth punk/SHARP killed by neo-nazis in Russia.

Teenager Stabbed to Death in Gang Attack
The Moscow Times

A teenager has been stabbed to death in an attack possibly organized by Spartak Moscow football fans on the Internet.

The 16-year-old boy died in a "mass brawl" near the Kitai-Gorod metro station on Sunday evening, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said Monday.

"A murder case has been opened, but no further details can be given as the case is ongoing," said the spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The spokesman refused to identify the teenager.

News reports identified the victim as Alexei Krylov and said he and the attackers belonged to rival skinhead groups.

Novaya Gazeta, citing an unidentified law enforcement official, reported that 15 skinheads who support xenophobic violence attacked Krylov and several of his friends, who belong to SHARP, or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.

Krylov, who died of multiple stab wounds at the scene, had attended a punk concert with his friends at the nearby Art Garbage club. He lived in the town of Noginsk near Moscow, the newspaper said.

Visitors to the http://fanat1k.ru web site, run by Spartak fans who support xenophobic violence, apparently planned the attack late last week.

While the entries on the web site's forums had been deleted Monday, versions of the pages cached by web pages remained viewable.



"A couple of words of advice to those planning to hang around Kitai-Gorod on Sunday," began one entry, posted by the user Perovsky, who is listed on the web site as an administrator.

"Why don't a couple of us go down there and check out the vicinity of the club. Dress like a regular person ... but don't go too close," the posting said. "On Sunday this thread will be deleted."

Another user asked whether there would be metal detectors at the club's entrance.

"If there are, then the SHARPs will get it outside. If not, then we will go in ourselves," said a third user, who called himself Slavka 'Oi!

Web site administrators did not reply to an e-mailed request for comment.

In unrelated Spartak violence, around 200 fans were detained after the club's Russian Premier League opener against Zenit St. Petersburg last weekend.

Police said the fans were held for petty crimes and no serious attacks were reported.

Violence is common among Russian football fans, and Spartak fans -- known as Gladiators -- have been implicated in other xenophobic attacks in recent years.

In October, teenage Spartak fans were detained after a wave of knife and other attacks left several dark-skinned foreigners dead.

In an apparently unconnected attack, a Nigerian student was in the hospital with a concussion on Monday after being attacked by four drunken factory workers near the Prazhskaya metro station, Itar-Tass reported.

The student, from Peoples' Friendship University, was not identified.



Neo-Fascists Attacked Teenagers in Moscow
March 17th
Armed by knives, a group of roughly 15 attacked seven teenagers in downtown Moscow Sunday; the young people were going to the punk concert at Art Garbage Club, RBC reported. One of teenagers died of the knife wound.
The accident happened at 6:34 p.m., near 6 Maroseika St., Moscow. The called patrol officers found a 16-year boy with a penetrating wound in the chest and lots of other cut wounds. He died in 15 minutes, before the emergency ambulance arrived to save him.

A criminal case was opened under the Clause 105 of the RF Criminal Code (murder committed by a group of persons for hooligan purposes).

The neo-fascists had thoroughly planned the accident. The call to attack the concert visitors and respective instructions were the highlights of Spartak fans forum. Through hearsay, the topic moderator was the person with Perovskiy nick, who is notorious in the neo-fascist community. The issue was crossed out of the forum straight after the attack but it remained in the cash of Internet searching vehicles.

During the discussion, one of the visitors suggested blowing up the club. Another visitor wanted to know about the guards of the club and whether it would be possible to bring the knives there and massacre inside it.
www.kommersant.com



Young man killed in Moscow in attack by neo-Nazis, group says
The Associated Press
Published: March 17, 2008


MOSCOW: A young man was stabbed to death in central Moscow in what activists described on Monday as an attack by neo-Nazis.

The Antifa anti-Nazi movement said in a blog that the 16-year-old, Alexei Krylov, was attacked by more than a dozen neo-Nazis armed with knives and fatally stabbed in the neck late Sunday. The attack just a few blocks away from the Kremlin occurred as Krylov and several others were heading to a punk music concert in a Moscow nightclub, Antifa said.

Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev confirmed that a young man was stabbed to death in downtown Moscow late Sunday, but would not identify the victim or give any details, saying the criminal probe was under way.

Antifa said that a young woman also was wounded in Sunday's attack. It said that in 2006 another young man died in a similar attack by neo-Nazis outside a Moscow nightclub.

Nationalist and neo-Nazi groups mushroomed after the 1991 Soviet collapse as a dramatic economic decline spread social frustration, particularly among youth. They targeted numerous guest workers from impoverished ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia, students from Africa, visitors from Asian countries, Jews and Russian anti-Nazi activists.
Today in Europe
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Rights activists have said that authorities, who earlier came under criticism for doing little to combat xenophobia, have been making efforts recently to investigate hate crimes more thoroughly and to take such cases to court.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Goth killing trial: extracts from the 999 call

Long extracts from the 999 call. The next link is one of the longer reports on the trial available online.

Goth killing trial: extracts from the 999 call
Times Online, UK -



Sophie 'murdered for looking like a goth'
This Is Lancashire,

Bizarre launch Proud to be Different! campaign

A fairly popular UK magazine has now leapt into this area.

Bizarre magazine which costs £3.50, has a monthly circulation of 54,571.

"Goth" murder prompts Bizarre's Proud to be Different campaign - join up!

We’re sure you’ve all read about the current murder trial of Sophie Lancaster, the girl kicked to death in Lancashire last year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7291985.stm

It’s something that’s affected us deeply at Bizarre. Our readers pride themselves on being different and not conforming to society’s norms.

Whether you consider yourself a goth, a metaller, a rockabllly, an emo kid, a retro head, a fetish fan, or whether you’ve got body mods or tattoos, at some point in your life you’re likely to have been verbally or physically abused for the way you look.

You may have had an employer discriminating against you, someone shouting at you in the street, or suffered more serious physical abuse.

And it’s just not on. We don’t want to take it any more. And we don’t want you to take it any more.

We’ve set up an online forum where you can share your experiences, show solidarity, offload your worries, and maybe come up with ideas for strategies to help stop the hate.

Join us now at http://bizarremagazine.proboards88.com

And let’s go from there..."
Hopefully it will raise awareness of this problem.