Belfast another appalling attack, we need to ask what is driving this.

Can we just please acknowledge that this attack wasn’t just ‘a stabbing’ (bad enough) but an attempt at a beheading?

Ye gods. Who’d have thought this would ever come to pass on the streets of England. Just stop and let that fact sink in will you.

Yes the perpetrator was an asylum seeker maizieD
Granted leave to remain in 2023 for 5 years. Made his way from the Sudan to Paris and thence to Dublin apparently. Then onwards once there, to Belfast.

Casdon
There has also been no discussion about the court case this week of the two teenagers in Barry who randomly stabbed and killed an Asian man who was taking his mother her shopping Kandinsky, although I posted the link to that too.

Jaxjacky
It doesn’t fit with some people’s agenda Casdon

I read that. It’s yet another stabbing, although I’m sure I read that knife crime has gone down.
Another mother deprived of her son and child deprived of father.
This time, described as racist attack.

I won’t distress anybody by posting details of other successful and attempted beheadings in the UK FriedGreenTonatoes2, but horrifically, there are quite a few of those too. All I’m asking for is some balance in the way such crimes are reported, which I don’t think is unreasonable.

FGT2 your posts are inline with what I have read on both BBC and SKY.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Casdon

I won’t distress anybody by posting details of other successful and attempted beheadings in the UK FriedGreenTonatoes2, but horrifically, there are quite a few of those too. All I’m asking for is some balance in the way such crimes are reported, which I don’t think is unreasonable.

Home grown criminal acts happen all the time. They leave families grieving and the consequences are devastating.

When someone comes to our shores, asking for asylum and a new safe life goes on to commit a crime as horrific as this, of course it will make headlines.

I don't think it is unreasonable for people to react to an attempted beheading committed by an asylum seeker. If we don't hear that reaction then we are storing up massive problems.
Anyway he was granted leave to remain by none other than Jenrick, if the dates are right.

Wonder how he’s feeling tonight Galaxy?

Sorry, more importantly I meant to stay the man with the stick? acted heroically

Galaxy

I don't think it is unreasonable for people to react to an attempted beheading committed by an asylum seeker. If we don't hear that reaction then we are storing up massive problems.
Anyway he was granted leave to remain by none other than Jenrick, if the dates are right.

Of course, it’s not unreasonable to react, I think we all have, because it was a horrific, random attempt on somebody’s life. My nature is to always look at things in the context of the bigger picture though, I can’t help that.

And, it is also fair to point out, again, that just about every day there are murders, rapes and knifing committed by home grown British people.
Each crime is as devastating, as the ones that attract the attention of people like Elon Musk, with his interfering, disrupting agenda.

Galaxy

I don't think it is unreasonable for people to react to an attempted beheading committed by an asylum seeker. If we don't hear that reaction then we are storing up massive problems.
Anyway he was granted leave to remain by none other than Jenrick, if the dates are right.

It's totally unreasonable for people to make matters worse by causing damage in their own communities. The reasoning is unfathomable to any reasonable human being.

I think this is the final straw people have had enough. I never voted for this.

Sunshinegirls

I think this is the final straw people have had enough. I never voted for this.

Nobody did, but fortunately not everybody relishes a punch up with police and destroying their surroundings.

It will be quite a complex picture if we get a reform government partly due to cases like this which were signed off by er some of the people in reform.

Mollygo

Casdon
There has also been no discussion about the court case this week of the two teenagers in Barry who randomly stabbed and killed an Asian man who was taking his mother her shopping Kandinsky, although I posted the link to that too.

Jaxjacky
It doesn’t fit with some people’s agenda Casdon

I read that. It’s yet another stabbing, although I’m sure I read that knife crime has gone down.
Another mother deprived of her son and child deprived of father.
This time, described as racist attack.

The post is to ask what was driving the immigrants who go to great lengths to get here to commit these violent crimes.

I am not asking about our homegrown criminals of which there are plenty.

What answers have you found so far Sago?

In attempting to understand what is happening, posters are giving thought out reasons and comparisons.

It is a mistake to see this as Excusing behavior

If we fail to understand then we are unable to deal with it.

By the way, we also are forgetting that we have a long and proud history of helping people from war torn countries - refugees - who are traumatised by what they have experienced.

I shall draw on people I actually know, and this is from the mental health sector.

A women whose whole family were killed in front of her in Africa came over and I met her working with people as a Mental health Nurse.

and Patients:

A young man from the then war torn Somalia who was so disturbed he tried to eat forks and used to drop on his knees in front of older, grandma type white figures begging forgiveness.

Not because he had done anything bad, but because he had internalised racial hatred against himself and sought forgiveness form those who had pressed his people

A third Muslim who sought me out on an inpatient ward who has also internalised racial hatred and asked me desperately, were the nurses trying to kill him?

A fourth one" a young Pakistani women who went round asking people anxiously did she look better in Pakistani or white clothes. she heard voices and they were of a white women school teacher telling her she was ugly.

No, Sago, you didn't ask specifically about immigrants in your OP. Quite reasonably, posters have mentioned similar crimes carried out by non-immigrants, which don't seem to bother you in the slightest.

Presumably we should also understand the people protesting tonight, after all they have just witnessed a beheading on their streets.

The attacker was Sudanese, not Somali. That detail matters a lot if you happen to be Somali. As for the reasons why, we dont know and maybe we'll never know. Could be the rage of someone trying to navigate the system, could be someone who has crossed the line into psychosis, could be a cold hearted killer, could havd been an altetcation of some sort. Could have been mistaken identity. Whatever, that man made a choice and hd is solely responsible for that and I sincrely hopehis asylum is rejected! (Btw. The stockport killer was born long after the genocide and in Cardiff, so no excuses there).
I do feel for every other innocent asylum seeker going about their business today. And the people of Belfast who have had their belly full of troubles.
Three cheers to everyone who intervened.

Sago

Mollygo

Casdon
There has also been no discussion about the court case this week of the two teenagers in Barry who randomly stabbed and killed an Asian man who was taking his mother her shopping Kandinsky, although I posted the link to that too.

Jaxjacky
It doesn’t fit with some people’s agenda Casdon

I read that. It’s yet another stabbing, although I’m sure I read that knife crime has gone down.
Another mother deprived of her son and child deprived of father.
This time, described as racist attack.

The post is to ask what was driving the immigrants who go to great lengths to get here to commit these violent crimes.

I am not asking about our homegrown criminals of which there are plenty.

I asked AI that specific question.

‘Evidence does not suggest that asylum seekers commit crimes at higher rates than the general population. While government bodies in the UK and globally often do not collate specific crime statistics specifically by "asylum seeker" status, comprehensive research and prison demographic data highlight several key points:

Lower Overall Offending Rates: Studies consistently show that, on average, foreign nationals and immigrants—including refugees—are not overrepresented in overall violent crime rates compared to native-born citizens.
Socioeconomic Factors: Where disparities do appear, they are strongly linked to socioeconomic factors and labor market restrictions rather than nationality.
For example, a 2013 Migration Observatory report noted that because asylum seekers are typically barred from working while their claims are processed, some studies observed a slight, localized increase in low-level property crime, driven primarily by restricted economic opportunity rather than violent tendencies.
Age & Demographic Factors: Criminologists emphasize that the crime rate is heavily influenced by age and gender. Asylum-seeking populations often contain a higher proportion of young men—a demographic group that statistically has the highest propensity for offending in all populations, including native-born citizens.’

I’m not sure that this answers your question, but I don’t believe that evidence exists to suggest that people come to the UK specifically to commit these crimes. Acts like this are usually not predicted.

I think there was confusion as the police initially stated he was Somalian.

Just been reading that the victim was a vulnerable, deaf person whose neighbours looked out for him. He may now lose his sight it is reported on FB.