HELP! [Child rape gangs in Bradford]

I have continued to follow this thread. I'm so sorry to hear of all the stories of abuse and harassment that women have experienced.

I believe you.

We need to believe these women, and end the whatabouterry.

I agree.

Some of the comments I’ve seen today about these girls are vile.

And this is from the men ‘on their side’.

These girls are not seen as victims.

I went to Bradford uni, and stayed there for all the 90's so have many happy memories of the place, but we all knew that the city had a dark undercurrent.

Many of the women I spoke to had all heard the same thing, that a lot of Asians had the opinion that white women were basically free prostitutes. I was asked to join a party by a group of men. It was midnight and we were at a petrol station, even then, I knew it would be bad for me to have gone (I wouldnt, my fiance was waiting at home for me).

But it was very noticeable how attitudes of police to crime in the city changed after the early 90's riots. After then, a crime potentially committed by Asians were immediately dropper or not investigated. 30 student houses in 2 streets were burgled over a very short period, none of the non-student houses were touched. No one admitted to seeing the criminals, despite this happening at 6pm in a very busy area and them carrying large TV's etc. Police were less than interested.

My car was watched as it was vandalised by a group of asians, they sat and watched and laughed as the police came who werent interested in even speaking to them.

Having said all that, all the women I knew who had experienced rape had experienced it at the hands of boyfriends or ex boyfriends (except the date rape victim).

I do agree, that an inquiry needs to take place about this, and protections need to be in place so that girls and women are protected from this happening again, however I fear that it is still going on in many areas, not just Bradford, but the men (of all races) have got better at hiding it.

"People" being concerned about a racism accusation implies an equal culpability of responsibility between private sector actors in their limited capacities and state funded authorities wielding immense power. Whatever DEI bollocks has been fed to the private sector or the public sector, the latter group, especially when it comes to the police, social services and the NHS, should not be able to hide behind racism fears and "sensitivities". The police aren't bouncers at a concert told to be fair to everyone. They are the ones on the ground seeing victims in situ with perpetrators, they are the ones with the crime reports, the stats showing patterns of abuse, the knowledge of local gangs/cultures/criminal fraternities, and the ones with the responsibility and the authority to do something about it. Hiding behind "fear of racism" has been an excuse when it comes to these rape gangs. They can act decisively within minority communities when the will is there, eg to combat anti-terrorism activity. The truth is violence against women and girls has and continues to be unimportant to politicians and the police as institutions, no matter how much lip service they may give to the problem.

Oh yes forgot about that lovely term that was used.

The attitude from police and a lot of men that these girls were complete slappers that would go with anyone ‘even p*s’.

These girls were the furthest away from the ‘perfect victim’ as imaginable - from what I remember they were either poor, scruffy and smelly as they often were neglected and with learning difficulties in some cases.

Or otherwise more streetwise and looked older than their years but having family troubles.

In all cases the vulnerability obvious to the men.

My feeling about local inquiries is that they can't possibly be impartial and therefore effect real change. That the councils-the ones in charge of child safeguarding-are being allowed to mark their own homework. I just can't see that there will be proper systemic change without external investigators.

He didn't approach him over racism fears. Those words came out of the man's mouth. No one is lying, no one is making it up. That was one of the points that came out of the inquiry. I think some people are v uncomfortable acknowledging this. But as someone above has said this isn't about Manchester, so I will not comment on it again.

You are right sorry.

I was just responding to a poster who said that the police don’t act out of fear of being labelled racist.

When we all know that that is absolute BS.

The police as a whole are known for racism and misogyny.

Girls who are poor or a ‘nuisance’ just happen to be further down on their list of priorities.

I also want to thank MNHQ, this must be a very hard thread to moderate, but it’s so important that stories that have been shared are actually shared and not censored. I don’t know if that poster was banned, but happy they can’t derail the thread anymore.

I also want to thank my fellow MN pals (the ones who are genuine posters) it’s a very emotive subject and decisive - but please please listen to us “victims” (I say that with brackets because I was really lucky to not being taken off the streets) this is actually happening, it’s real, the court documents are real. To suggest people like myself and others who have shared stories (sanitised stories so we don’t get our stories deleted) are liars etc is really distasteful and is not what the little girls going through this need right now. We should be angry as women, angry as parents and angry because the level of depravity these girls are facing.

I believe there has been a systematic injustice that has caused some of the most vulnerable girls to be abused by the most violent rape gangs, the people in charge of keeping these girls safe are complicit and know exactly what is going on, in recent past they where refered to as “p@ki” slags, like they gave consent aged 12 to violent rapes and beatings. They are as bad as the men who committed these crimes and they need investigating.

I grew up in one of the northern towns where the rape and sexual abuse of white, working class girls by some Pakistani Muslim men has taken place. I'm in my early 50s now, so I'm talking about the mid to late 1980s, when friends of mine had older Asian 'boyfriends.' A group of us girls used to meet up and go to a particular video shop, where one girl's boyfriend worked. He and his mates (early 20s to early 30s) used to come and chat us up, want to take us for rides in their cars, give us cigarettes and alcohol and invite us to 'parties.' I was flattered by the attention, but my gut feeling told me I didn't want to risk being alone with these men. Some of my friends did go with them on joyrides and to parties and some had relationships with them. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now I shudder at the fact I too could have been abused. They were adult men and we were 14.

He was still reported.
If worrying about race was such a big issue, then he would have never been reported, especially with several attempts.

I'm not sure where you got that from?

The only guy who mentioned it was an 18yo security guard who said he was concerned but didn’t want to appear racist.

Basically a kid at his first proper job who is of course not going to want to get things wrong.

It was still reported and tried to be radioed through several times z

Don’t derail the thread people!! This is about sexual abuse victims not the Manchester bombings

Regardless of who they were employed by, the point remains, no? Awful things have happened, and it's been found that opportunities have been missed because people have been concerned about being accused of racism. Police and Social workers have spoken about their fears in relation to the grooming gangs. I think the post you're responding to was about someone denying this ever happens.

Where did you get that from??

There is no law to say an Asian man cannot wear a backpack.

A member of the public thought he was acting suspiciously and reported it to the security guard by that time he had already gone into hiding.

The security guard went and told the other security guard who tried several times to radio it through but couldn’t and then within a matter of minutes he came out of hiding and detonated the bomb.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to appear racist else they wouldn’t have tried several times to report it and find him.

Exactly - I thought I was losing my mind that this person was still allowed to post!

Yes agree, but that isn’t my point.

My point is that this drama was a sanitised version of what was happening to the victims.

And that there had to be a white northern woman being racist in it because that is how we are perceived.

Private security guards are not the police or a publicly funded authority with a duty to act regardless of accusations of bias/racism. They will be private sector workers who have had "sensitivity" training about not racially profiling.

Are you suggesting that if you don't hate Starmer you don't have empathy? Mind you, I've no time for terms like "two tier" or people who use them, so I don't know why I'm bothering to ask you.