87 Year old in mobility scooter stabbed to death

[christmas2022]

Greenford: Manhunt for mobility scooter murder suspect www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62575679

Now they have a clear CCTV image it only has to be a matter of time before an arrest is made but seriously, what is this world coming to.

The article gives details of 6 murders in 4 days in London.

This is terrifying. I like to know what is going on around me but it is very tempting to take a step back from the news and live in my own bubble.

We don't have enough poilce out and about and the punishment it not struct enough
Carrying a knife needs to be a stricter sentence and stop and search needs to be more frequent
I have no issue being stopped and searched as I nothing to hide

@SprinkleOfSunak its a real shame i was brought up in london and I don't recognise it now
I lived on a council estate as well which is now a no go area almost
My nan in her 90's also lived on a big west london estate and would happily be trotting off around the estAte 30/40 yeArs ago , and people looked out for each other ,petit crime was a thing but not how it is now

Thanks for the arrest update @christmas2022 op. I really hope it's the right person and the police and CPS build a watertight case against the scumbag.

@picklemewalnuts stop and search is still the way to go , stop and search everyone if need be who cares , in some areas it will be more people of colour in other areas not
Around my area mostly white I will add , its quite clear who is most likely to be stopped by many many things , profiling is a thing ( not based on colour I will add )
But if in the way to be fair means stopping 80% of the street so be it
Prisons need to be tough , no priviledges if you take someone elses life , its not a deterrent for many , some its like a badge of honour to have a prison sentence
We can't say oh we tried this and some people may be offended so lets ignore and hope it goes awAy
Speak to former gang leaders , find out what makes this attractive , what they think would help
Get people in working with people
Accept that sometimes these big mass estates are not great , I hate the world my kids are growing in
Around by us county lines is huge yet you never see a poilcemen around , i could identify half of them by sight and behaviour but they know nothing is done and sentences are small
Vulnerable kids being dragged in to a world thats is simply awful

Absolutely horrifying.

Scumbag arrested.

I'm deeply concerned at the mental and emotional state of the sort of people who can stab an 87 stranger to death.

Just think, a normal person would be mortified and issuing profuse apologies if they merely knocked his elbow as they passed.

How did these people grow up so completely cold and without a smidgin of empathy for someone weak and vulnerable?

There needs to be a major crackdown on crime, a total and all out war on criminals, no quarter asked nor given. Any conflict of interest between the criminal and law-abider should be ruled in 100% favour of the law-abider, every time. The country should be run in the interest of and for the benefit of, the law-abiding majority, the wants and needs and rights of criminals should not even be considered.

Very, very occasionally I wonder if the death penalty should still be an option.

I think it definitely should. Some people are irredeemable.

@FourChimneys couldn't agree more. I always say I'm anti capital punishment and then I see things like this and think I'd actually be happy to pull the trigger myself

In some cases the death penalty is deserved. We need to be very certain that we have the right person in those cases, of course, but yes, some people commit crimes so heinous that I believe they forfeit their right to life.

If this monster and that gang of thugs who surrounded Thomas get away with this, there really is no justice in this world. Targeting a harmless elderly man because he was older and Irish. It's sickening.

I haven't seen anything about him being targeted because he was Irish. Have the police mentioned that?

I understand why the death penalty is such an emotive subject and all the arguments against it etc , but some people really deserve it.
It'll never happen though and I do understand why. Prison isn't much deterrent for such monsters
It really doesn't work.

Why would the police mention it? They're anti-Irish themselves. It's obvious that these bigots picked on Thomas because of two reasons.

I don't think he will get away with it because there's been too much publicity over the incident that it can't be brushed under the carpet like so many other crimes are.

I don't think that it is obvious, from the information given so far, but ok.

From talking to coppers it’s not ‘profiling’ though it might look like it to the layman who is just observing what is going on without any inside info. What it really is, is intelligence led. They know who (specifically) is likely to be armed or carrying drugs and target on that basis. Sadly that may mean that one group or another is more heavily targeted because they’re more likely to be involved.

The reasons for that are separate, need to be dealt with and may involve unfairness, but that’s a whole other thread.

Even figures which say black people are more likely to be searched are distorted because crime is disproportionately a young persons game and black people are disproportionately young and white people are disproportionately elderly and the figures ignore this.

Do you really want to have little old ladies, people on their way home from work or taking kids to the park (who’ve done nothing wrong) routinely searched? To spend the resources to search extra people for show just to make a few under-informed busybodies feel better about their knee jerk response to everything being racism? I fucking don’t. I’d rather spend that money on addressing the underlying reasons why BAME youth end up involved in gangs & criminality (eg deprivation & lack of opportunity) than pointless, showboating political gestures.

One thing that worries me is that this story could end up being brushed under the carpet because the perpetrator is black and the media is scared of being called racist. If that's the case, shame on all involved.

I really don't think it will.

news.met.police.uk/news/man-charged-with-murder-of-thomas-ohalloran-in-greenford-452383?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Subscription&utm_content=current_news
Lee Byer is named as the suspect.

Thanks for the update and let's hope justice is now rightfully served.

Media and members of the public are reminded that proceedings are now active and to refrain from sharing or publishing anything that may create a substantial risk of serious prejudice that could undermine legal proceedings.