Anyone like to reconsider what they posted about the train attack on Saturday night?

[margegunderson]

There were (to my mind) some horrific posts claiming that it MUST be a terrorist attack, demanding information on the attacker’s race and motivations NOW, shouting about Starmer censorship and picking fights with anyone suggesting it might not be cut and dried and to wait for more information. Hideously racist as well.
If that was you - any reflections today? What will you do if there’s a next time?

That political party are the ones stoking the anxiety and fear. Nobody is scared of a migrant or a boat.

yeah, the issue is what counts as racism these days. The word is bandied about as freely and as meaninglessly as the word transphobia these days, often referring to issues which aren’t fuelled by racism at all.

Actually as the dust settles

A hero guard who protected passengers and took hideous knife wounds for them.
A hero train driver whose swift thinking and communication skills raised the alarm, got the train diverted to a platform and had police ready to deal with attacker and emergency services on site.
"All men are bastards?" Fuck off.

Geordie knife wielding thrusts? Shame on you.
"I hope it's a white brit" - you are scum

I don't think the definition of racism has changed? It's simply that more people feel emboldened to express it these days?

I haven’t commented yet but I do wonder if there will be awkward conversations to be had about why he was still free on the transport network to stab another 10 people when we now know he had already stabbed another person on the docklands light railway in the early hours of the morning on the same day. Was anyone working tirelessly behind the scenes to trawl through hours of CCTV to apprehend him after the first stabbing more than 16 hours previously? Or was that not considered an urgency because it only involved one victim? Under those circumstances I think it’s going to be difficult to say this couldn’t have been avoided.

There is too much knife crime for the police to take each one particularly seriously

You know the law doesn’t allow mentally ill people to just be retained willy-nilly. There needs to be just cause and it’s not about “not upsetting the Mumsnet Guardianistas.”

They need to have just cause same as with people who are not mentally ill.

Maybe they were trying to find him in that interim period.

I know people will look back on hindsight but tracking one person across the London and broader UK rail network is likely to be a mammoth task.

What does the police not being able to track him (if he was even alerted to the authorities) have to do with being called racist?

But there was no indicator it was a terror attack. So no we are not agreeing.

I think my point was more about the erratic behaviour rather than anything about skin colour. Do you know for a fact that there was an opportunity to contain this man that wasn't taken? I haven't seen or read that anywhere.

Of course they won’t

Especially as it seems that several of the men who stepped in to protect people were Nottingham Forest fans i.e. football fans

There was nothing wrong with people initially (on hearing that two people had been arrested) thinking that it must have been terrorism.

BUT, the views then expressed, and the sheer glee with which the racists took the opportunity to spout the most vile hate speech, was absolutely shocking. Two threads of 1,000 posts each, most of which was racist bile.

MNHQ absolutely should have acted.

I would hope that MNHQ might go through those threads and note the handles of those making the most egregiously racist posts. While some might be bots, at least they could be ready to pounce next time that those members (real or bot) post similar garbage.

It’s not good enough.

Same as when the police brush off “flashers” . Oh, they haven’t done anything yet …. until they do.

I wonder whether the person who claimed, with high confidence, that mass knife attackers are never called anything like Dave wants to come back and comment now that we have discovered he is called <checks notes> Anthony.

I didn’t comment on earlier threads because of all the pointless speculation. We still don’t know THAT much about the man who was arrested. Perhaps we should all wait until there is a court case.

I avoided the openly racist and xenophobic posters but I HAD assumed terror attack only because I was daft enough to believe some of the posters on MN were basing their info on actual reported news and it was suggested two people were involved which implies an organised attack.

Once I realised people were just posting random social media claims I left the thread.

Anthony WILLIAMS to boot!

I don’t think there are enough facilities to detain people to. I’ve posted about my MH issues and my wish, and my family’s wish, to be hospitalised but I’m told I don’t reach the threshold “and there are no beds anyway”.

I don't need to revise anything as I was trying to stop people speculating or stating as fact that the attackers were immigrants and terrorists.

Yes, I couldn't remember the surname that poster offered up tbh !