Why is what’s happening in Leicester secret?

[GrandmaMazur]

I just saw a news alert about a very serious incident that happened last night in Leicester and the area is cordoned off with a heavy police presence. But there are no details available.

I don’t remember seeing a news story like this before where nothing about the actual incident is reported. Does this happen regularly and I’ve not noticed or is this quite unusual?

I hope it’s nothing too awful.

Why?

My experience is local police forces aren't very good at communicating with the public about major events: they're stretched for resources and not accustomed to dealing with events on this scale.

It's a different matter from, say, a potential terrorist incident in central London where the police have a bit more relevant experience and probably more training and manpower, not to mention more press attention to deal with.

Are you a Guardian reader by any chance?

In the hope that racists spreading shite on SM might one day take notice and stop speculating?

You know, in the way you keep training a dog not to defecate on the carpet in the hope that one day the dog gets the message.

I suppose the difference is that dogs usually cotton on quite fast.

Because they're quite clearly asking people not to share their speculation publicly on social media or in the community, where it can have real world repercussions. They're quite clearly not asking people not to think about something, because thinking about something doesn't affect anything outside of your own head.

That doesn't make any sense....

"Don't speculate" tends to mean they're suppressing something that could cause unrest. The more often this happens the closer "don't speculate" becomes synonymous with active suppression for political purposes. The training is going in the opposite direction of your flawed analogy.

Let's hope this is an exception.

Here you go:

A media blackout, which is a temporary restriction or total ban on reporting specific information, is typically implemented to maintain safety, security, or control. Common reasons include protecting national security, managing active hostage crises or police operations, restricting information during political instability, or enforcing legal/contractual, such as sporting event broadcasting rules.

But it does affect things outside our head. It affects who we trust, who we believe, it shapes our prejudices and assumptions, it pushes us away from our default media sources and towards alternatives, it affects our attitudes and political outlook, it affects who we vote for - Trump and Brexit are the outcome of people thinking thoughts!

They very much do not want us to think about it.

"Don't speculate" tends to mean they're suppressing something that could cause unrest

Rubbish. The same plea was made about the Huntingdon stabbings, for example. When all the racists were claiming it was a terrorist attack or an attack by boat people.

There isn't a media blackout in this case?

All police forces have their own Comms teams. They don't need the Met to show them how it's done.
It will be up to the SIO to decide what info is released to the press and when.
It's then up to the media to decide which stories they run with.
Now the police have the added pressure of people spreading sometimes false information online. Once word gets out of an incident you get all sorts rubber necking, trying to get the details so that they can sell it on.
Unfortunately all morals go out the door and some don't spare a thought for the victim or their loved ones.

Are you suggesting that all the pictures of him smiling are not 'real', but the one where he's scowling is? What makes it real? That picture was all over every media outlet the second it was made public, nobody 'suppressed' anything.

The reason he wasn't identified in the media initially is because he was 17, and it is illegal to identify a minor. A judge lifted the ban three days later A) Because he was nearly 18 and B) To stop idiots speculating and getting wound up about a cover up.

No I don’t read the Daily Mail.

I mostly read the Times but I have a subscription to the Telegraph (they had a very good special offer and I’ve been impressed by some of the investigative reporting they’ve done). I used to read the Guardian and the BBC but have been underwhelmed by both in recent years.

Except a police officer giving an initial public statement about an ongoing investigation where all the details aren't yet available isn't bothered about any of that, they're bothered about unverified/false information spreading on social media and the very real potential for very stupid people to start kicking off outside mosques or setting fire to hotels as a result.

Nobody can stop anybody thinking about things, and suggesting that the police are trying to do so is genuinely ridiculous.

It's not possible to go back in time and look.

Can you show a definite screenshot with that time and that heading?

I can't that report until 1130, after this thread started.

That's probably because the internet was full of a video of a random man who jokingly sat in a police car earlier, while all the racists tweeted about "usual suspects".

Even when the CCTV came out of what happened and a video of the perpetrator being arrested, there were lots of people tweeting about how it was all a coverup because he didn't look like the guy in the other video. The "white man being scapegoated for the non-white man" narrative was ALL OVER the internet.

I'm suggesting they selected a photo of a boy several years younger to manage public perception and quell unrest cause by the crime.

I’d imagine the police had to track down and inform the family before releasing anything to the press. The family may have been uncontactable for some reason, abroad and in a different time zone or any number of circumstances really. I’m sure none of us would like to read about a family member’s death in the press, imagine how much we’d be slagging the police off if that happened.

From what I read the victim did not die at the scene but in hospital.
So the specific crime committed was not clear for some time, plus time taken to inform relatives. A large area would have been cordoned off to allow for the collection of forensic evidence in daylight.
Whats so hard to understand ?

The problem is that the way you posted was how racists post. When they are guessing/hoping that a non-white immigrant/asylum seeker is the perpetrator. They post exactly like you did. They are then either gleefully proved right or they slink away. If you post like this, then like it or not, people will draw their own conclusions. If it quacks like a duck etc.

Do you mean Southport?

The police trying to cover things up always backfires, people just speculate what they want to speculate and the truth always comes out in the end. The police should release information as soon as and when they know it. The public pay for the police, and we have a right to know what has happened.

The family involved deserves to know first.

The public dont need to know before they do.