• Alan Travis
• The Guardian, Friday 23 October 2009
• Article history

On fascism
"I am not a Nazi and never have been." Griffin was convicted in 1998 of inciting racial hatred for articles that denied the Holocaust and praised the Waffen-SS.

On immigration
"The indigenous people of Britain have been victims of a genocide in recent months". The BNP leader first publicly referred to a "bloodless genocide'' when commenting in April on the language in the party's "Language and Concepts Discipline" manual, which says that black and Asian Britons should be called "resident foreigners', saying recent mass immigration was denying the English their ownidentity, and that the children of migrants did not become British simply by being born in Britain: "In a very subtle way, it's a sort of bloodless genocide."

Analysis: The BNP claims that within 60 years the "indigenous British will become an ethnic minority in their own country". While it is true that 24% of births in 2008 were to non-UK mothers, foreign-born people make up no more than 11% of the UK's total population. Britain has just experienced the largest wave of immigration in recent history – mostly from Poland – but it is thought that half have already gone home.

On deportation
Griffin told a black member of the audience: "I am very happy for you to stay here. We have said it is time to shut the door because this country is over-crowded, that criminals, bogus asylum seekers and people who are not loyal to this country should be deported. Everyone else can stay."

Analysis: BNP policy says it would deport 2 million people it claims are in Britain illegally, and stop all immigration, bar exceptional cases. But it would also "encourage" voluntary repatriation of legal migrants and "those of foreign descent to return to their lands of ethnic origin". This would cover many millions of British citizens, including presumably Sir Trevor McDonald, whom Griffin professes to admire.

On Churchill and the use of a Spitfire and other wartime imagery
Griffin said: "If Churchill was alive he would belong to the BNP".

Analysis: Churchill's grandson, Nicholas Soames, said in May this year: "They have behaved in a disgusting manner. They should not take my grandfather's name in vain. He would have been appalled by their views and the way they claim to represent the wartime generation. It's nonsense. Were it possible to take action, we would. We find it offensive and disgusting." The BNP uses second world war imagery to propagate an "invasion" thesis: that Britain is being occupied by foreigners, as the Nazis threatened in 1940.

On Israel and Islam
Griffin said the BNP was the only party which, in the clashes between Israel and Gaza, "stood full square behind Israel's right to deal with Hamas terrorists."

Analysis: He has replaced antisemitic rhetoric with Islamophobia. Perhaps the most curious BNP policy is its "ironclad offer" to the Muslim world to give them a free hand in the Middle East if they will take back "all their people currently colonising this country".

On Holocaust denial
He said EU law stopped him from explaining his beliefs on Holocaust denial and that he would be prosecuted in the French and German courts.

Analysis Holocaust denial is not illegal in Britain. He told a court in 1998 that orthodox opinion was that 6 million Jews were gassed: "Orthodox opinion also once held that the Earth is flat".

Protester injunction bid rejected

Steve Acheson said his sacking has had a big impact on his family

An energy company has been criticised for taking legal action against a protester under the Terrorism Act.

Scottish and Southern Energy's attempt to serve an injunction on electrician Steve Acheson was dismissed and called "a fantasy" at the High Court.

The firm wanted to ban him from holding peaceful protests at Fiddlers Ferry power station, Cheshire, where he worked until his sacking in December.

The energy firm said it planned to pursue a county court injunction.

"I am just so relieved, what they tried to do was diabolical," Mr Acheson said.

The judge, who took less than three hours to hear the evidence and decide on his verdict, told the energy company that their claims were "fantasy bordering on the edge of paranoia".

Scottish and Southern Energy had tried to curb his protests because, it claimed, he was a risk to the staff and overall security at the site.

Mr Acheson, however, said it was a protest against his former employer BMSL after he was dismissed in December last year.

'Big impact'

The father-of-two, from Denton in Greater Manchester, used to work for the firm at the Fiddlers Ferry site, which is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy.

"Seeing as I used to work there it seemed appropriate to protest and make my point there.

"I have been protesting for the past 44 weeks. It is only in the past couple of months they have suddenly taken a dislike to it.

Steve Acheson has been protesting outside the factory for 44 weeks

"This has had a big impact on my wife and my children. I want to get back into work, so I will continue protesting back at the site."

Mr Acheson recently discovered he was on the union blacklist, among the 3,000 workers named on an illegal database which was exposed in court in July this year.

The list was drawn up and accessed by a number of companies, so they could check if potential employees were union troublemakers.

He said: "Work has been very hard to come by because of my name being on this blacklist, I am not a troublemaker.

"In the past four years I have worked just 16 weeks. Before my name appeared on this list I had regular work, no problem."

Cory Doctorow

POSTED AT 4:51 AM October 12, 2009

Zachary Christie is a six-year old student in Newark, Delaware who is facing 45 days in reform school because he brought his new Cub Scout eating utensil to school for lunch. The utensil includes a knife, and this violates the school's brainlessly, robotically enforced zero-tolerance policy on "weapons on school property."

Critics contend that zero-tolerance policies like those in the Christina district have led to sharp increases in suspensions and expulsions, often putting children on the streets or in other places where their behavior only worsens, and that the policies undermine the ability of school officials to use common sense in handling minor infractions.

"Something has to change," said Dodi Herbert, whose 13-year old son, Kyle, was suspended in May and ordered to attend the Christina district's reform school for 45 days after another student dropped a pocket knife in his lap. School officials declined to comment on the case for reasons of privacy.

Ms. Herbert, who said her son was a straight-A student, has since been home-schooling him instead of sending him to the reform school...

"I just think the other kids may tease me for being in trouble," he said, pausing before adding, "but I think the rules are what is wrong, not me."

It's a Fork, It's a Spoon, It's a ... Weapon? (Thanks, Ron!)

(Image: Case Boy Scouts of America Caramel Jigged Bone Hobo Knife 4-1/8", Knifecenter.com; illustration only, this is not necessarily the cutlery Zach Christie got in trouble for carrying)

September 29th, 2009 | by Jennifer Van Grove

In Bozeman, Montana misunderstanding social media may be a way of life, but in Calumet County, Wisconsin it’s proven to be the difference between a job in law enforcement and unemployment.

Last month Jennifer Bass, a Calumet County sheriff’s deputy, decided to literally burn off workplace steam in an unsettling way. She, along with friends, took to her backyard to burn a stuffed officer’s uniform, using sticky notes to identify fellow officers, in effigy.

She also filmed and photographed the burning in effigy, posting video and photos of the incident to her Facebook () profile (footage included below). Now that the video, which includes racial remarks regarding the KKK, has surfaced to an audience beyond just Facebook friends, she’s since resigned from her position.

County Sheriff, Jerry Page, is openly apologizing for the incident, which was brought to his attention by an undisclosed third-party source. Also feeling the heat is Wendy Schmitz, a Sherriff’s investigator that was seen in photos posted to Facebook from the incident. Even though she attributes the racist statements to her coworker, she has admitted to participating in the burning and has been demoted as a result.

It’s an unfortunate stain on the county’s reputation, which claims to use Facebook for assistance with their everyday investigations. More information on the incident, and actual footage, can be seen in this FOX 11 report.

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Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:51am EDT

[-] Text [+]

MIAMI (Reuters) - A bank in Florida refused to cash a check for an armless man because he could not provide a thumbprint.

"They looked at my prosthetic hands and the teller said, 'Well, obviously you can't give us a thumbprint'," Steve Valdez told CNN on Wednesday.

But he said the Bank of America Corp branch in downtown Tampa, Florida, still insisted on a thumbprint identification for him to cash a check drawn on his wife's account at the bank, even though he showed them two photo IDs.

In the incident last week, a bank supervisor told Valdez he could only cash the check without a thumbprint if he brought his wife in with him or he opened an account with them.

"I told them I neither wanted an account with them and couldn't bring my wife in because she was nowhere close by," Valdez told CNN.

Bank of America said in a statement cited by CNN: "While the thumbprint is a requirement for those who don't have accounts, the bank should have made accommodations."

Valdez said his treatment by the bank violated the U.S. Americans with Disability Act requiring institutions to provide reasonable accommodation to disabled persons.

(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Todd Eastham)

September 17th, 2009 | by Barb Dybwad

So apparently it actually works both ways: careless Facebook use can both get you robbed and get you arrested for burglary.

According to The Journal, a 19-year-old Pennsylvania man was arraigned earlier this week on a charge of felony daytime robbery. How did police catch him? Simple: the burglar left a trail, by way of checking his Facebook account before leaving the house with two diamond rings and forgetting to log out.

 

Jonathan Parker remains in custody on $10,000 bail, facing a maximum 10 year prison sentence if convicted. A friend of the defendant said Parker had asked him for help breaking into the victim’s house the previous night, so things are not looking too good for the perp.

What do you think: is this a case of Facebook addiction, or just a very dim burglar? If robbery weren’t such a serious matter we might consider this story pretty much hilarious. As Homer Simpson would say, “doh!”

Staff at PC World and Currys are using Facebook to launch a torrent of abuse at customers. Offensive comments have been posted on discussion boards by past and present employees, entitled "Really Stupid Customers!" and "Some customers are really, really stupid".

Despite criticising some customers for being "ignorant", many of the group's 3,000 members have posted comments under their real names.

The shops' parent company, DSG, is understood to be investigating in the wake of the revelations. Posters who said they were employed by DSG said some customers deserved to be punched and one asked if they should be allowed to "cattle prod" others.

DSG said: "We have clear guidelines for staff and will investigate any alleged abuse of customers. Delivering excellent customer service is at the forefront of everything we do, so we are very disappointed a small number of our colleagues have made these comments on a social networking website. We will take the necessary action with any staff found to be acting inappropriately."

British Airways took action last November against staff who complained about customers' "stupid American accents" on Facebook. Virgin was also embarrassed when employees referred to some of the airline's passengers as "chavs".

Having had the 'pleasure' of being 'served' and 'informed' by staff at both PC World and Currys, this made me think of the old saying about the pot calling the kettle black!