BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)

Subject: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 12:50 PM

Another teenager stabbed on the streets of London today. How sad, especially on Mother's Day.

One of the people interviewed was our very own Liz The Squeak (looking good, incidentally)!

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 01:14 PM

I've seen one interview about it so I'll definitely watch the next news now that I know.

Very, very sad.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: skipy
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 02:36 PM

What channel?
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: GUEST,Topsie
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 02:43 PM

She was on BBC1 and on ITV this evening.

Good to see you, Liz - but a pity it was in such sad circumstances.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: MudGuard
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 03:15 PM

So why was Liz interviewed?

She must be involved in some way.

She's just a tiny little bit too old to pass as a teenager - so she can't be the victim.
Her husband Paul is too old as well, her daughter too young to be the victim teenager.

So what is left?

Liz must have been the one stabbing the teenager! ;-)

Liz, stop stabbing teenagers! Now!

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 03:20 PM

I did see someone talking about the area and how there have been school chum fights but nothing as serious as this. Was that Liz?

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 04:14 PM

Liz the Ripper! Wow!

(How come they're stabbing teenagers over there?)

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 04:15 PM

I hope she wasn't one of the witnesses. IT would be terrible to see such a tragedy. He was only 15.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: folk1e
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 04:19 PM

Come on guys!
I know it is a bit of fun, and you have to laugh or you end up crying etc but LtS will be reading this and if she has witnessed a stabbing she may not see the funny side.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 04:29 PM

It happened on the road where she lives although I don't think she was a witness. The boy Andy Regis, was the nephew of an English athlete, John Regis. Its all very very sad and must be very worrying for those who live there.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Bainbo
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 04:43 PM

You can watch her . Go to "Video and Audio News" and click on "Teenager dies in stabbing".

At the risk of being a killjoy, I've got to agree with folk1e. Please don't make jokes about it. A 15-year-old boy has been stabbed to death. Remember this is an open forum, and any one of his friends or family googling the lad's name is going to be directed here, so they can read us having a bit of a laugh about it.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 05:08 PM

Bainbo, thanks for putting that link up for us. That is the news that I saw earlier today on BBC TV and it answers my question. Liz must be concerned if it has happened on the road where she lives. What a tragedy.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: skipy
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 05:09 PM

Ironically my brother in law, who works for the beeb, produced the news today, hat's his job.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 05:24 PM

WHY? Gangs? I'll rib LtS, but WHY?

Perhaps I'm no longer in touch. But I can't see why teens are killing teens, either in the UK or in the US or anywhere else.

And thanks for the link. I couldn't find one before.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 05:39 PM

I think some of the killings have had a racial edge to them but not sure.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 05:42 PM

My nephew Danny was stabbed in a Walmart last Fall. Danny sings in a local band and the stabber (who has yet to be caught) simply said to him, "You took my girl from me!" Danny had no idea what was being talked about.

Fortunately, Danny moved his arm to shield his stomach from the knife thrust.... He told me that "being stabbed hurt more than anything I've ever had happen to me!"

My question: WHY? Why are children doing this to each other?

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 06:21 PM

I agree with not cracking jokes about this, btw. I cannot imagine how terrible it would be to have this happen.

Thanks for the video link, but the only woman I saw interviewed didn't look like our LtS, or at least like recent pix I've seen of her on here.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 06:27 PM

I saw Liz being interviewed -when something like this happens on your street it is quite shocking -a total invason of your own security. A few years ago a girl was murdered near to where I lived -it was very unnerving.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Bainbo
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 06:55 PM

Kat, you're right. The BBC have updated the report, and the one that's there now doesn't include Liz. I've had a sniff around their site, but there's no sign of the original video.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I remember other spates of violence that seem to come in flurries. When it happens once, others seem to think it gives it some validity. It's too glib to call it copy-cat (although I work in the media and it's a phrase that we do tend to use because it's concise and convenient) but maybe there's someting like that going on?

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 07:24 PM

In the UK (as elsewhere no doubt) there are the haves and have nots. The divide is widening and the violence springing is from a sense of having nothing to lose. Kids carry knives because they are scared. They are scared to go to school, they are scared to go to the shops, they are scared to walk down the street.

Why? Because they need notoriety in our media fame hungry society. They can't see themselves getting it legitimately. Their lack of education leaves them as outsiders in the working world. They don't see their future as anything more stimulating than a dead end job for pittance pay. They will never be able to afford to buy a home where they live. They will never support a family. They see nothing.

So they seek notoriety on the streets amongst their peers. No hopers trying to impress no hopers. Stab before you get stabbed mentality. Be a 'name'. They make mistakes sometimes, and murder innocent youths who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Other times the killings are gang fuelled.

They have no respect for themselves and even less for others. They are the shunned and forgotten generation. Their parenting has not given them a sense of self worth. They have no hopes, dreams or aspirations. They can only empower themselves by weakening others.

The solution? National Service? More Stop 'n' Searches'? Education? Combination of all three? It is a fashion at the moment and will not die out until it is replaced. It may never die out. This could be a glimpse of the future.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 08:59 PM

I most sincerely hope not, but....

In November we found a spiked club outside our public library. Two days later we found a 12 gauge shotgun shell rigged to that it might explode if thrown -- a mini-grenade.

There's a high school a block away. Two 16 year old male students stabbed a 16 year old female student to death last November -- the event happened in the girl's home. The males might also be involved in another recent killing. The mayor told me that when the videotape (!) the males made is shown at the trial the city will be shocked to its roots.

Gang-type grafitti has been spraypainted on the statue at the back of the public library, the one protesting youthful violence, the one made from the steel of police-confiscated firearms.

I will not go armed to work. I'll quit first.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 09:52 PM

Thanks, Bainbo. It's good to know I'm not losing my mind.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 12:57 PM

It was me, the BBC phoned me at 7.15am Sunday to ask if I was near it - I didn't know what they were talking about!

I did about 5-6 interviews on the trot, 4 TV and some radio. They asked me questions about the area and whether I was shocked... !

I told them that it was a complete shock, this is a quiet, residential area apart from the ambulance noise from the hospital down the road and there was no gang culture that I knew of. We have noise and groups of kids running down the road when the local secondary school kicks out, but nothing that would make you afraid to go out. The one word that everyone was avoiding yesterday was Race. The one word that's being bandied about today and totally blown out of proportion is Race. The boy was black. So are about 65% of the kids around here... the odds are that if a crime is committed or a child hurt in an accident, the victim is going to be black. I didn't think then, and I still don't think that his being black is the issue.

The issue is a young boy was stabbed to death in a street near my home, an area that has had it's share of crime (the crack house next door and the marijuanna farm across the road) but had never been violent before. It's the second knife crime that I'm aware of in this area in 2 months. The previous was a fight near Limpit's school that ended in a minor stabbing. The school whose pupils were involved in that fight, today held a minute silence near where Adam was killed. Perhaps that, rather than the telling off from the headmaster, will discourage them from fighting in the future.

At the moment, there is a 'smear campaign' going on, making this area out to be rife with knife and gang crime - particularly from a 'Rev W Lamptey' who states he works with young people in this area. He may work exclusively with black children, or in a different part of the borough because no-one I've spoken to, or indeed, the Anglican vicar of this area, knows who he is. He certainly doesn't work with any youth group connected with the two schools in the area that we know of.

As for my interviews - I can only state that although I did say those things, the interview I caught on TV was segmented and out of sequence, giving a much more negative impression that that I was trying to give. If you'd asked me 2 years ago about the area I live in, I would have said it was quiet and peaceful and a good place to live. Now I'm not so sure.

I can appreciate the humour against me - it's quite a respite after the total crapfest that has been our last 7 days, but it should stop now.. if you want to make fun of me, PM me.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 01:00 PM

As for the 'copy cat' aspect - I agree. People see all sorts of things on TV news and think that validates their own actions. Was saying that to the vicar only this afternoon!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 02:53 PM

Not only on the news. The TV programmes seem to be more violent - more nasty stuff and quite graffic too.
Even the sitcoms have stupid situations that teenagers seem to accept as normal behaviour.
I suspect the electronic games the kids play just encourage them to strike first and think later.
I also hope it's not a glimpse of the future.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 03:51 PM

CCTV. Gated communinities. Kids with mobiles. We seem to slowly being geared up towards the day when our every move has to be monitored and protected from ourselves.

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: MBSLynne
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 02:45 AM

There seems to have been a sudden increase in knife crime among teenagers here. It's obviously been around for a long time but over the past few months it seems to have escalated alarmingly. I think the copy-cat bit has a lot to do with it. I guesss the only positive thing you can say is that, at least it's not guns (in the main...there have been some gun incidents) while the killing of teenagers in the street should NOT happen, at least with a gun the perpetrator can generally only take out one before they are stopped, not massacre a whole crowd.

My thoughts are very strongly with the family of this boy.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 01:51 PM

It seems that someone has been arrested in connection with this murder - let's hope that prevents any possible retaliation that his friends might have felt necessary.

The road block and crime tape were removed today, but the flowers, pictures and balloons are still there. People going past in the bus look stunned to realise it was so close to the main road.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Flash Company
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 01:08 PM

Sad to hear of another innocent life snuffed out, also to hear liz's comments on her interview being edited to give the viewpoint that the media wanted to portray.
One cannot hope to bribe or twist,
Thank God, the British Journalist,
But, given what the man will do, unbribed,
There's no occasion to!

FC

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Mar 07 - 01:37 PM

"our very own Liz The Squeak (looking good, incidentally)!"

I'd been rudely awakened from my 3 hours sleep at 7.15am by the phone, it was cold, windy, and I had no shoes on... if you think I looked good, all I can say is, sincerely, thank you!

Just as well the first interview was over the phone on the radio - I was still in my rather fetching purple and pink flowered night shirt!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 04:27 PM

Do the BBC keep a file of telephone numbers of people in different streets/districts so they can ring them to get interviews whenever something 'happens'?
Or is it just a coincidence that a radio station and several TV companies ALL had LtS's number (and address, so they knew she lived nearby)?

Subject: RE: BS: LtS on telly (but in sad times)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 05:07 AM

Only the BBC rang me, the others just pounced on me when I went to meet the Man from Auntie.

Some time last summer, Limpit's school was invited to send 4 pupils to the BBC studios, for a live broadcast of BBC7's "Big Toe Show" - stories and 'magazine' articles on the radio. So she could do this, I signed a permission slip which had to have contact details on it. I can only presume that these details are on record somewhere and when the incident occurred, my name popped up as living in the area.

It has nothing to do with my mental instability or being on any 'local loony' register.

Honest.

LTS