Middle England appears to have delivered its verdict on Mark Duggan. He was a gangster. He had a gun. The police shot him and there's nothing to see here. Move along. And that is a persuasive line of argument, more so now that an inquest jury has decided that the killing was lawful. Richard Littlejohn in today's Daily Mail puts it as only Richard Littlejohn would want to. "Duggan was a gangster not Nelson Mandela," is the heading above his broadside, as though nothing exists between those two extremes.
"There's no need here to revisit Duggan's well-documented criminal career and associates in order to see through some of the sentimental and misleading guff which has been spouted over the past 36 hours. If 'Starrish Mark' wasn't a gangster, how did he make his living — if not from trading drugs and guns? There's certainly no evidence that he had ever been in lawful employment. If he wasn't a gangster, why was he given a full-scale gangster's funeral? If he wasn't a gangster, why was he carrying a gun on the day he died?"
Duggan's family say he wasn't a gangster, insisting that he had only a minor criminal record. The police, meanwhile, bring forward much intelligence to suggest he was steeped in gang activity – one of the most violent criminals in Europe, the inquest jury was told. Both arguments predictable in an adversarial process. But if we concentrate too much on who and what he was, don't we miss the point? Full story...
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"There's no need here to revisit Duggan's well-documented criminal career and associates in order to see through some of the sentimental and misleading guff which has been spouted over the past 36 hours. If 'Starrish Mark' wasn't a gangster, how did he make his living — if not from trading drugs and guns? There's certainly no evidence that he had ever been in lawful employment. If he wasn't a gangster, why was he given a full-scale gangster's funeral? If he wasn't a gangster, why was he carrying a gun on the day he died?"
Duggan's family say he wasn't a gangster, insisting that he had only a minor criminal record. The police, meanwhile, bring forward much intelligence to suggest he was steeped in gang activity – one of the most violent criminals in Europe, the inquest jury was told. Both arguments predictable in an adversarial process. But if we concentrate too much on who and what he was, don't we miss the point? Full story...
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- Britain can now stop giving lessons on human rights ...
- Britain after the riots: the stench of a police state...
- The New York Times attacks Cameron's riots response...
- The perfect storm: the riots in England...
- Disturbing' rise in deaths during arrests...
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