Shop explosion - news priorities

[Trinoc]

I and the whole of my area were woken up just after 2AM this morning by a loud bang that shook the building, caused by the flat over a shop around the corner exploding. It doesn't seem like there was anything sinister -- my guess is a gas leak.

What is interesting is the different approaches to news reports. From the BBC and Times making no assumptions about the cause and showing concern for those injured ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8128020.stm
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/4..._this_morning/

And from -- guess who -- the Daily Mail, who showed a picture of the multi-millionaire owner of the property who had been brought along in a Bentley to view the scene.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...roys-flat.html

I suppose the one interesting point in the Mail article was that the alarm was apparently raised by the "Jewish North West Community Patrol", a sort of private police force of which I have been unaware in by 23 years living here, who look out for anti-Semitic attacks, of which I am also unaware. What the Mail failed to mention is that if there had been any anti-Semitic element to this, there is a kosher supermarket on the corner, three or four doors away, and an abandoned kosher computer shop (really) on the opposite corner. I don't know the people in the flat, but anyone living above a shop around here would be more likely to be Asian.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the racial angle is a red herring. What I would like to know is why we have private patrols around here hired by a particular ethnic community, but no real police. And why the Mail cares more about the (doubtless well insured) owner of the property than about the people who have just had their home blown out of existence and narrowly escaped being killed (even this is unclear -- a fireman told me there might be people trapped inside).

(The BBC seem to think they were real police, so perhaps that will be clarified).

[Matt]

Totally abandoning any pretense at sensible priorities I'm going to pick up on the kosher computer shop...


Really?

Can they handle spam?

[Trinoc]

Totally abandoning any pretense at sensible priorities I'm going to pick up on the kosher computer shop...

Really?

Can they handle spam?

I hadn't thought of that one! It wouldn't surprise me if there was a kosher equivalent of spam ... probably made with chicken.

I suppose "kosher" is not quite the right word, but they did have a "Shomer Shabbat" (effectively, "closed on sabbath") sign on the door. Actually, I don't recall ever seeing anyone doing anything in there -- never mind a customer -- even on other days of the week. I suspect the token computer-related stuff in the window was a cover for using a property designated as a shop for storage space. Anyway, a few months ago a sign on the door said they had moved, just giving a phone number and no new address. It never occurred to me to use them for any of my computer supplies anyway.

[lost thought]

A neighbourhood watch group is not a second police force.
Also the flat that exploded did not belong to Mr. Noe and can’t see any reference to the owner of the flat is he not rich enough for the journalists to talk to.

[Croydon Bob]

It wouldn't surprise me if there was a kosher equivalent of spam ... probably made with chicken.

Hindl will have to do. It is kosher chicken.

Now you have to imagine the Python team in Kippot singing: "Hindl, hindl, hindl, hindl..."

[ZERO]

"Jewish North West Community Patrol", a sort of private police force of which I have been unaware in by 23 years living here, who look out for anti-Semitic attacks, of which I am also unaware.

So they are doing an excellent job then?

[Pebble]

So they are doing an excellent job then?

A psychiatrist & student see two patients 'clicking' their fingers repeditively.

The psychiatrist asks the first patient why he is clicking his fingers. To keep the lions from Hampstead replies the patient. There are no lions in Hampstead replies the psychiatrist. I know says the first patient, but I still feel the need to click my fingers worring about lions in Hampstead. Neurotic the psychiatricst explains to the student.

Approaching the second patient, the psychiatrist asks why he is clicking his fingers. To keep the lions from Hampstead replies the patient. There are no lions in Hampstead replies the psychiatrist. Thank god its working says the second patient. Psychotic, the psychiatrist explains to the student.

[Trinoc]

A neighbourhood watch group is not a second police force.
Also the flat that exploded did not belong to Mr. Noe and can’t see any reference to the owner of the flat is he not rich enough for the journalists to talk to.

I normally think of Neighbourhood Watch as an arrangement whereby people like me agree to keep an eye on each others' property. All-night patrols seem to go a bit beyond this.

I see the news now seems to concentrate mostly on the fact the shop beneath the flat belongs to someone on the Rich List. Also, while saying it was almost certainly a gas leak, they also call it "suspicious" ... can someone please tell me a scenario for a suspicious gas leak explosion? Somebody breaking silently into a house, turning on the gas and leaving, hoping the occupant doesn't smell anything, perhaps? Or a spectacular suicide attempt by the occupant?

[Trinoc]

It's starting to look like a typical case of news sources emphasising (or making up) the angles which they think will sell more papers, get more people seeing web ads, etc. First there is the celeb multi-millionaire angle -- though in reality he seems to be a recluse of almost Howard Hughes proportions, known mainly to the richer end of the Jewish community and presumably to those for whom he is a landlord, and though his only connection seems to be that the shop downstairs was one of his up-market estate agents. Now it looks likely that the "suspicious" tag may either be made up or taken from an off-the-cuff connect by police (or someone else). The reports are becoming the usual mix-and-match of paragraphs from different times ... one I saw stated in one paragraph that police had no idea what caused the explosion, then in the very next paragraph said that fire crews had told the police it was definitely gas. And of course someone has brought up the race angle, in the form of a police quote something like "We are not treating this as a race attack" -- who cares about the word "not", just get it in the story to spice it up.

As with almost all news reports about things where I have some personal knowledge, reality and reports rapidly diverge (if they have any similarity to begin with). It seems reasonably safe to assume that news reports about things I have not seen myself are equally unreliable.

[chillzero]

Also, while saying it was almost certainly a gas leak, they also call it "suspicious" ... can someone please tell me a scenario for a suspicious gas leak explosion? Somebody breaking silently into a house, turning on the gas and leaving, hoping the occupant doesn't smell anything, perhaps? Or a spectacular suicide attempt by the occupant?

Never seen Fight Club?
:D

[Croydon Bob]

Never seen Fight Club?

Don't talk about Fight Club!

[chillzero]

Don't talk about Fight Club!

*smack*

[Matt]

Never seen Fight Club?
:D

You don't talk about fight club!

[Croydon Bob]

You don't talk about fight club!

Have you got an "ignore" button that allows you to screen out my posts?

[Matt]

Have you got an "ignore" button that allows you to screen out my posts?

No I type a post the phone goes and a while later I hit submit. Now that Will Robinson fellow, him I ignored.