From: "E.J. Totty", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[...]
Police chief in gang murder inquiry says book advert
glamorises violence
By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
Independent, 11 September 2000
A Police commander investigating a spate of gang murders
has lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards
Authority about a publicity campaign for Penguin books,
which he says glamorises gun violence.
--snip--
The nationwide campaign, which included posters and press
advertisements, featured two American teenagers.
--snip--
The campaign has been attacked by a leading Scotland
Yard detective, who said it was irresponsible and that it
was helping to spread the "American gangster ethos" and
promote the idea of guns as "fashion accessories".
Commander Mike Fuller, the head of Operation Trident,
the 160-strong squad set up to investigate black-on-black
Yardie-influenced shootings in London, yesterday wrote to
the ASA to complain about the use of the gun image.
--snip--
Since 1999 there have been 29 drug-related murders in the
capital, six this year.
[...]
Memo to the Police chief:
Yeah, damnit!
We Americans are really to blame for all of this.
If it weren't for all of those evil looking black guns,
well hey, we' be just as civil as say, London -- right?
It seems just too darned convenient to blame a
community that is way across the ocean for all that has gone
wrong with your own community.
But, wait a bloody minute here! We don't make your
laws, we don't bloody enforce your laws either! So, bucko, where
do you get off blaming us Americans for YOUR failings?
If you have a community problem, it is YOU that has
the community problem. Sort of like a family problem, where
you don't blame the bloke up the street, or the one over in Wales
for your own kid's behavioral problems.
As we say here in America, responsibility -- as with
charity -- begins in the home. If you are gonna make excuses for
your own failings, then you will never find out the real reason
for those failings. And making excuses is the first step in the
process to making bad laws, for like excuses, bad laws allow you
to continue making excuses: there is never any accountability.
Pardon the pun, but it's a 'cop-out' for the Chief of
Police to blame another community for his community's
shortcomings.
ET
--
Why don't you write direct to the Commander?<G>
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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