London: Another van attack nr Finsbury Park Mosque

[Brian Peacock]

Terrorism is usually backed by some ideology for social/government change by violent and/or extreme means.

Yes. And Darren Osborne has one. It's called islamophobia. So, yes, he may have been acting as a lone wolf, but he perpetrated what can only be literally described as a terrorist act based on that ideology, an ideology fostered by any number of right wing lunatic organisations such as the EDL, UKIP and so forth. Although he is not known to be a member of any of them, there is no record of him being mentally ill either.

I think that's a good point. I hadn't thought of it like that, but I'm still not sure if or when plain old xenophobia becomes an ideology and, as such, elevates violent, hateful bigotry to the status of terrorism(?).

[NineBerry]

IMG_20170621_005626.jpg (32.58 KiB) Viewed 1356 times

Bad decision using the photo of the perpetrator where he is making the IS sign.

[Brian Peacock]

I fear a fair trail may be being put in jeopardy with reporting like that. The Mail isn't much better...

[Feck]

IMG_20170621_005626.jpg

Bad decision using the photo of the perpetrator where he is making the IS sign.

Comes from one of the Hadith where people are encouraged to mimic the Prophet Paedo in word and gesture .
I'd do a word search for it,to find the exact quote but It's been too a long day to read through the endless repetitions of horrors such searches usually throw up

[cronus]

There are no moderate Mussies and even fewer moderate Welshmen.

[Alan B]

To what extent does the demise of the NHS (and treating mental health care as a sideline) contribute to the actions of these 'loners'?

The general impression could be "What's the use. I can't get help. Fuck 'em all." In effect blaming others for their unsolved problems.

Quite different, I suspect, from the terrorist acting upon a religious ideal.

This sort of stands out...
The Guardian - 22 Jun 2017

Nicola Osborne said she believed her brother was “angry at the whole world”. She admitted that he had been in trouble since he was a teenager, but said he she had never heard him express anti-Muslim sentiments or racist views.
Osborne said her brother had asked to be sectioned about two months ago, but this did not happen. “He was trying to get the help he needed,” she said.

My italics

Another failure at the door of Tory 'austerity'...

[pErvinalia]

What is "sectioned"?

[Alan B]

To be declared mentally unstable and restrained for appropriate treatment. If that had happened when he requested it, he wouldn't have made the headlines and there would be no injured or dead at Finsbury Park.

[Brian Peacock]

Though it no longer strictly applies, the police used to have powers under Section 5 of the Mental Health Act 1968 (amended 1983) to restrain and detain persons considered a danger to themselves or to members of the public, due to mental illness or impairment, and convey them to a hospital unit for assessment and/or treatment. In the old days being 'sectioned' was equivalent to being carried off to the laughing academy.

The provisions of the Act were integrated into the Policing and Crime Act which came into force this year, extending the powers of detention to 'places of safety' including homes and workplaces while reducing the maximum time of detention without professional assessment from 72 to 24 hours, granting individual officers more responsibility for invoking certain clauses of the act on the ground while strengthening obligations for officers to seek the advise of a mental health professional, and to remove the provisions which limited interventions to incidents in public areas (basically covering a lot of what the police had already been doing for quite a while anyway).

Being 'sectioned ' is not something you can ask for; but a protective measure which is imposed on you. Still, one would think that asking for it should have raised a few flags somewhere.

[Alan B]

Exactly. Unfortunately, I don't think there are enough 'flag-observers' around these days.