The Underscore Archives

On 3 Jun 2008, at 10:27, Ed Mitchell wrote:
> Be alert on the Easton stretch of the Bristol Bath cyclepath, all -
> some sad and bad business afoot atm... forwarded message follows...

Do you know this person? The one who's sister was beaten?

I ask because, without wanting to cast any aspersions on anyone (I've  
no real reason to doubt you or your source), but this just doesn't  
read right:

• 3rd person account — it wasn't the person writing who experienced  
the event
• overuse of exclamation points
• curious details (maybe I just don't read enough news, but I don't  
often recall police specifying the heritage/nationality of a youth  
gang except where it was relevant to the crime — e.g. in hate crimes;  
and 'big welts' doesn't seem particularly serious to me, and I'd  
think he'd have had a broken bone or two)
• no link to a news story
• baseball bats? are those common gang weapons here? they are in the  
U.S. (well, when they're not using guns…), but I handn't thought  
baseball was very well known at all, and consequently baseball bats  
would be a bit of a specialty item — not something one'd expect a  
gang of (presumably poor) 1st/2nd-gen immigrant kids would have to hand

A quick check of Google News and the BBC yielded only this from April:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3648755.stm

The perps were described as *white* youths, which indicates to me  
probably not Jamaican or Somali.

So was this just not brutal enough to make the news? Are these sorts  
of beatings that common in Bristol? Is there some other reason why it  
wouldn't be referenced anywhere online? Or have I simply missed it?

I know that part of the town can be rough — even heard an account  
from someone who claimed she'd personally witnessed her neighbor  
getting cornered in a doorway by a youth with a machete — but  
something about this account feels wrong to me.

> Just want to warn everyone and get the word out to the local  
> community: My
> sister and her boyfriend were attacked by a gang of 6-8 youths with  
> baseball
> bats at 9.30-10.00pm last night on the cycle path between the Easton
> Community Centre and Devon Road. He was beaten quite badly, they  
> hit him on
> the back of the head causing a serious head injury, and he lost a  
> lot of
> blood, split gums and large welts over his back arms and legs, they  
> beat her
> too, but nothing broken or bleeding. They stole their bikes, but this
> didn't seem to be the point of the attack as the gang seemed more  
> intent on
> beating them up than stealing anything - they both arrived at my  
> house with
> their phones, cash, handbag, etc.
>
> We spent the night at BRI A&E with the police who informed us that  
> there are
> currently two gangs of youth attacking people (mainly other kids)  
> in the
> area (mainly around the cycle path, hiding in the bushes in dark  
> places and
> jumping out on people) and that things seem to be escalating as  
> this is the
> first time they have attacked grown ups! The policeman said that  
> one gang
> is made up of Jamaican youths 14-16 years old, wearing hoodies and  
> bandanas
> over their faces. The other gang is about the same age but made up  
> mainly
> of Somali youths.
>
> Please can you warn your neighbours and friends to be careful, this  
> could
> quite easily have ended up in real tragedy. Apparently there is a  
> lad still
> in intensive care at the BRI at the moment who was beaten up by a  
> gang with
> baseball bats last weekend!! The police also informed us that they had
> several calls about this gang last night and that they had the  
> helicopter
> out looking for them!
>
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