What a really bizarre story to tell... ...even if it is true you would just keep quiet. It’s not just the racist aspect it’s the fact that he was menkal enough to run outside and clobber the first person who happened to look like the rapist...
...PLUS, you would stay with the woman who has raped!
As somebody said on the radio this morning - it is testament to how privileged and safe he feels that he can admit to carrying a weapon with intent to kill from racial motivation.
On one level, it is helpful for somebody, particularly from the liberal Hollywood set to admit to racist instincts that have to be combated (many more have them than care to admit) on the other it seems to me to be a pretty serious racially motivated crime being admitted here that needs to be dealt with (plenty of black men get sentenced for carrying knives without an intent to kill)
I half read this last night, isn’t he just saying he went out looking to be started on as he felt like killing a black person? Admittedly this is pretty bad but is nowhere near the sun headline I just walked past “Liam neeson in racist murder plot”
Given that he's carved out a niche as an ageing hard man I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was talking bollocks to shift his reputation away from being a nice guy in order to win some new roles now he's getting too old to be taken seriously as someone who can beat up a twenty year old in 30 seconds.
Sounds to me like he was being suitably actorish prowling the streets with a cosh but carefully avoiding anywhere where he might actually have to do something. He was probably wandering some deserted part of a nature reserve seething on the offchance he might come across someone else but was unlikely to do so.
isn’t he just saying he went out looking to be started on as he felt like killing a black person? Admittedly this is pretty bad but is nowhere near the sun headline I just walked past “Liam neeson in racist murder plot”
"I can't be sure, of course, but his story sounds like bullshit to me to verify his hard man capable of revenge credentials".
If you wanted to prove your are a hardman I very much doubt this is the story you would make up - taking out a weapon with the hope you get to kill ANY black man? Taking a weapon and trying to find the man who did it, you may well boast about that but this? Come on...
pretty sure he confessed to a crime, asti (not thinking the racist thought, forming the intention and taking the initial steps towards committing a murder)
Am aware he used to box. He's probably far tougher than the average 66 year old. Fully agree its an odd one to bullshit about, but a few things about the story just don't add up for me.
1. If you do admit them... don't start the anecdote by describing your intended victim as a "black bastard".... that doesn't indicate previously held views but currently held views.
2. Don't justify the violence, but not see it even as an issue that the first thing you ask about was colour and then you assume all blacks are equally culpable.
3. Just ... don't.
Do I think he should be judged for walking around armed to find someone to kill...? Yes. Because that is an offence. The fact he didn't find someone is just lucky for them. Saying "sorry" isn't the punishment for an offence. So, I'll judge away. He should be judged for this.
He first asked if his friend knew who did it or could describe the assailant. When she couldn't provide that information he moved to asking about race which I believe is what the police also do.
Apart from his admission though what evidence is there to actually take him to court with? He clearly wasn't picked up wandering around with a cosh and interview can just claim he made the whole thing up.
ZG - did you miss the story about the woman being arrested for tweeting that gender is not the same as sex? arrested and held for 7 hours despite being a mother of two small children.
Clergs - no I've not seen that, and as you've set it out it sounds nuts, but just because some underemployed police do something stupid in once place, doesn't mean they should elsewhere.
As for Liam, it's clearly a fvcking stupid thing to say, and fvck knows what he was doing repeating the story now, but he does at least show some insight in the quotes that it was a horrible thing to do/think and that it came from a dark place.
It's a bloody weird story but I don't understand why people are so desperate to twist it to try to make it worse.
Eg - "his use of the language "black bastard" shows currently held views" errrrr no it's blindingly obvious from his use of quotations in the interview that this was how he thought about it then, and he is now appalled by his former self
I don't know but I doubt you can intend to murder someone when you haven't identified that specific person in any sense. For the purposes of this being an actual crime, I mean.
Also, while I'm not sure it's been established where all this took place, is it actually a crime to intend to murder someone without an actus reus? Would have thought the best they could get him on would be possession of an offensive weapon - we probably need Bailey to confirm.
Heh at wanting the police to spend time on this when there’s tens of thousands of actual knife crimes over the last recorded year.
as one of the commentators put it on R4 this morning, we can’t hope to address this stuff without acknowledging how far we’ve come AND how far we’ve yet to go.
Anyway, this is as much about gender identity roles as racism (the idea of the male as protector) and the idea that past perspectives can’t be honestly discussed without potential criminal investigation should be terrifying to any who wants actual change rather than pious grandstanding .
intent is certainly a crime Zero... whether what he admitted to is intent we'd need Mutters and Bailey, but he admitted to deliberately arming himself and going out to look for someone to kill.
I don’t think so, I suggested it was a possible explanation. And yes, the idea is if you release the story, you have some chance of controlling it. PR 101.
On the mean streets of Balham, an horiffic sadist has a small flat. he lures young men there and keeps them hostage whilst talking about knots. when they expire from boredom he dismembers them and packages the flesh in old tins of spam which he takes to the local food bank...
"If he's guilty the police should be talking to me and I suspect many others on the basis that in an angry moment I've considered killing someone."
Sails, have you taken a weapon and gone out on the street looking for a random person to kill? If so, yes you are also guilty. If not, we are not talking about the same thing.
Apparently he's been sentenced to wander round London with a few million other white men, where there's a black guy with a cosh who might hit him (or one of the other white guys) if one of them starts on him.
Incidentally I hehmaxxed @ a description of Devon Toner as a colossal weapon in one of the broadsheets this weekend, especially given etymology of the perjorative.
I had a quick look at the article in the indie. it's very strange story. I think it must be true - why on earth would you make that up? only he knows how serious his 'intent' was. Not clear to me WHEN he was walking the street like a seething highly agitated racist
Not sure the point that you are trying to make Bernstein, in the interview, the description was given some time after the event when he returned from being out of the country.
I'm slightly less bothered now it turns out to have been in the late 70's when the police did far worse and attitudes to this kind of thing were rather different. From the way it was originally reported it sounded like he'd done this in the last few years.
Re: the idea that the police would interview him for once, 40 years ago, having possessed the intent to commit murder (nb not acted upon - and ignoring the fact that it obviously didn't happen...).
Doesn't this righteous desire to have the full might of the state come down upon him rather fail, on the grounds that possessing the intent to commit murder is not a criminal offence?
Only if you consider that he had no more than intent which would be a wild misrepresentation of his own words. In his own words he went out looking for it and prepared for it and if his actions were more than "merely preparatory", that would be attempted murder.
There's an offence of going equipped for burglary or theft, he was going equipped to twot someone's head in.
The righteous desire to have the full might of the state come down upon him fails, not the grounds that possessing the intent to commit murder is not a criminal offence because on his own case there was quite a bit more than intent involved, it fails on the grounds of what's the fooking point.
Doesn't the existence of a specific offence for going equipped for burglary imply that it otherwise would not be enough to make out an attempted burglary charge?
Do you need a victim for attempted murder and some actual attempt rather than strolling round a deserted suburban Belfast street muttering under your breath? Actually must have been after he left NI as there weren't any black people there in the 70's.
Surely a conviction is only viable in the US where the old "we've got a confession so who cares if there's any other evidence" evidential threshold applies?
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what for?
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Being a ball bag with an odd angled for’ed
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Being frank. Or making stuff up to be controversial. One or the other anyway
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What a really bizarre story to tell... ...even if it is true you would just keep quiet. It’s not just the racist aspect it’s the fact that he was menkal enough to run outside and clobber the first person who happened to look like the rapist...
...PLUS, you would stay with the woman who has raped!
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Is it for Love Actually?
About fooking time. Hoping they do a Gadaffi on him
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Method acting for Taken innit
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Oi... I did this yesterday.... but ... who the fvcks reaction is that
1. Finds about historic rape of friend
2. Asks the colour of rapist
3. Walks around armed looking for a black man to fight with and kill...
Obs - black people are interchangeable and should be punished for any transgression by anyone.
FFS
Why on earth would he admit this? It is wrong on so many levels.
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Not once... but for months... seeks out a victim for months.
I actually don't believe it, cos it's not that hard to provoke a fight.
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Can someone pls post a llink to this story
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Google.com/“Liam Neeson”
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Was he in the UK or in America?
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Yeah story loses its oomph if he was doing this in Tunbridge Wells.
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As somebody said on the radio this morning - it is testament to how privileged and safe he feels that he can admit to carrying a weapon with intent to kill from racial motivation.
On one level, it is helpful for somebody, particularly from the liberal Hollywood set to admit to racist instincts that have to be combated (many more have them than care to admit) on the other it seems to me to be a pretty serious racially motivated crime being admitted here that needs to be dealt with (plenty of black men get sentenced for carrying knives without an intent to kill)
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I half read this last night, isn’t he just saying he went out looking to be started on as he felt like killing a black person? Admittedly this is pretty bad but is nowhere near the sun headline I just walked past “Liam neeson in racist murder plot”
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Given that he's carved out a niche as an ageing hard man I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was talking bollocks to shift his reputation away from being a nice guy in order to win some new roles now he's getting too old to be taken seriously as someone who can beat up a twenty year old in 30 seconds.
Sounds to me like he was being suitably actorish prowling the streets with a cosh but carefully avoiding anywhere where he might actually have to do something. He was probably wandering some deserted part of a nature reserve seething on the offchance he might come across someone else but was unlikely to do so.
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I can't be sure, of course, but his story sounds like bullshit to me to verify his hard man capable of revenge credentials.
When Bullshit Goes Wrong - 9pm - Thursdays - on Channel 5
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(Didn't see your post SS before I posted mine but I agree with you - the story hangs together a bit wrong, for me)
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It does sound a bit "middle aged not very hard man dreams about taking revenge for friend".
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Bam's Love Actually and Tunbridge Wells lines are giving me hehmax today. thanks
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they're not that far apart, tbh.
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"I can't be sure, of course, but his story sounds like bullshit to me to verify his hard man capable of revenge credentials".
If you wanted to prove your are a hardman I very much doubt this is the story you would make up - taking out a weapon with the hope you get to kill ANY black man? Taking a weapon and trying to find the man who did it, you may well boast about that but this? Come on...
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I wonder if he will be charged
uhoh
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Do you remember the Equalizer... with Edward Woodward (such a good name!), they can remake that now....
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You are aware that Liam Neeson used to be a very useful boxer when he was younger, yes?
I’d say that together with his size and physical condition that would make him pretty tough.
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errr they did remake it as a film. With Denzel.
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It is a weird fckg story tbh. I just get a mental image of him walking around Limerick going "where da fuk are all the black people"
I have a very particular set of skills
finding black people is it?
no, oim shoite at that
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The Equaliser with Denzel Washington was such a good film.
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So the takeaway seems to be: if you’ve ever had horrible racist thoughts in the past never ever admit to them.
Cos no matter how horrible you consider them now you will be treated as if you still holding those views and are incapable of change.
I was particularly struck by the commentary linking his making of this self admittedly “horrible “ admission to his privilege.
obviously privilege is an issue to acknowledge but who the hell will admit such things if the confession itself is criticized as a mistake?
*sighs and awaits abuse*
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erm
pretty sure he confessed to a crime, asti (not thinking the racist thought, forming the intention and taking the initial steps towards committing a murder)
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Am aware he used to box. He's probably far tougher than the average 66 year old. Fully agree its an odd one to bullshit about, but a few things about the story just don't add up for me.
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I'd say the takeaway was
1. If you do admit them... don't start the anecdote by describing your intended victim as a "black bastard".... that doesn't indicate previously held views but currently held views.
2. Don't justify the violence, but not see it even as an issue that the first thing you ask about was colour and then you assume all blacks are equally culpable.
3. Just ... don't.
Do I think he should be judged for walking around armed to find someone to kill...? Yes. Because that is an offence. The fact he didn't find someone is just lucky for them. Saying "sorry" isn't the punishment for an offence. So, I'll judge away. He should be judged for this.
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He first asked if his friend knew who did it or could describe the assailant. When she couldn't provide that information he moved to asking about race which I believe is what the police also do.
Apart from his admission though what evidence is there to actually take him to court with? He clearly wasn't picked up wandering around with a cosh and interview can just claim he made the whole thing up.
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would he deny it now? I still think the police should question him (I know we don't know what country this took place in)
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Question him? Wtf? Do you mean the Thought Police?
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HEH. What Ray said at 1102.
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E-war Woo-War....
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3-ducks05 Feb 19 11:12
Report
Question him? Wtf? Do you mean the Thought Police?
No Dux... the real police... the ones who get involved when you admit wandering the streets armed with a cosh looking for someone to kill.
You geddit, don't you? He didn't just think it... he did it. He went out armed looking for a victim.
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I would hope that all crime everywhere has been solved before the police interview an actor about something he made up 40 years ago.
You may as well set them on tecco
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Heh
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ZG - did you miss the story about the woman being arrested for tweeting that gender is not the same as sex? arrested and held for 7 hours despite being a mother of two small children.
So, confessing to intent to commit murder??
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Clergs - no I've not seen that, and as you've set it out it sounds nuts, but just because some underemployed police do something stupid in once place, doesn't mean they should elsewhere.
As for Liam, it's clearly a fvcking stupid thing to say, and fvck knows what he was doing repeating the story now, but he does at least show some insight in the quotes that it was a horrible thing to do/think and that it came from a dark place.
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It's a bloody weird story but I don't understand why people are so desperate to twist it to try to make it worse.
Eg - "his use of the language "black bastard" shows currently held views" errrrr no it's blindingly obvious from his use of quotations in the interview that this was how he thought about it then, and he is now appalled by his former self
Etc etc
It's quite bad enough without making shit up
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I don't know but I doubt you can intend to murder someone when you haven't identified that specific person in any sense. For the purposes of this being an actual crime, I mean.
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Also, while I'm not sure it's been established where all this took place, is it actually a crime to intend to murder someone without an actus reus? Would have thought the best they could get him on would be possession of an offensive weapon - we probably need Bailey to confirm.
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Heh at wanting the police to spend time on this when there’s tens of thousands of actual knife crimes over the last recorded year.
as one of the commentators put it on R4 this morning, we can’t hope to address this stuff without acknowledging how far we’ve come AND how far we’ve yet to go.
Anyway, this is as much about gender identity roles as racism (the idea of the male as protector) and the idea that past perspectives can’t be honestly discussed without potential criminal investigation should be terrifying to any who wants actual change rather than pious grandstanding .
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If he's guilty the police should be talking to me and I suspect many others on the basis that in an angry moment I've considered killing someone.
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intent is certainly a crime Zero... whether what he admitted to is intent we'd need Mutters and Bailey, but he admitted to deliberately arming himself and going out to look for someone to kill.
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We don't need anybody to tell us anything. It won't change our lives in the slightest. Some luvvie isn't a threat to anybody. This is a non-story.
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Oooh Saillaw do tell!
Did Ellen MacArthur criticise your deck shoes
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Tl;dr but if he’s volunteered the info then it’s probably to spike a story in the tabs, surely?
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Gawd knows - I can’t help but admire your commitment to cynicism m8
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I don’t think so, I suggested it was a possible explanation. And yes, the idea is if you release the story, you have some chance of controlling it. PR 101.
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On the mean streets of Balham, an horiffic sadist has a small flat. he lures young men there and keeps them hostage whilst talking about knots. when they expire from boredom he dismembers them and packages the flesh in old tins of spam which he takes to the local food bank...
The Sailor, in cinemas from Feb 14th...
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Wang you joke but watch out if you're lurking in Balham...
To be fair it's mainly people at work that I'd like to kill.
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They think it’s all over but John Barnes has stepped up to his defence
*catch me if you can, cos l’m a Neeson man....
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"If he's guilty the police should be talking to me and I suspect many others on the basis that in an angry moment I've considered killing someone."
Sails, have you taken a weapon and gone out on the street looking for a random person to kill? If so, yes you are also guilty. If not, we are not talking about the same thing.
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I should think pretty much every bloke fits that category at some point in their life.
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Why would I need a weapon when I have limbs?
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?!?!?!?
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Clergs between the school cadet force and karate team I'm a walking talking lethal weapon...
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You're certainly a weapon
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Totally irrational behaviour by Neeson
Why go looking specifically for a black man?
Might well have been Chinese or Japanese
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Pretty sure sailo has just threatened to kill me if i go to Balham.
i assume someone has notified the police
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It's ok though Wang I haven't left the house with a weapon as apparently that makes a difference.
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Are you suggesting the victim's account was false?
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I dont think you could leave the house without a weapon sailo. nimitz class.
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Apparently he's been sentenced to wander round London with a few million other white men, where there's a black guy with a cosh who might hit him (or one of the other white guys) if one of them starts on him.
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Well it's true I do have one enormous weapon that comes everywhere with me so I'll take that as compliment!
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sailo, never without a billhook
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Sailo I didn’t know you palled around with hanners
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Incidentally I hehmaxxed @ a description of Devon Toner as a colossal weapon in one of the broadsheets this weekend, especially given etymology of the perjorative.
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I had a quick look at the article in the indie. it's very strange story. I think it must be true - why on earth would you make that up? only he knows how serious his 'intent' was. Not clear to me WHEN he was walking the street like a seething highly agitated racist
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I saw that too ZG
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Victim confused and dazed, 3Dux
Just said the first thing that came into her head
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?
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Not sure the point that you are trying to make Bernstein, in the interview, the description was given some time after the event when he returned from being out of the country.
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As far as I am aware, intending to kill someone is a criminal offence , see criminal attempts act 1971 if I recall correctly. Bailey.......
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Suspect that requires a specific person ....among other issues
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And you actually have to do something more than merely preparatory to murderin'
Wandering around tooled up is arguably not quite there yet.
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I'm slightly less bothered now it turns out to have been in the late 70's when the police did far worse and attitudes to this kind of thing were rather different. From the way it was originally reported it sounded like he'd done this in the last few years.
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“From the way it was originally reported...”
Words to live by m8.
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Re: the idea that the police would interview him for once, 40 years ago, having possessed the intent to commit murder (nb not acted upon - and ignoring the fact that it obviously didn't happen...).
Doesn't this righteous desire to have the full might of the state come down upon him rather fail, on the grounds that possessing the intent to commit murder is not a criminal offence?
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Only if you consider that he had no more than intent which would be a wild misrepresentation of his own words. In his own words he went out looking for it and prepared for it and if his actions were more than "merely preparatory", that would be attempted murder.
There's an offence of going equipped for burglary or theft, he was going equipped to twot someone's head in.
The righteous desire to have the full might of the state come down upon him fails, not the grounds that possessing the intent to commit murder is not a criminal offence because on his own case there was quite a bit more than intent involved, it fails on the grounds of what's the fooking point.
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Doesn't the existence of a specific offence for going equipped for burglary imply that it otherwise would not be enough to make out an attempted burglary charge?
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Do you need a victim for attempted murder and some actual attempt rather than strolling round a deserted suburban Belfast street muttering under your breath? Actually must have been after he left NI as there weren't any black people there in the 70's.
Surely a conviction is only viable in the US where the old "we've got a confession so who cares if there's any other evidence" evidential threshold applies?
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Although it seems to predate said act. So not really.
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