| Dalian Atkinson thread and comments. 17:05 - Jun 30 with 1712 views | OriginalMarkyP |
Firstly, let me declare an interest.
Dalian was my hero. I was the right age at the right time to totally idolize a footballer the like of which I'd never seen live before. I was there for the boro hat trick. He was the first player to define for me what it meant to say a player was 'electric' not just in speed but the pure energy he transmitted to the crowd. It felt like you literally plugged into him. In his all too short town career it looked to my eyes like he was playing a totally different game to the others around him on the pitch. How delightful it was to watch.
So when he died it felt truely shocking and it still does, how could this effervescent life be snubbed out so early?
I'm not a particularly political person. But I hate injustice. I don't mourn Dalian's death as the death of a black man, i mourn it as a person who mattered greatly to me as i grew up. As I said, a hero. But I fully see how it has an ugly resonance to events like George Floyd and all those others. Its a very uncomfortable reminder that we are far from perfect over here. And the fact that people are still unfairly judged on the colour of their skin is exactly that, a fact. To say otherwise whatever your motivation is pure ignorance or idiocy.
So the comments. The ones people made on the story thread. The ones people wanted taken down. Don't. I say leave them. Don't whitewash the ugliness. I personally would much rather see with my own eyes who is saying them. I'd much rather know what they are.
I believe this board generally has an intelligent level of poster. And i believe that if they see their fellow posters speaking in such away they will judge them appropriately. Hiding intolerance and prejudice only protects it and allows the kind of thing that happened to Dalian Atkinson to happen, because it makes it all to easy for us to think that we, collectively are better than that, when sadly, we are not. [Post edited 30 Jun 2021 17:08]
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| Dalian Atkinson thread and comments. on 20:39 - Jun 30 with 281 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Dalian Atkinson thread and comments. on 17:43 - Jun 30 by fergalsharkey |
Is anyone suggesting that the police officer killed Dalian because he was black?
Are you suggesting that had he arrived at the scene and been encountered with an out of control white guy with mental issues as Dalian was, he would have taken different actions?
I'm genuinely intrigued by your thoughts on this. |
Read the comments that Monk said in his defence at his case. Some of them ring loudly of racism. Just some of them from a couple of articles:
"Pc Monk described Mr Atkinson as "massive" and claimed the size of the former Premier League forward, who also played for Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday, had left him taken aback"
"The bloke was towering above me, absolutely towering. His shoulders literally filled the frame of the door.
"The way he contorted his face literally for the entire incident... the contortion was one of complete and utter rage. It was absolutely surreal."
According to Monk's account, Atkinson had the "biggest and wildest" eyes he had ever seen in 15 years of policing.
Prosecutors said Monk had exaggerated the threat posed by Mr Atkinson and lied about the events to justify excessive and unlawful force.
Prosecutors also said the officer lied about the number of kicks he had delivered to the former sportsman’s head by claiming he could remember only one aimed at his shoulder. |  |
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