This week my social media feed has been awash with news of recent ‘documentary’ about a Home Office van that showed up in May 2021 in the southside neighbourhood of Glasgow- Pollokshields - to collect two men who were staying in the UK illegally. I say ‘documentary’ because to me this seems a very convenient piece of propaganda. (Or (more sympathetically) serves as a convenient bit of propaganda even if not intended as such)
I say this from an informed position because I was there. A long time resident of the area, I lived less an arms distance from this very location and I observed the whole thing unfold. The Kenmure Street story was not organic, nor heroic- despite what the progressive filmmakers and those involved want you to believe. It is merely a bit of mythology built off human ineptitude, gaining arms and legs.
And of course the premiere coincided with the chaos unfolding in Minnesota. I cannot help but think… is it (just) possible that individuals are being whipped into a frenzy in order to sow the very division they purport to want to end? Could it just be possible that these lockstep stories across the globe have been seeded intentionally? (and what are we being distracted from perhaps a more pertinent question…)
In the erudite words of Meghan Murphy
“Are you really going to keep doing this? Every single time a thing happens? Are we going to do BLM over and over again for the rest of our lives? Are you quite sureeverything is exactly as the corporate media, Hollywood celebrities, and your algorithm tells you it is? Are you sure you shouldn’t just… pause… and wait… and maybe not post anything until you look into [the current thing] a bit further? Lest… you are wrong?
Do you really need to threaten all your friends, yet again, who don’t fall in line exactly with whatever you’ve invented in your Instagram story as a fake test of their goodness? How many more times should we all do this? How many more purges will there be? Will the world be Good after a dozen? Or will it take fifty?
Do you feel better? Is anything better? Did the hyperbolic posting help you or anyone else?
I suspect no.”
-Some not-so-nice but true things
And again for those in the back:
“Do you feel better? Is anything better? Did the hyperbolic posting help you or anyone else?”
She suspects no and I can tell you right now - no. Glasgow is a hot mess. Hence my departure. And these virtuous lunatics are largely to blame.
Meghan is referring to Minnesota and the various ICE stories populating MSM and social media. I see the same within the Kenmure Street story. Except I know the truth. And what they are peddling aint it. The propaganda position that is being pushed is that this was an extraordinary act of civil disobedience against the evil home office.
The truth is more boring however and doesn’t make for good cinema….
Basically two guys came from India on work visas, they worked, then one got a marriage visa. The one guy’s marriage ended (I heard he was not a very good husband, allegedly there was some domestic abuse) and they couldn’t be bothered to reapply for new visas. So they ‘hung out’ until they were caught for not paying their council tax. Not heroic. Not ‘good’ men. Bog standard lazy sods who couldn’t be bothered to do the work.
It is worth noting that Pollokshields is a neighbourhood of migrants. Thousands of individuals (of largely Pakistani origin) who came (legally) and worked hard to provide for their families, build businesses and become successful still are based in the vicinity. It is also worth noting that at the time of this ‘visitation’ I was another successful legal migrant who had arrived in Glasgow from the States in 2000 and followed all the necessary channels to live, work and contribute as was required. Myself and my fellow migrants (largely) would never imagine ‘just hanging out’ without following the necessary protocol.
It is never apparent to me what they expect to happen when someone breaks the law? These were not refugees, or asylum seekers. They were facing no risk for returning to India.
The truth is not a story of heroism but one of narcissism. Peddling these lies does not help asylum seekers (who will be trusted less and less), legal migrants (who have the potential to contribute greatly to the countries they choose to live and work) or make communities safer. It does, however, raises the social credentials of those who purport the lies.
And the truth is, the people who showed up ‘to protest’ on that beautiful sunny day didn’t know ANY of that. They didn’t know factually if the guys were good or bad. They just saw the home office van and thought ‘BAD’. They didn’t know if the men were murderers, or rapists, or anything at all. Basically they said they were ‘nice guys’ on no other premise then they hadn’t actually witnessed them do any crime.
Like this guy who also lived in Pollokshields.
Muhammed Akram was a sometime neighbour to me in Pollokshields, Glasgow. Imagine my horror to discover offences against women and children going back 40 years. Akram was convicted of nine charges of physically and sexually abusing three women between 2010 and 2021, including while one was pregnant. In 2003, he was given a seven-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He was then convicted in 2012 of abusing a four-year-old girl while he was still out on licence. Some of the multiple rapes and assaults happened while he was subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), which he successfully appealed in 2017. The decision to remove the SOPO was thought to be the first of its kind in Scotland. It took another six years of rape and physical assault for him finally to get an indeterminate sentence.
That he was able to continue to abuse and rape women and children, that he was found guilty of murder and still walked free, and was in my community should shake anyone to their core. How could this happen?
But mostly my heart breaks for his victims, also my neighbours, who were not given the support they should have. The women who came forward to seek justice showed exceptional bravery. I have to wonder how many people around these abused women and children were complicit or willingly blind to the harm being done. Had the courts done their due diligence and held him to account much suffering might have been alleviated. (to be clear I do not know him or his victims personally).
It’s quite probable that he was a ‘good’ neighbour. That he said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’ when passing his neighbours in the street. It’s possible he was wearing a ‘safe with me’ badge.
The point is - HE WAS NOT A GOOD MAN. And he was dangerous. I, for one, am glad the police did their due diligence and (finally) built enough of a case to lock him up. It means Pollokshields is safer.
On that fateful May 2021 day however the resident social justice yahoos had NONE of that info. Heads full of ‘cops = bad’ bs, they decided to play super hero.
I was there in the start of the day, I was dressed in a chicken costume like this:
Why are you dressed like a chicken? You may ask…. and that is relevant.
In May 2021 Glasgow was in the midst of another staging of Covid hysteria resulting in high theatrics of social distancing, mask wearing, and other nonsensical pseudo religious ritual. It was very effective. People were genuinely afraid of being chemical agents (and killing granny) and also of ‘not being good citizens’.
The largest, most egregious victim of the collective insanity was children.
In the first month of lockdown I heard of primary school kids with suicide ideation, kids who self harmed, kids who were previously outgoing and healthy become isolated and terrified. These kids became afraid of people and of living. And somehow, in my creative mind, the only response to the absurdity was to manifest something more patently absurd. So I donned various costumes and danced about the streets and made people laugh. Children had something else to talk about, they looked for me, like a game. And I offered silly outdoor dance workshops in schools - in the costumes.
And it worked.
At any time you’d see kids making up choreography at the local park. Parents would tell me ‘my son says that’s the dancing chicken’s corner!’. I populated their memories with an alternate narrative for that period which deflected from fear and reminded them that life was fun. In that time whilst other neighbourhoods saturated in the fearful media frenzy Pollokshields became a ‘community of dancing’. What a marvellous thing.
My main concern on seeing the home office van was that such an imposing presence would impact the children of the area. I wanted the police to do their business and be on with things. I asked them to go (dressed in my chicken costume which most certainly must have created pause). (Tarantino could not have written a better script). My head was thinking ‘there is another way to do this’. Because it did cross my mind that (perhaps) the men were dangerous and that’s why the police were there. That said, it was after nine am and kids were at school. I had no idea they’d stay the day and it would go the duration.
Already at 10am the usual suspects, the social justice warriors of the area, were in full force - brains slipped out of their heads and toxic empathy on speed. They filmed, they sat, one yahoo climbed under the van to keep the police from doing their work. And they spread the word. Soon droves of keyboard warriors in the hundreds, weary of isolating on their own for weeks on end due to covid restrictions showed up en masse. They luxuriated in company for the first time in months, sunning themselves on the pavements now impenetrable to local traffic. I was very active in that local, and I can say with some certainty at least 90% if not more of those present were not my neighbours.
It is worth noting that many from the local first generation immigrant families are quite conservative when it comes to immigration policies. Whilst they might not have expressed their disbelief at the theatrics on their doorstep, most would vote for a more sensible border policy (having gone through the process themselves) and so were not, in fact approving of the ‘saviours’ of the day.
But the seeds for the mythology had been set. As the day progressed in all its warmth, sunshine and (self reported) glory I noted a more antagonistic faction showing up. This was maybe 4pm or something. These boney 20 something youngsters (who appear to never having done a day of physical work in their lives) taunted the police. The police- probably working class lads who had managed to improve their lot via jobs in the force- acted professionally and honourably (in my opinion) and did not respond to the bait. I got shadows of Antifa riots in my mind and thought - this could become something much worse. I prayed they would at long last stand down.
Thankfully not long after it did end. Somehow the lawyer Aamer Anwar got roped in and managed to put himself front and centre in the photo op.
In this photo he stands with children as if they matter. Which clearly they don’t (to him) because if he did care about them he wouldn’t bring them into such public visibility first off, and secondly he would have shielded them from what was going on. This- like everything else was about serving his image and the narrative that was to grow.
Oh look and here is the television pilot he was involved in which was about…. himself: THE HERO (in his mind’s eye).
Locally it’s been said that where there’s self promotion there’s Aamer Anwar. So it’s fitting that he became ‘the lawyer’ who ‘saved’ the men on that day. And it’s fitting that this piece of fiction has gone global with him in the middle.
I reflect on this as I see countless posts on social media serving some other false narrative of what happened. I reflect on this as I see countless posts of the ICE events and realise I am in no position to comment as I have no idea what is going on. And that - as Meghan Murphy so aptly comments
“Are you really going to keep doing this? Every single time a thing happens? ………
Do you feel better? Is anything better? Did the hyperbolic posting help you or anyone else?
I suspect no.”
Because in all the selective outrage of the thing 'out there’ there are real world issues happening ‘right here’ things you could be doing to make your world better. I think back on my dancing shenanigans and realise I did that thing - singly and wholly for many years. I made things work ‘in place’ for the people who were around me. I made the world brighter, more connected and more fun. And I think we were better for it.
For people like Anwar and his ilk they can breeze in like a tornado to raise themselves up in their bluster and leave devastation in their wake. Neighbours on the block noted that the activists quite thoughtlessly urinated in their front gardens and left trash behind on the pavements. Was Anwar there after to clear up? I’ll let you guess the answer to that…..
Perhaps it’s always been this way, this weaving of stories to guide humanity as the ‘leaders’ wish. For us to be shaped into particular versions of ourself. But there is another story, one in which we are aware of the strings being pulled and we become fully informed and act accordingly as to what is best for self and society. Where we form connections on living and breathing interactions. Where people are held to account because we expect the best of them, not some degraded version as with the men in Kenmure Street. Those activists iterated ‘you are not capable of working, of following the law’. Pretty awful if you ask me. We can not grow under such a mantle. And through growth we flourish, which should be the aim of every human society. So let’s aim for that.
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