The power of an urban ledgend
 

Here are two seemingly unrelated news stories

News Story One

News Story two

In one incident, one man has been killed and there have been riots over a rumour of an indecent assault that may never have taken place on a victim whos existance has never been confirmed.

In the second incident a number of people and a whole city has become a laughing stock.

Now tell me that urban legends do not harm anyone.

I don't know about the second story Sticks. As a vegetarian I am sorry to hear about the demise of any living thing, except the influenza virus from which I am just beginning to recover.

The first story I guess has something to do with the fact that the girl may be an illegal immigrant - she can hardly come forward. Also, the humiliation factor is- if at all possible - made worse for any muslim girl. She will be considered unmarriagable.

The ensuing violence is awful. Whatever the trigger, there is a tremendous amount of racial tension waiting to bubble over in Brum. My sons in-laws live in Birmingham alongside Asian Muslims and other Hindu's, who sort of rub along ok, but there is no love lost between them.

The tension isn't particularly with the white population, it's with the afro-carribeans, who (allegedly) are running vicious drug cartels and yardie gangs.

It's a very awful and sad situation. Their behaviour is as much to blame as anything else for fuelling Muslim/Islam fundamentalism. The hindu population is largely pacifist and not involved.

According to this link it looks like the first rumour was started deliberately, giving credence to the victim of such an assault not existing at all.

I'm not sure about urban ledgends but Amytiville Horror was good.

And concerning story one.

This recent rape is nothing compared to some of the violence and torture on the streets of Birmingham, through-out the last 20/30 years. This one incident has opened up the problems which have been building up over the years, causing mass riots and even murder.

There are places in Birmingham that i could relate to as a ghetto, or being a 'no white' area but whenever the issue gets brought up, we are seen to be the racists and the people in the wrong (the white and even the black community).

In some parts of Birmingham, you wouldn't walk alone in the day nevermind at night in some areas because the racial tension is just sky high. Mostly in the areas that have been mentioned, Lozells... Aston.. Nechells.

This will not be resolved overnight and i can only see it getting worse and worse in the next couple of months.

The trouble is, the police and the government like to drag all things wrong in the country under the carpet and prefer to concentrate on sticking a gun on a motorway to catch people breaching the speed limit.

Yes in Birmingham there are major no go areas that Ive suffered first hand.

Lozells, Newtown,Aston, Handsworth, Sparkhill, Sparkbrook etc.

There seems to be 3 rings in Birmingham- the inner ring is for black communities, the middle ring is for asuians and the outer is for whites.

I live in the outer, and hardly know any non-whites. This is due to the 'keeping to your own' mentality.

The rioters are just using this 'urban myth' as a reason to have a scrap and cause trouble. Pure thuggery.

I live in a mixed community where everyone keeps themselves to themselves, hard to believe when you hear the word Erdington.

Its a shame that the middle class snobs do not address this issue. A lot of it is down to poverty.

All the toffs care about is how big a cheque they get at the end of the week.

They don't care about citizens outside there beloved London and they never will do.

I say we elect somebody who has at least first hand experience at the Britain of today, and not the Britain of the toffs.

Good points, but who from our background can afford to stand and make a difference?