[Strictly Jake]

Yesterday I watched a video about the investigation into the Manchester attack.

In brief there had been many missed opportunities that the terrorist could have been stopped. A number of factors had been involved. Example the two police officers who were supposed to go on break for an hour took 2 hours etc. But one of the things that stood out to me was that the terrorist had a massive back pack and walked up to the arena foyer he stayed there for a while and was noticed by one of the security guys. After a while he goes back to the stairs to the train station. After another while he goes back into the arena foyer waiting in a place he knows there is no CCTV. He stays there with a massive backpack for an hour! A member of public tells security about this. Security tell the man they are aware. The security try to communicate to each other and try to radio over a message that isn't received. The security guy is afraid to report it as if he is wrong he might be branded as racist.

Youtube video

We all know what happens next

Today I had a staff training in one of the lecture theatres at work. It's called prevent training. We all have to have it when we work in the university and I'm sure many of you may have received a similar staff meeting

When it came to question and answer I put my hand up to talk about this

I thought it would be a good topic to discuss on here too

I said
"Do you find that people hold back from raising suspicions as it might be seen as racist as in the case of Manchester the security guard didn't do anything as he was worried about being seen as racist"

I don't know why but I was so breathless asking it as was worried to word it wrong so I felt a bit silly in front of around 40 staff members.

But basically the trainer said

"When cases are reported to them. They are only given a name so it's done on face value. It's confidential so you can't be accused of being racist. In the case of Manchester if you know deep down your not being racist then your working to save a life"

I don't think this is a clear enough answer though. In the days of people filming everything. Does racism accusation hold people back from taking action?

And before people say it I know radicalisation and terrorism and grooming etc comes in many different shapes and forms the training was excellent to be fair really interesting. We have been taught how to look for certain behaviours etc

But yeah being in a member of security's position would you act on suspicion or would you be afraid of being accused of being racist

[Strictly Jake]

One part of the training involved how with BLM, people are using vunerable upset people that are protesting to go and commit attacks. Not just black radicalisation groups but other groups can identify people they could perhaps groom

There was also a part on how people are using the coronavirus pandemic to launch hate crimes on Muslims and Chinese. There was even a tweet shared by Katie Hopkins that showed her using the pandemic as an excuse to use hateful words about Muslims. It then went on to conspiracy theories and how the internet can make people really believe them and take further action

This part chilled me a bit as I'm very much turning into a conspiracy theorist about the pandemic so it's made me think of I'm buying into too much stuff I'm reading on the internet and need to stop believing stuff I read

[ThomasC]

I think regardless of race of the terrorist, this was going to always end badly... it didn't have to be as severe, but there were a multiide of failures which had nothing to do with the race of the terrorist.

The force duty officer declaring PLATO and not telling fire or ambulance.

The fact that the terrorist had been there days prior or might have even been the day before, was reported by a member of the public to british transport police and this wasn't acted on.

The terrorist hiding in a blindspot for a while. A blindspot the arena security staff did not check and had never done so

Fire not entering scene until over two hours post detentation.

Only one or two paramedics in the city room

Mix up of RVP points.

Control room officers, even senior ones not knowing what operation PLATO is. Incompetance.

A mix up with action cards which meant they chose the action card for bomb rather than explosion which triggered a completely different set of responses which stopped emergency crews from entering scene.

Lack of resources. They were using make shift stretchers

etc etc

I have been following some of the inquiry on youtube.

But to answer your question, yes, there were probably missed opportunities because of this, but also missed opportunities just across the board. I think we live in a world where most people are PC these days through fear of saying something wrong.

Prevent training is useful and does open your eyes more, but a lot of it is also common sense.

[Mystic Mock]

To me if I am paid to be a security guard and there's someone behaving suspiciously, I'd investigate what they're doing no matter what their race happened to be.

I'd rather be accused of racism than be partially responsible for the terrorist attack happening all because I was scared of being seen as racist and not stopping them before they commit the atrocity.