UK: Journalist bashed investigating voter fraud

Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Jerome Taylor
The Indepdendent:

When I look back on it now what surprises me is how disarmingly polite my attackers were.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the two, seemingly inquisitive, Asian teenagers who approached me on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bow, east London, shortly after 1pm yesterday.

"There's been a photographer around here, do you know her?" he added.

I didn't, but I explained I was a journalist for The Independent looking to speak to a man at an address in the area, who was standing as a candidate in the local elections, about allegations of postal vote fraud. "Can we see your note pad," the boy asked.

I declined and then the first punch came – landing straight on my nose, sending blood and tears streaming down my face. Then another. Then another.

I tried to protect myself but a fresh crop of attackers – I guess between four and six – joined in. As they knocked me to the ground one of them brought a traffic cone repeatedly down on the back of my head.

As their fists and feet slammed into me, all I could think about was some advice a friend had given me. She's a paramedic and has dealt with countless victims of assault. "Whatever you do don't get knocked to the ground," she once said. "Blows on the floor are much more dangerous." It seemed faintly absurd now. "That's easy for you to say," I thought. "How on earth are you meant to stay up?"

I don't know how long it lasted – it was probably only a minute – but it was a long minute. I don't remember them saying anything as they did it. The first noise I was aware of was the beeping of a car horn and a woman screaming.

The noise brought a man out of a nearby block of flats. With little regard for his own safety he waded in and defended me until my attackers ran away.

I shudder to think what would have happened if he hadn't been brave enough to take action and I cannot thank him enough for what he did. He gave me a bottle of water to wash the blood away and showed me a mobile phone that one of the attackers had dropped which he later handed to the police. He also maintained that he saw at least two of the attackers run into the candidate's house.

What brought me to Bow yesterday were allegations of widespread postal voting fraud. Both the local Conservative and Respect parties in Tower Hamlets have been looking through the new electoral rolls for properties that have an alarmingly high number of adults registered to one address. The area has a large Bengali population and this type of fraud is unfortunately all too common. In some instances there have been as many as 20 Bengali names supposedly living in two or three-bedroom flats. When journalists have previously called, all too often there are far fewer living there. In some instances, no Bengalis at all.

UK: slashed by Asians in anti-white attack

5th May 2010
Daily Mail:

A young father was slashed across the face as his five-year-old son looked on in what claimed was a random 'anti-white' revenge attack sparked by the murder of an Asian teenager.

Reece Johnson told how he and his son, Tyrel, were walking with Mr Johnson's girlfriend when a mob of 20 Asian youths surrounded him.

He claims one of the youths said, 'Your lot killed one of ours', before he was set upon.

The attack ended when one of the gang sliced open his left cheek with a craft knife.
As Tyrel screamed in horror, his father was left reeling with a giant gaping wound in his face which later needed 68 stitches.

Police are investigating whether the attack was sparked by the murder of student Saffer Khan, 19, by two white youths in the same area more than two years ago.

Mr Johnson, a labourer from Great Lever, near Bolton, today said: 'My face is a mess but the fact is I'm very lucky to be alive.

'The doctors told me if the blade had continued another few millimetres then it would have hit my jugular vein. The nurse said it must have been a very sharp blade, like a razor.

'She said another finger tip across my neck and that would have been it, I would have died. These guys picked on me for no other reason than because I was a white and killers of that young lad were white.

'It's just unbelievable. Obviously I had nothing to do with what happened to Mr Khan yet I was tarred with the same brush as the killers simply because of the colour of my skin.

'I'm scarred for life now and people might look at me and think I?m a violent thug.'

Mr Johnson had been for a day out with the friends in Blackpool and was walking past the entrance of Bobby Heywood Park in Great Lever where Mr Khan was beaten to death by two teenagers in November 2007.

Mr Johnson said: 'I was with my son and a girlfriend when this mob of 20 Asian youths came up to us. They were saying "Your lot killed one of ours" - meaning white people killed an Asian lad.

'One of the guys was acting aggressively and the group was swearing and hurling racist abuse. They attacked me because of the colour of my skin. They were very racist.

'I saw one of them in front of me with a small hand knife and I was watching him. But then another lad came at the side of me and punched me and that's when I was slashed.

'I was scared for my life. The lads who attacked me have no respect. My little son was with me - he's five years old and he was traumatised.

'He was screaming, clinging on to one of my friend's legs.'