Julian Assange’s supporters show their true colours
I have spent much of this week following the ludicrous story of Julian Assange and the asylum given to him by Ecuador. I have been to meet the protestors, I have watched the Occupy News Network live stream and read the views of both supporters and critics.
In Solidarity, In Defiance
Here, in a photograph taken outside The Ecuadorian Embassy in London, we illustrate the contempt the supporters of Assange show to the natural processes of justice that the majority in Britain and the world hold dear.
Wearing a mask of defiance, this scruffy hooligan and his bare chested friend sum up all up that is wrong with this ragbag of nuisance makers and for this reason we make it The Steeple Times picture of the week.
Matthew Steeples gives his view on Julian Assange’s having been granted asylum by Ecuador
I spent much of the day yesterday watching the Occupy News Network live video stream from outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
For those who don’t know it, the Occupy News Network is the news source of the Occupy protestors who began “occupying” parks, financial districts and public squares throughout the world from 15th October 2011. With an aim of keeping their audience “abreast of developments in the global revolution,” the channel focuses on “expos[ing] police brutality and abuse of the law.” I was fascinated, amused and equally horrified by what I saw and I quickly became engrossed.
Police and protestors outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, 3 Hans Crescent, London, SW1X 0LS
With a man named Pedro both behind the camera and conducting interviews, viewers of the live stream were exposed to the thoughts of the Assange fanatics stood outside the building in Knightsbridge where he is holed up. Here, in the lead up to the statement that Julian Assange would be granted asylum by Ecuador, the audience heard interviews with supporters, police and bystanders. Most, to be honest, talked utter junk and illustrated the paranoia and stupidity of their positions.
The first I saw compared the prospect of police storming the embassy to the “invasion of Iraq” before laughing as he announced that hackers had crashed the Met Police website. “We should give them [the hackers] an Olympic medal,” he added.
The next, a young girl of no more than 20, described my least favourite politician, Theresa May, as “The Witch of Downing Street” and then announced that the police “like to scare young girls… They like to give you a good shove.” A smartly dressed American man spoke of his Orwellian terror when he stated:
“I worry about my visa status. I am afraid of what might happen to me in both Britain and the USA. I might lose my job for being here. We’re starting to become worse than Russia.”
The first moment of amusement came when a pizza delivery man arrived. He was filmed being turned away by the police at the door of the embassy. Subsequently, he came on camera and was asked who the pizza had been meant for. “Someone called Julian,” he answered. “Don’t you know who he is?” Pedro asked. “No,” he answered in bemusement before wandering off. Taxis and another pizza delivery for “Julian” followed and all these innocent workers left rightly angry at the prank that one of the protestors was trying to use as a way to aggravate the police. The police showed sense and correctly did not react.
The next arrived when Pedro decided to interview a pair of bystanders from Yorkshire. He asked: “Is that near the sea?” before seeking their view on Mr Assange’s “plight.” They answered simply: “Who is he? Sounds like a load of old nonsense to us.” They didn’t have a clue who the Wikileaks founder even was and plainly had no interest in his case.
Masked protestors unveiled
Commentary continued in the same vein and as the police repeatedly asked the film crew to step away from the highway they were obstructing, several arrests occurred. These and the police’s refusal to engage with them set a rather loud Brummie woman off into a gargantuan rant where she announced: “We should throw rocks at them when they [the police] storm the embassy.” Others, mostly masked, described President Obama and even their formerly beloved Guardian as “terrorists.” Assange, himself, was termed a “radical Ron Paul.” If these people are representative of Assange’s supporters, the likes of Sarah Saunders, Vaughn Smith and Jemima Khan would do well to distance themselves from him and this ragbag of nutjobs.
I pass the Ecuadorian Embassy several times each week and during Assange’s occupation, on many days there have been more police than supporters present. Sometimes there wasn’t even one person outside. This was indicative of the lack of support, but yesterday, on an occasion when a major announcement about their flawed superhero was due, the Occupy News Network were reduced to desperately stating:
“We need more numbers here. We really need some more people down here. We’re in Knightsbridge. We’re just near the Harrods tube exit. If you are in London, come now. We need you now.”
As the 1pm announcement approached, from what I observed, there were still more police and bystanders than supporters present.
When the announcement came that asylum had indeed been granted, I decided enough was enough and turned the Occupy News Network off. I later listened to William Hague’s wise statement about the situation and found myself in total agreement:
“We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the UK… We must carry out our obligation to extradite him to Sweden… This asylum is groundless as he is avoiding the legal processes of Sweden and Britain… This is is not about Wikileaks of the United States of America.”
Frankly, Julian Assange belongs in the asylum rather than being deserving of being granted such. Assange breached his bail and is, under Section 7 of the Bail Act 1976, eligible for arrest for that if nothing else. If he is subsequently sent to Sweden and charged, he should let justice take its course. He ought to realise that his innocence or guilt will be decided by the courts of a perfectly civilised liberal nation and that he has as fair a chance as the next man.
Mr Assange: you’ve made your point and you are not, as one of your supporters suggested, a “freedom fighter.” You are, instead, just a blabbing bail jumper who stands accused of rape. You have cost British taxpayers and your very own supporters hundreds of thousands of pounds and Ecuador will lose their standing in the world by harbouring you. To be totally honest, though, you should realise that the majority of us are bored of you and your “I’m above the law” attitude.
Please, Mr Assange, end this tedious charade, do the decent thing, proudly walk out of the front door of the Ecuadorian Embassy and hand yourself in. If you truly are an innocent man, we’ll all respect you a hell of a lot more.
Now that Julian Assange has been granted asylum in Ecuador, what are his escape options?
A perfect ride for Julian Assange
The First Post suggests that Ecuador could make him their representative to the United Nations as that “would make him immune from arrest while travelling to United Nations meetings around the world.” They also suggest he could be smuggled out or that he could even just “make a run for it…in disguise, perhaps trying to lose pursuers in the aisles of the nearby Harrods department store.”
The problem, however, for Assange is that whichever way he leaves 3 Hans Crescent, he has to cross British soil and pass the police waiting for him outside. Unless he’s cleverly disguised or carried out in a box, he will immediately be seized.
A way round this could be to have a helicopter hover above the embassy. A rope ladder could be sent down and Assange could then climb it. The helicopter would then spirit him away to a boat in international waters and he could sail away to paradise. This would probably be the Wikileaks founder’s ideal escape route as frankly it’s as far fetched as he is himself.
Those who don’t have, it dream of it; those who have it, often put it to good use. Sadly, however, money doesn’t always necessarily bring happiness.
Eva Rausing (1964 – 2012)
Lottery winners often go off the rails as they spend like silly because they simply are not used to wealth. Those who opt for publicity find they are inundated with begging letters from friends and even those they don’t know. If they give in, they fall into a vicious downward spiral and in many cases the money runs out. If they don’t, the guilt sets in and they lose their friends. The curse of the lottery winner is well documented but equally sad is the tale of Hans Kristian and Eva Rausing.
An inherited fortune, to the majority of us who are potless, sounds like a joy to behold but with such inevitably comes many pitfalls. The likes of Tamara Ecclestone and Anna Abramovich, daughters of first generation self-made wealth, seem to spend their time buying multi-million pound homes and £1 million bathtubs, but does that make them happy? I think not but perhaps I could be wrong. These young ladies seem to bathe in publicity and love the limelight and maybe that even satisfies them.
Eva Rausing’s story, though, is an especially sad case. This daughter of the charming former Pepsi executive Tom Kemeny and his wife Nancy grew up with great privilege and married into an even wealthier family, that of Hans K. Rausing. A posting on her MySpace page sums up the thoughts of this 49-year old Tetra Pak heir’s wife:
“I don’t work, but probably should. Or at least think of a constructive way of using my time, enlarging my life. I fell back into the same hole as before and have been there for nearly 7 years.”
Invitations no doubt flowed through her door on a daily basis and Rausing plainly was not limited by the troubles of an overdraft, a mortgage or credit card debts. For her, it was heroin that blighted her life. The drug of choice of the super-elite, the Rausings met in rehab and their life together continued in the same vein. Though many good friends tried to help them and though they used their very own foundation to try to help others battle addiction, Mrs Rausing sadly is the latest victim of the curse of being wealthy and bored.
Brideshead Revisited has nothing on this dynasty. My most sincere condolences to Tom and Nancy Kemeny and the Rausing family.
Since her twenty-one-month year old son Ben went missing on the Greek Island of Kos in July 1991, Ms. Grist-Needham has tirelessly campaigned to try and find him. Unlike with other cases, little help has been given by the authorities or charities. A volunteer named Scott Morrison has set up a website at http://www.helpfindben.co.uk and it truly deserves the support of each and every one of us.
This Watchdog and Rogue Traders television presenter stands accused of being a cheat himself. He claims the £24,000 benefits fraud he stands accused of is simply a “misunderstanding” but plainly others take a different view.
The nephew of Pulitzer-Prize winning playright Robert Schenkkan is best known for having played The O.C.’s Ryan Attwood, a troubled teenager and outcast who is given a second chance and a life of luxury in Newport, California by the rich Cohen family. One of his best lines in the series, which concluded in 2007, was: “You know what I like about rich kids? [punches another character] Nothing.” He’s since excelled as a rookie police officer in the NBC drama Southland and is most definitely one to watch.
Their daughter Madeleine disappeared on the evening 3rd May 2007 from a holiday apartment whilst they sat enjoying tapas with a bunch of friends. Some believe the poor child was kidnapped. Others have alternative theories. A public fund to find “Maddie” raised hundreds of thousands of pounds but Mrs McCann’s book, Madeleine, contains so many references to trips on private jets and meeting famous people that it makes one question whether the search for the child or fame has become the focus.
She called the Conservative Party the “Nasty Party” in a speech in 2002 and now Theresa May makes for a pretty nasty Prime Minister herself. Gaffe prone May failed to appeal to the police in May 2012 when they heckled her at the Police Federation conference and was too busy hosting a party with Lady Meyer later that month to deal with problems at Britain’s borders. Ken Clarke once described her as “childlike”, Joan Collins has made a fool of her on Twitter and it is for dressing like Worzel Gummidge that this hectoring vicar’s daughter is known best. Please, someone, just shoe her out.
He’s shunned Facebook and Twitter and is often to be found in the V&A library at weekends. Some say Carokis is developing an intellectual side but his day job is more typically Greek. This diplomat’s son works in shipping and is especially talented at making Greek salads. His costume choices for fancy dress parties are anything other than conservative.
