What happened on 27th July 2023 - With your comments in the Web

On Thursday, the police made a statement on death of a talented Irish singer and activist Sinéad O'Connor the world has lost a day earlier.

The Irish singer and activist, 56, best known for the song Nothing Compares 2 U, was found at her home in Herne Hill, south London at 11:18 BST.

Police say she was "unresponsive" and "pronounced dead at the scene".

London Inner South Coroner's Court said no medical cause of death was given and an autopsy will be conducted. The results could take "several weeks" and a decision on whether an inquest will be needed will be decided when they are are known, the court added,

O'Connor's family announced the news of her death on Wednesday evening "with great sadness", saying "her family and friends are devastated".

She will be remembered for many political statements, including in 1992 when she controversially ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II during a performance on US TV show Saturday Night Live.

 

Hardly anyone stayed indifferent to this tragic event and to the police statements about it.

"Which correct me if i'm wrong, is used when it's suicide I believe. That's really sad as her son killed himself last year.

I had a very good friend who killed himself years ago and I remember the absolute state of his parents and teenage brother in absolute bits at the funeral."

"I think "not treated as suspicious" means that no one else was involved and there is a clear cause of death. I think this could cover death by misadventure (someone electrocutes themselves trying to steal copper, for example).

It's fairly obvious that she could not move on from the loss of her son. Terribly sad and such a loss. Her ripping up a picture of the Pope live, on stage, was prescient. At the time is destroyed her career. Now it is clear we should have paid more attention. Ireland especially has been the play centre of paedo priests destroying young lives.

edit: rectified pop to pope translation"

"Not suspicious

Basically means no third party involvement"

Thursday wasn't Louis De Zoysa's day. A man who shot dead a Metropolitan Police custody sergeant after smuggling a gun into a holding cell has been handed a whole life jail sentence.

Louis De Zoysa was convicted of Sergeant Matt Ratana's murder in June - and it is believed he had concealed the antique revolver and holster under his armpit.

Jurors were shown distressing CCTV footage of the 26-year-old gun fanatic using the legally-bought gun to shoot Sgt Ratana.

Northampton Crown Court was told the former tax office data analyst deliberately fired the weapon without warning into the 54-year-old's chest, causing a fatal wound to his heart and lung. He later died in hospital.

De Zoysa was handcuffed at the time, and suffered brain damage after one of the shots fired hit him in the neck. He had claimed diminished responsibility but was found guilty after a jury decided he pulled the antique weapon's trigger deliberately to fire homemade bullets, and had not suffered an autistic meltdown.

 

That was an issue to discuss.

"Obviously had to be a whole life term, really. I have noticed recently that courts seem more willing to use them."

"Yeah, murder of a cop is an automatic one now. Wish it included murder of a child..." - "It’s an aggravating factor during sentencing, and it’s not just police officers, it’s anyone working in the public sector or anyone working in the public sector providing a service to the public

Factors indicating a more than usually serious degree of harm:

offence is committed against those working in the public sector or providing a service to the public"

 "Why is a cop treated differently? Shouldn’t it be on a case by case basis?"

"I notice autism is a popular defence at the moment. If I were autistic I'd find that incredibly insulting."

"The thing with this case for me... is why did he have a gun? Why did he shoot anyone? It's completely senseless.

Also, how did they not find the gun on an initial search?"

On Thursday too, the Co-op has warned some communities could become "no-go" areas for shops due to soaring levels of retail crime.

The convenience store operator said crime in its outlets had hit record levels, increasing by more than one third over the past year. There were about 1,000 cases of crime, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour in its shops every day in the six months to June, the chain said.

But it cited figures indicating police did not attend most retail crimes. The Co-op said a Freedom of Information request had shown many police forces did not prioritise retail crime, with, on average, 71% of serious retail crime not responded to by police.

The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said forces were doing "everything possible to tackle offenders and support retailers in reducing shoplifting and attacks on retail staff".

Redditors had quite a number of horrible stories about their experience fighting shoplifting. That's really a great problem as we can see from the comments. Also those criminals live in the same neighbourhoods, as usual.

"Co-op Food managing director Matt Hood said retail crime was driven by "repeat and prolific offenders and, organised criminal gangs". In the worst cases, he said it could even be described as "looting".

Before the "if you see someone shoplifting, you didn't" folks start up. This isn't a single mother smuggling out baby formula. These are organised and sometimes violent offenders.

By all means these supermarket chains are profiteering wankers, but this behaviour isn't good for anybody. Not for the staff dealing with it, not for the customers having local shops shut down, and not for society that has to live alongside these criminals who are enabled by the lack of action by (understaffed) police.

We need more police, and resources to hold them accountable. Instead this conservative government has been gutting them for over a decade and trying to make up for it by giving the remaining forces ever encroaching powers."

"Where I work, shoplifting is almost exclusively the same few people coming in once a week (Or more!) to rinse the place. They know we can't stop them, so they just walk in, sweep a shelf of some high value items into a bag and leave again. It'll turn up down the pub later on being sold to fund their drug habits.

The last time a member of staff seriously tried to stop one, she got beat up outside the shopping centre by the man and his wife, so we just don't now.

These are not nice people and they shouldn't be encouraged."

"Back in my old job the majority of the problems we had were caused by regulars who’d either be stealing to order (one of them was taking ‘orders’ on FB and blatantly posting that she was going to certain shops on certain days) and then selling the items on for some easy money or they’d be doing as you describe and trying to feed habits.

I did notice that while the junkies usually went for small, cheap and generally mundane items (like packets of cleaning wipes) the thieves to order were usually targeting much higher value items. I did question how someone thought they could realistically steal something like a sewing machine or massive boxed duvet cover."

Also on Thursday, Britain has blown its reputation as a world leader in aid, according to the Economist.

Mergers almost  always go wrong. Investors, rightly, worry when a corporate one is announced. Combining two organisations, their differing goals, incompatible IT systems and management structures, at best causes headaches. It always proves expensive. Cultures clash. People get distracted. According to the Harvard Business Review, 70-90% of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals fail. The only surprise is that the figure isn’t higher.

The prospects were thus never great for a tie-up between the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID), which got under way in 2020. On one side was the diplomatic service, with lots of staff and an annual budget of some £2.4bn ($3.1bn). On the other was DfID, with fewer staff but a budget roughly four times bigger. Cultures differed starkly. As one former official noted, the choice of footwear said it all: hard-nosed diplomats showed up to meetings in smart office shoes; the bleeding hearts in sandals or trainers. 

 "Step 1. Feel like life is getting worse & getting you down

Step 2. Decide you need to help get the country back on track

Step 3. Vote Tory!

Step 4. Go to Step 1

The average Brit's lifecycle."

"I’d wager the majority of British people are more concerned about their own falling living standards under the current administration."

 "When I look to the future, I don't see anything other than the EU's external boarder becoming militarised/fortified and people being left to drowned in the Med. Otherwise the EU fails under the weight of the climate refugees. But then I am a glass half full kinda guy."