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UK woman arrested for racist rant posted on YouTube

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A video posted on YouTube of a woman on a packed South London tram spouting off racist and xenophobic statements has, in four days, garnered more than two-million views, and resulted in the arrest of the woman in question.

The video was widely shared in the UK, resulting in the top Twitter trending topic #MyTramExperience, has widely been denounced as one of the most deplorable instances of racist attitudes in the UK being captured on camera.

The video, seemingly filmed surreptitiously, captures the women who has been identified as 34-year old Emma West making comments which have been described as “disgusting and offensive” by UK authorities.

“What has this country come to? A load of black people and a load of f***ing Polish… You ain’t English. No, you ain’t English either. You ain’t English. None of you’s f***ing English. Get back to your own f***ing… do you know what sort out your own countries, don’t come and do mine.” West shouted with a little boy perched on her knee during the two and a half-minute tirade.

Other passengers on the tram, to no avail, tried to confront West on what she was saying.

Reaction to the story was swift.

Twitter user Aaron Hussey summed up the general opinion.

When authorities got wind of the video, they quickly issued statements denouncing what had happened and calling on the public for help in identifying the woman.

A spokesperson for British Transport Police (BTP) quoted by The Daily Mail said, “The video posted on YouTube and Twitter has been brought to our attention and our officers have launched an investigation… As a result we need anyone who witnessed this incident, or with any information that could assist our investigation — including the identity of the woman — to contact us. We will not tolerate racism in any form on the rail network and will do everything in our power to locate the person responsible.”

The decision by authorities to pursue the woman was not wholly welcomed.

While this case has received widespread media coverage, looking at BTP’s website, the use of the web to locate those who infringe on their regulations is not new.

Its website currently features cases where CCTV footage is being used — as was done during the London Riots — to track down people who have fallen foul of the law.

It is not clear at the time of writing whether the authorities apprehension of West — who has been arrested on “suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence” — could be connected to information received via social media.

This case brings to mind the now infamous incident of the UK’s Mary Bale, also known as the “Cat Bin Lady,” who in 2010 was caught on CCTV throwing a cat into a bin. The video was subsequently posted on YouTube, following which Bale was identified and charged with animal cruelty.

In China, the naming and shaming of people caught on camera in moments of illegality they had thought private are fairly prevalent. In 2010, The New York Times Magazine ran a feature piece on these actions which in China are known as “human-flesh search engines”.

WARNING:Video contains highly offensive language


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  • Sarahandmason

    To be fair i say fair play to her shes got good point but she cud of done it with out kids bein there

  • Maz

    wow, I’m very surprised they allowed you to post on here.  Tell me, do you even live Britain?  I’m guessing your American, right?.. Who the hell are you to call my country  a ” Filthy little nigger ridden rathole!”.  Listen pal, keep your no good bigoted opinions to your god damn self.  No one gives a shit what your racist ass thinks OK!.. And the reason the world is in such Chaos right now is because of bigoted,uneducated people like you!.. If you feel Britian is the rathole you say it is, don’t fucking come to England.

  • Calvin

    Lol… You people need to get a life. If you don’t like living multicultural society why don’t you go kill ya selfs. Small minded idiots :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Comfort-Ck-Antiri/822203949 Comfort Ck Antiri

    Before you go around talking bullshit no the history and talk based on facts.It has been scientifically proven. the first humans were  black and that the birthplace of man was africa. 

    Egypt was the first of many great African civilisations. It lasted thousands of years and achieved many magnificent and incredible things in the fields of science, mathematics, medicine, technology and the arts. Egyptian civilisation was already over 2000 years old by the time the city of Rome was built.
    In the west of Africa, the kingdom of Ghana was a vast Empire that spread across an area the size of Western Europe. Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, it traded in gold, salt and copper. It was like a medieval European empire, with a collection of powerful local rulers, controlled by one king or emperor. Ghana was highly advanced and prosperous. It is said that the Ghanaian ruler had an army of 200,000 men.
    The kingdoms of Benin and Ife were led by the Yoruba people and sprang up between the 11th and 12th centuries. The Ife civilisation goes back as far as 500BC and its people made objects from bronze, brass, copper, wood and ivory. Studies of the Benin show that they were highly skilled in ivory carving, pottery, rope and gum production.
    From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the kingdom of Mali spread across much of West and North-East Africa. At its largest, the kingdom was 2000 kilometres wide and there was an organised trading system, with gold dust and agricultural produce being exported north. Mali reached its height in the 14th century. Cowrie shells were used as a form of currency and gold, salt and copper were traded.
    Between 1450-1550, the Songhay kingdom grew very powerful and prosperous. It had a well organised system of government, a developed currency and it imported fabrics from Europe. Timbuktu became one of the most important places in the world. Libraries and universities were built and it became the meeting place for poets, scholars and artists from other parts of Africa and the Middle East.

  • mashedpotatos

    Get over yourself.

  • Stephen

    Hey Poes!  Praat my maat, ek hou van wat jy se.  I second what he has said (except about joining Hitler back then).  Listen to those white people who have been living in a multiciltural society for over three centuries.  Western civilisation can not exist when its society is not western!  Its as obvious as that.  One day Britian will look like Johannesburg, or one of its surrounding towships, and just like in SA, all the whites will be packing their bags and dusting off their passports.  Like my bleeding-heart-liberal of a sister, who in 1994 voted ANC, and two years later emigrated to USA.

    You British are shooting yourselves in the foot with letting all that 3rd world trash into your country, the whole of western civilisation is turning to shit because of Neo-Liberalism.  You’re shooting yourselves in the foot because one day – very soon – you will have a very real and very bloody revolution on your hands.  Its inevitable now, and this “racist” rant by Emma West, is an indication of rising tensions within British society.

    There are dark days ahead guys!

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