On Saturday June 3, shortly after 10 p.m., seven people were killed and over 48 injured in a terror attack in London.
Pedestrians were struck by a white van on London Bridge, followed by a quick succession of stabbings at Borough Market.
Three suspects were later shot and killed by police.
A man named Richard Angell happened to be at Borough Market during the second attack, and says he’s been working in London ever since leaving school.
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Related: The police officer killed in Paris attack was a proud gay man and LGBTQ activist
Talking to the BBC on Sunday, he said: “I love this place,” praising the Manchester community for the solidarity it showed after the attack at an Ariana Grande concert last month.
He also claimed London Mayor Sadiq Khan “symbolizes that unity and diversity that we love about London.”
“We’re not going to let these people win,” he said. “If me having a gin and tonic with my friends, flirting with handsome men, hanging out with brilliant women, is what offends these people so much, I’m going to do it more not less.”
Related: Twitter suspends homophobe’s account after he posts this truly awful tweet about Manchester attack
“That’s what makes London so great. That’s what makes this the best city in the world.
They hate our democracy, go vote people. They hate our equality, go meet somebody you haven’t met before from a different part of the world.
Small-minded, cowardly, evil people should not change our way of life.”
You can watch the entire speech here:
h/t: Attitude
JaredMacBride
Very civic-minded of the chap.
sfbeast
Excellent spur of the moment response to the reporter.
Mo Bro
Sorry, but it’s only another meaningless platitude designed to accomplish nothing but make the proclaimer feel better about himself. And frankly, his “open yourself to all cultures” mentality is what’s getting people killed in London and Paris on a weekly basis.
Islamic leaders need to publicly denounce these strikes and convince these religious radicals that murdering westerners will assure they never reach Islamic heaven, as they’re convinced it will; otherwise, prepare yourselves for more bloodshed followed by more futile clichés and hollow hashtags.
Juanjo
Your usual tripe there MoBSbro. Lots of unsupported opinion and nonsense about Muslim leaders. Do you every do anything other than spread drivel and logical fallacies?
Gaytaffuk
As a Brit I feel that this guy hit the nail on the head. He was passionate, articulate and erudite. We ALL need to ‘enjoy our differences’ – establishing ghettos and excluding those of a different colour, religion, political view or sexuality is exactly what these terrorists want.
Islamic leaders are working with government in the UK to minimise these people but sadly their ideology is very deeply ingrained and in some respects sociapathic. To avoid relating to people of different cultures as you are advocating plays into the hands of the terrorists and defeats the object of modern society.
BTW your SCROTUS is picking on the wrong guy in having a go at the Mayor of London – he’s a VERY highly respected Muslim , and speaks for a large part of London’s residents and doesn’t have to resort to lies to make a point.
Mo Bro
@Juanjo:
Let me guess: ISIS just needs a hug, then they’ll be dancing in the streets with their western brethren celebrating the multiculturalism you’d enlighten them with.
Or do you ascribe to Obama’s notion that they just need jobs to stop the killing?
Mo Bro
@Gaytaffuk:
“SCROTUS,” ha ha ha ha ha . . . ah, apparently it’s true what they say about British wit being very British but not very witty.
(I will, however, pass that along to my 8-year-old nephew; I’m sure he’ll get a chuckle or two out of it at school tomorrow).
Gaytaffuk
‘Scrotus’ is an expression I picked up from this site so I would say an American wittisism, which whilst not very amusing is VERY appropriate as a description for you ‘commander’ in chief!
It is quite typical of what I’ve seen of your comments that you try to deflect attention by either sad name calling and distraction.
Kangol
Are you denouncing the white supremacists in Portland? In Maryland? Are you?
DCguy
Awwww, the anti-lgbt troll attacks an out gay British man. How typical.
To your other comment that Muslim leaders need to denounce these strikes? Why would you say that when you always lie and pretend it hasn’t happened? Already something like 2000 Imams in Britain have refused to conduct funerals for the attackers. The mayor of London is Muslim and condemned them etc…
But that isn’t your issue, your issue is to always attack somebody who is out of the closet, to ALWAYS defend anti-lgbt bigotry and attacks if they are done by Republicans or Christians, and to always divert any topic onto the standard Trump Troll topic.
How sad for you. This guy is upsetting you because the only way Republicans win elections if by having FOX News keep their viewers terrified, and this guys attitude threatens that.
charlie_jackpot
It’s not up to the public to come up with defence and counter extremism strategy. It’s the public’s job to show unity, strength and compassion in the face of hatred and ask their directly elected representatives to do better
Xzamilloh
I like his approach. I’m not liking the lackadaisical implications of dismissing death and destruction that comes from these attacks, but I understand what he is saying. But, for the families of the dead and the survivors forever scarred and traumatized, it’s not this instant snap back, so let’s not diminish what actually happened here.
DCguy
Britain went through much worse that we have. They went through WW2 bombings and the aftermath. They’ve gone through decades of IRA bombings constantly hitting public places. They know far more about things like this than we do, just maybe they know which attitude works.
mhoffman953
The mayor of London is a waste. He’s been on record of saying terror attacks are “part and parcel” (something to be expected) of living in a major city. Then when a van full of Islamic terrorists run over people on a bridge, weeks later blow up people outside an Ariana Grande concert, then weeks later run people over again and begin stabbing them to death repeatedly, he says “don’t panic”.
That is the mindset these terrorists want us to have. They want westerners to have a pacifistic, open-arms mindset so that they can strike and conquer those who are weak.
Theresa May is just as bad by ultimately suggesting we find ways to censor the internet as a way to diminish terrorism.
This is an issue of immigration and homeland security. They let these people travel to terror hot spots and return with no questions asked. They have over 20,000 high risk individuals just in London alone and have little to no idea where they are at. Plus they refuse to do anything to these people until they attack. The policies of these leaders are failing and the answer isn’t for all of us to sit back and hold hands singing Kumbaya
Mo Bro
Islam has to speak up against these maniacs.
Warfare will not deter them; they must be ideologically swayed from within.
Until that happens, buckle up and hold on.
mhoffman953
@Mo Bro
True. You’ve seen it more and more as of late that this radicalization is happening within their own communities and at mosques.
We can’t expect these communities to drive out radical views or drive out the bad. I think it’s going to take government intervention centered around immigration control, undercover raids, and possibly deportation / detention.
These radicalized muslims don’t integrate into the western world and are forcing us to ride a thin line between safety and going into full police state mode. You don’t see this happening in Poland. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because they don’t let these people in.
With the pacifistic way in which Europe is treating this, I predict Europe will be overtaken by majority Islamic rule in the next few generations, specifically in France and Germany first. You will see political parties representing the teachings of Islam slowly creeping their way into government to pave the way for this and weak politicians as well as a brainwashed populace who will allow this to happen.
You’re already seeing this unfold now with propaganda making people feel guilty for discussing this under the guise of being xenophobic or Islamophobic. On the issue of Islamic extremists not integrating well, they’ll claim we should help them integrate by changing our own culture to make these people feel welcomed, thus further eroding the culture of Europe inch by inch.
DCguy
Oh, how adorable, Mo Bros screenames are talking to each other.
What the mayor of London ACTUALLY said was to not be concerned by the extra police presence because it was part of the investigation and every single news site has pointed out that Trump was lying when he took the words out of context. The fact that you are trying to repeat Trump’s context even after it was completely debunked shows that you are just another liar.
Oh and your other screename keeps saying that “Islam has to speak up against these maniacs”. So weird that it doesn’t matter if they do, because you all keep pretending that they don’t. You guys keep lying, keep getting busted on it and yet keep coming on here trying to do the same thing. That says you have the agenda to put out false information and hope that people don’t catch you. Well you’re caught. Oh, and here’s an article from a British paper and CNN pointing out that over 130 Imams have refused to perform funerals for the attackers. Funny how with all that publicity you and your other screename seem to have missed that.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/05/europe/imams-london-burial/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-bridge-terrorists-imams-refuse-funeral-prayer-khuram-shazad-butt-rachid-redouane-a7774291.html
mhoffman953
@DCguy
“What the mayor of London ACTUALLY said was to not be concerned by the extra police presence because it was part of the investigation ”
We know what he said. How this that any different than what was stated? Why shouldn’t the citizens of his city be concerned considering 3 major terror attacks have happened within less than 3 months and the police are swarming the city. Oh…yeah…don’t be concerned…just business as usual, you know.
“You guys keep lying, keep getting busted on it and yet keep coming on here trying to do the same thing”
Where was I caught lying? The fact that there is a terror attack nearly every month in Europe shows that what I’m saying is factual. You post some article about 130 imams, and what is that supposed to prove? I Googled the first guy on the list and he’s some white liberal author who now considers himself an imam, many on the list are Sunnis, some small business owner, or someone I can’t find any information about. There are 1.6 billion muslims in the world, just because 130 said what happened was bad, won’t make a difference. That’s only 0.000008125% of the muslim population. A minuscule group of muslims do this after every terror attack – it doesn’t mean the majority feel this way.
Are you suggesting that because 0.000008125% of all muslims collectively posted their names in a message on a Facebook page, which generated 228 likes, that we won’t see another terror attack in London and everything is solved? I don’t think you thought this through before posting.
If muslims really were protesting all of these recurring terror attacks, why aren’t they holding marches and rallies? Meanwhile in Iran, they hold a march every year screaming “death to America”, yet I can’t find any marches as of late consisting of massive numbers denouncing these attacks.
After every terror attack, you never see massive amounts of muslims doing anything in response. It’s always the victims who hold rallies, marches, concerts, and singalongs condemning islamphobia while nothing changes.
mhoffman953
@DCguy
Also here is your hero, the mayor of London defending the conspirators behind the 9/11 attacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZM6ujJ983c
Keep drinking the koolaid
Gaytaffuk
I totally disagree with you saying that the mayor of London is a ‘waste’.
He is doing a good job and a major part of that is to begin dialogue with some of the marginalised groups which are on the edges of British society. This is key to integrating them and minimising the development of the ghetto mentality which predicates these people being radicalised. As a high profile Muslim he also sends a very clear message – he is a Muslim in a position of power who is totally accepted by the majority of Londoners, just by being the Mayor of London he shows that British society in inclusive and accepting and that anyone, regardless of race, creed or colour can achieve anything. Also when he said that people should not be alarmed he was referring to the number of police and especially armed police who are now very visible in busy/important locations (this has been pointed out a number of times so should be clear). In the UK we are not used to seeing armed police on our streets and it was a very important message of reassurance. It also indicates to people that the security forces are taking this situation VERY seriously.
I agree with you that Muslim society, the Imams and mosques, have to be involved with the work to irradiate extremist views but a heavy handed approach will never work. Society needs to be open and inclusive, showing the extremist that everyone’s voice can be heard but the extremist views are only that, extreme. Using an iron fist will only drive the extremist underground, isolate them and make their views a self sustaining loop.
The big issue we have in the UK at the moment is that under the current government police numbers and investment in the intelligence forces have been drastically reduced (police numbers reduced by 20k in seven years and armed police reduced by 1k). This is obviously severely restricting the work these agencies can do. This has to change.
I also agree with you about radicals being able to travel in and out of the country freely, but again the main issue here is funding for the security agencies – this has to be urgently addressed.
You have overstated the number of ‘people of interest’ – there are not 20,000 in London there are 6,500 in the whole country, still a huge number and far too many for an overstretched intelligence and police force to deal with effectively.
I disagree with your view that British politics is being infiltrated by an Islamist agenda. That is not the case, Sharia law and Sharia law courts are not accepted in the UK. I have not heard of a single instance where a Sharia law has been introduced or adopted into mainstream law. There is, within British law, an understanding that everyone is equal and that everyone’s beliefs should be respected EXCEPT when it conflicts with the prevailing law of the land. Therefore it may seem that the British way may be quite ‘soft’ but it comes from a position of respect. As I said, treating ‘others’ with and ‘iron fist’ only pushes them to be more radical, inclusion, understanding and acceptance are the way to go.
You mention the ‘pacafistic’ approach Europe is taking – does invading Iraq, Libia, and Afghanistan and bombing Syria sound ‘pacafistic’? And has that approach actually worked or has it actually made things significantly worse and produced far more radicalisation then it prevented? Maybe it’s time to try another approach, dropping bombs on people doesn’t seem to be having the desired effect.
You say that Imams refusing to bury these terrorists is statistically insignificant, however the message that sends is huge. Each of those Imams will represent a significant number of followers say 2k each, at the last count 200 Imams had refused burial, they represent 400k Muslims, not insignificant! Also it sends a message to the wider society – that non radicalised Muslims will not accept this behaviour and that it does not represent their beliefs – an important message at this time, also astringent message to the radicalised that what they are doing is not sanctioned by mainstream Islam and that their 72 vergins may turn out to be a fallasy.
Some of what you say has merit but you undermine your arguments by straying into extremist views yourself. You would convince me more if you took a more reasoned view.
DCguy
Look at how desperate the anti-lgbt trolls on here are. Two screenames talking back and forth to each other. Desperately attacking the mayor of the capital of our closest ally after they’ve had a terror attack.
They got the guys who did it and rounded up the others associated with them in record time. So again, why are they spending hundreds of words attacking him?
Ohhhh, that’s right, the article was about an openly gay man, so of course they have to attack that. The Mayor of London spoke out against Trump during the election, so of course the paid trolls have been out for him since then. And oh, that’s right, he’s Muslim, and they desperately have to attack all of them to take attention away from the fact that right wing Christians here in America want to attack lgbts politically and physically any way possible.
Keep doing the troll stroll.
jkb
This hate us for our freedoms response is getting kinda tired. We drone strike innocent Muslims daily, make arms deals with terrorist states like Saudi Arabia (who also get off on killing Muslims) and don’t expect blowback? No, fundamentalists don’t condone our lifestyles, but they have more important things to think about.