Brixton nail bombing

[Brixton Hatter]

Watching that BBC programme last night about David Copeland brought back a load of memories to me about the Brixton nail bombing. Doesn't seem like 8 years ago. I remember walking past Iceland with my bike at about half past 3 or 4 that Saturday afternoon…..I was wandering around Brixton not doing much and eventually decided to pop home (Railton Road) so I could catch the 5pm football results. I think the bomb went off about half five and I can still remember hearing it. Nearly 50 people were injured, including kids, coppers, stallholders.....I'm still amazed that no-one died. Any of us here could have been standing on the corner outside Iceland that day.....

Much as I'm an opponent of CCTV, the CCTV footage from Brixton was what eventually helped the police identify Copeland.

Thankfully, the cnut is languishing in jail doing 6 life sentences. And he has the gall to call himself a "political prisoner"!

 

[christonabike]

I was in the Ritzy at the time and presumed the dull thud was part of the film

Heard all about it when we got out, mayhem

 

[Pip]

I was in Brighton on the day it happened, but my best mate was in central Brixton and said it was really eerie - everything went completely silent a moment before it went off. It was scary at the time too as my three top hang outs were Brixton, Brick Lane and Old Compton Street
I didn't see the documentary - was it good?
ETA: it's a bit sick, but my brother remembers it fondly as he was in Pizza Hut when it happened, got bundled out and didn't have to pay for his meal.

 

[editor]

A photographer mate of mine was right on the scene seconds after it happened.

He put his camera away and helped the victims instead of taking pictures.

Apparently it was an horrific sight.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I was in the White Horse on Brixton Hill. About 10 minutes before bomb went off, I was about to go to Brixton to cashpoint, but someone lent me some money to save me the bother.

We then heard what we thought was thunder

 

[Spandex]

Was it really 8 years ago? Time flies...

I was in bed in my flat in Sudbourne Road when it went off. I though it was thunder too, though fucking weird thunder: it made my windows rattle and there was no rain. It was hours before I found out what had happened - I heard a helicopter flying around all afternoon and thought that that was a bit odd too. In the evening I walked past the high street, saw it all taped off and wondered what was happening. It was only when my mum called to see if I was okay that I found out about the bomb and put it all together.

That was a weird and scary few weeks in general - especially on the third Saturday, when just about everyone in London was thinking 'where will it be today?'

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I heard a helicopter flying around all afternoon and thought that that was a bit odd too.

Nowt odd about that

 

[Giles]

I was in Brighton on the day it happened, but my best mate was in central Brixton and said it was really eerie - everything went completely silent a moment before it went off. It was scary at the time too as my three top hang outs were Brixton, Brick Lane and Old Compton Street

It's a conspiracy.

Who was Copeland working for, and why were "they" out to get you?!

 

[story]

I was working in the indoor market. We all stopped and looked around, thought it was a gas explosion. No-one knew quite what to do, then the phone rang. Someone's boyfriend had guessed it was a bomb and could tell that it was somewhere in or near the market, phoned to see if his girl was safe/alive. I went home via Electric Lane, saw the blood on the street.

 

[detective-boy]

... my three top hang outs were Brixton, Brick Lane and Old Compton Street

Whatever you do ... never mention this to Larry O'Hara ... you'll become an integral part of some complex conspiracy theory ...

See other thread in UK Politics and you'll get the idea within a couple of posts ...

 

[Pip]

Whatever you do ... never mention this to Larry O'Hara ... you'll become an integral part of some complex conspiracy theory ...

See other thread in UK Politics and you'll get the idea within a couple of posts ...

I think me and this Larry fella should have a little chat, somebody was CLEARLY out to get me. Blooming government trying to silence me just because I know the truth, the truth I tell you, the TRUTH!!

 

[Larry O'Hara]

Whatever you do ... never mention this to Larry O'Hara ... you'll become an integral part of some complex conspiracy theory ...

See other thread in UK Politics and you'll get the idea within a couple of posts ...

some people on this board are just sad inadequates, who wouldn't know what evidence was it if hit them in the face. I do you the credit, detective-boy, of granting that you know exactly what you are up to in seeking to muddy the waters over Copeland. The abuse you variously hurled at me there "shut the fuck up...cunt...twat" etc, shows I touched a raw nerve--and I am going to continue to do so, however much abuse is hurled at me on this board and elsewhere.

 

[Larry O'Hara]

I think me and this Larry fella should have a little chat, somebody was CLEARLY out to get me. Blooming government trying to silence me just because I know the truth, the truth I tell you, the TRUTH!!

If you are experiencing delusions, and have psychological problems, I can think of quite a few posters on here with whom you can share your problems. I, however, am not one of them. Feel free to join a group of virtual cowards whose idea of fun is 'flaming' anybody who dares criticise the official version of the 1999 nail-bombings: if you gain solace from hunting in a rat-pack, I'll not deny you that.

 

[jæd]

some people on this board are just sad inadequates, who wouldn't know what evidence was it if hit them in the face. I do you the credit, detective-boy, of granting that you know exactly what you are up to in seeking to muddy the waters over Copeland. The abuse you variously hurled at me there "shut the fuck up...cunt...twat" etc, shows I touched a raw nerve--and I am going to continue to do so, however much abuse is hurled at me on this board and elsewhere.

Larry, in the other thread about you claimed you had evidence of complicity with security services to ensure that third bomb went off. You were repeatedly asked for this and you and your crony responded with insults, rather than actually give evidence of this. This went on for nine pages...

So people obviously got bored of this, and wished that you would depart from these boards with your lala-land theories and fantasys. Sometimes with shortened and forceful language, because we *are* bored of you...

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

I didn't see the documentary - was it good?

I didn't think so. Lots of glamourous slo-mo shots of nails flying through bananas but the reconstructions seemed poorly acted and unrealistic...Copelands boss was played by a London Greek/Cypriot actor with a heavy accent but the actual man being interviewed had a London accent; ditto the Scottish lady Cop in charge of the investigation, heavy Glaswegian accent for the actor but a very posh, almost english accent for the real lady.

But those are minor gripes - the whole thing just seemed rushed, it barely skimmed over the horrors of the Admiral Gordon pub. Maybe it was going to be an in depth dramatisation that ran out of cash or was poorly edited?

 

[laptop]

never mention this to Larry O'Hara ... you'll become an integral part of some complex conspiracy theory ...

I'm fairly sure I already am...

In fact, given how paranoid he is about not knowing who I am IRL, I probably play two entirely separate characters in his delusionland

 

[spanglechick]

if you gain solace from hunting in a rat-pack, I'll not deny you that.

 

[laptop]

 

[hendo]

I thought it wasn't too bad, inasmuch as I stopped on the way to bed and sat watching till it ended.

I agree with the previous poster's point about the stilted reconstructions. The problem is that the film maker trades the access to the police and their information about other interviewees for freedom to make a punchy drama; obviously the Met will be annoyed if named officers who participate in a film in interview are then 'reconstructed' to look like anything other than determined right-thinking clean living police.

I've seen a couple of these type of films and they leave an odd taste in the mouth journalistically. You feel you're watching the 'authorised' version, and one suspects there might be a bit more too it, somehow.

 

[TeeJay]

I was in Brighton on the day it happened, but my best mate was in central Brixton and said it was really eerie - everything went completely silent a moment before it went off.

I was standing outside the Ritzy when the nailbomb went off. Can't say I remember it going quiet before the 'bang'. I just heard a big bang and thought that maybe there had been a car crash...

...I walked down CHL and Electric Lane into Electric Avenue to see what had happened and saw some people with blood on their faces. I realised almost immediately quickly that it was a bomb. Emergency services were already arriving on the scene and I didn't see anything I could do. I didn't want to get in the way so I went home.

Surprisingly it didn't shake me up at all, maybe because I didn't actually see anyone who appeared very badly injured or disfigured - and of course I was very lucky that I wasn't standing near the blast myself.

My emotions about it are that it was a pathetic and futile attempt to scare us - that our belief in our values was so much stronger than the fascists belief in theirs, and that our values were stronger than theirs. That things would carry on as before and that this bomb wouldn't change anything.

 

[Jonti]

I was in Brighton on the day it happened, but my best mate was in central Brixton and said it was really eerie - everything went completely silent a moment before it went off.

I'm afraid that's an example of the way we don't passively remember events, but instead actively construct memories.

I was standing outside Tesco on Acre Lane, waiting to catch the bus home, when I heard the explosion. My recollection is that the traffic continued to flow past the busstop, complete with all the normal traffic noises, both immediately before and after the noise of the detonation. There was no spooky cessation of the usual background noises of London.

 

[detective-boy]

... ditto the Scottish lady Cop in charge of the investigation, heavy Glaswegian accent for the actor but a very posh, almost english accent for the real lady.

Apparently Maureen Boyle wasn't over-impressed with the ... er ... size of the actress either!

As for the factual account, it was pretty much accurate, if a bit over-dramatised.

 

[detective-boy]

I'm afraid that's an example of the way we don't passively remember events, but instead actively construct memories.

One of the joys of trying to make out what really happened from a selection of different witness accounts ...

... and then trying to explain to lawyers that, no, the fact that there are discrepancies (sometimes quite striking discrepancies) does NOT mean someone is lying and, in fact, you'd be better of worrying if there were none!

 

[Pie 1]

I was in the flat I lived in at the time, in Dover Mansions. I heard a thud but didn't think much of it until I later heard the chaos unfolding.
My experience of that string of bombs is forever etched in my mind by what I saw in Soho having just tuned into Dean St off Old Compton St on the way to the pub, when the Admiral Duncan one went off.

 

[jæd]

I wasn't in London at the time... Although I didn't know him at the time one of my closest friends was one of the first medics on the scene in Soho... Picking up pieces of his friends was one of the reasons he left the profession afterwards...

 

[story]

I'm afraid that's an example of the way we don't passively remember events, but instead actively construct memories.

I was standing outside Tesco on Acre Lane, waiting to catch the bus home, when I heard the explosion. My recollection is that the traffic continued to flow past the busstop, complete with all the normal traffic noises, both immediately before and after the noise of the detonation. There was no spooky cessation of the usual background noises of London.

This phenomenom is often reported by people who are very close to an explosive event. It does seem to happen, and it seems to be dependent on one's proximity to the event/blast.

I've experienced something similar myself.

If you were across the road, you wouldn't have been close enough to experience this strange silent moment of stillness.

 

[Jonti]

Not disputing the phenomena is reported by some people.

Just saying it's a (rather well known) artifact of memory. Not all witnesses report it; and spooky silences before bomb blasts are not picked up by recording equipment. I suspect it's related to the common inability to remember *anything* at all immediately prior to a traumatic event. People in car crashes, for example, often cannot remember the seconds before impact. So it's not surprising that people close to bomb blasts also show less-than-perfect recollection as well.

 

[Pip]

Not disputing the phenomena is reported by some people.

Just saying it's a (rather well known) artifact of memory. Not all witnesses report it; and spooky silences before bomb blasts are not picked up by recording equipment. I suspect it's related to the common inability to remember *anything* at all immediately prior to a traumatic event. People in car crashes, for example, often cannot remember the seconds before impact. So it's not surprising that people close to bomb blasts also show less-than-perfect recollection as well.

Yeah I think you could be right, and may also have something to do with the way time seems to slow down when you're involved in something serious. When I was told about the eerie silence though, I was about 12 and though 'ohmigod wowwww that's so weeeird' and it obviously stuck with me.
I've always thought the silence after an explosion is connected with a bit of temporary deafness.

 

[Pip]

One of the joys of trying to make out what really happened from a selection of different witness accounts ...

... and then trying to explain to lawyers that, no, the fact that there are discrepancies (sometimes quite striking discrepancies) does NOT mean someone is lying and, in fact, you'd be better of worrying if there were none!

I tried to convince the members of a jury I was sitting on of the same thing, but they weren't having it

 

[detective-boy]

I've always thought the silence after an explosion is connected with a bit of temporary deafness.

More likely one of the effects of adrenaline - auditory (and visual) exclusion - focus only on the perceived threat with nothing else being noticed (police officers involved in armed incidents have often claimed not to have heard shots fired ... by the officer standing next to them!).

And, to a certain extent, by the fact there actually IS silence (or at least reduced noise) as everyone simultaneously has a moment).