Starmer’s rioter sentences don’t fit the crime for one massive reason.

Right, so the phrase Two Tier Keir has been coined by Elon Musk to describe Keir Starmer in order to conflate his latest conspiracy theory that white Britons are treated more harshly than ethnic minorities in sentencing, well being a product of apartheid South Africa, he’d know all about that I expect, but while Musk’s definition of Two Tier Keir might be wide of the mark, the nickname ought to stick.
Starmer made that ridiculous speech the other day, days after the riots began, blowing hard about the full force of the law being applied to such people, but it isn’t actually true, it isn’t being and comparing those sentences to some recent other ones, well, actually it begs the question of how severe a problem Starmer actually views rioting at all, how much of a problem intimidation of ethnic minorities is in his eyes and there’s one big fat glaring example of why these rioting sentences are a complete joke along with any claims Starmer might be making of stamping his authority on such matters, because he’s more interested in stamping his authority on other matters completely.
Right, so what is this big fat glaring problem with these sentences then Damo? Well, they’re not exactly very big are they? Of every sentence handed out already for a rioting offence, not one of them, has been longer than, for example, any of those Just Stop Oil protesters got the other week, for going on Zoom and planning to block a road. 5 of them got 21 years between them, 5 years for one, 4 years for the rest. Every single rioter so far has got a smaller sentence. Obviously many of these cases are yet to be heard, but where things started off with these nationwide riots, up in Southport, we’ve seen a guy who was found guilty of violent disorder and who punched a police officer in the face get sentenced to just three years and that is the longest sentence so far handed out to any rioter. Another man who tried to set fire to a police van, which ended up getting written off at cost to the public purse of £32,000. He got just 30 months. Another guy, who turned up drunk and admitted to violent disorder as well, got 20 months. Why are the sentences for rioters so low, compared to environmental protesters and who in this latest example got heavily sentenced before they’d actually done anything!
This is the reality of Two Tier Keir. So far 5 rioters have been sentenced to a combined 12 years, so an average of 2.4 years each, versus 5 environmental protesters who got a combined 21 years. Rioting is effectively half the sentence of climate campaigning. Which do you consider the bigger crime, setting fire to police vans and smacking a copper in the teeth, or planning to block a road in a non violent manner to make a political point. In case you’re amongst the hard of thinking, one of these is a human right, the other is a crime, and the crime carries less of a punishment than the human right to protest does, in the world of former human rights barrister, Two Tier Keir.
Just to show how much more ridiculous this situation is, Just Stop Oil yesterday announced they were pausing all of their legitimate action because of the riots, redirecting their efforts, their campaigning, their members and volunteers to joining the counter fash protests, continuing to do so in their non violent manner, joining communities around the country to stand up to and resist fascism.
Now I know there are those out there who might be watching this vehemently disagreeing with my assessment here so far. Why are you siding with Musk for calling Starmer Two Tier Keir? Well I’m not. Just because a right wing conspiracy theorist with more money than sense coined the phrase, is irrelevant. If he wasn’t being so conspiratorial about it, he might realise Starmer is far more on his side than that of ordinary working class communities taking a stand against fascism, far more on the right wing, than the left who, like me, are calling this out and redefining what Two Tier Keir should mean rather than what Musk intended it to.
There will be others shaking their heads and saying that sentencing for two different crimes as they might see it shouldn’t be compared and that many, many more rioters are yet to be sentenced, but I’d still ask you to justify those Just Stop Oil sentences, when they hadn’t actually done anything, versus the criminal damage and violence, the terrorism frankly that has been taking place on our streets and yet the sentences don’t fit the crime. Many are calling these riots terrorism, terrorism against Muslim communities, against ethnic minorities, whipped up by political attacks over immigration as this has been, in no small part has that been done by Keir Starmer himself, his attacks on small boats, on Bengalis, sounding every bit the Tory shill he actually is, but it seems it doesn’t get called terrorism when so many of the perpetrators are white does it?
Until the rioters start getting bigger sentences than environmentalists planning a peaceful protest have got, the calling out of the double standard in sentencing isn’t going to go away and with so much sentencing likely still to come, if the sentences don’t start befitting the crime shortly, yet the right wing, the supporters of the criminals, the racists, are all over social media, complaining that the complete opposite is true, that white people are getting singled out and punished unfairly and people of colour let off for their violence. I haven’t seen a person of colour telling a white person to go back to their own country, that’s the problem.
Perhaps Just Stop Oil have got the wrong idea, the message from Two Tier Keir seems to be well if you’d punched one of the arresting officers you’d have got a lighter sentence! Is that not where we are now?
Now Starmer could deal with this, he could deal with the sentencing issues if that is the case, the Tories making environmental protest a bigger crime, despite being a human right than rioting it seems, certainly I’ve seen a comment along these lines from environmentalist and journalist George Monbiot, Starmer could speak to the CPS, he’s familiar with them with them isn’t he? Get them to look at those sentencing guidelines, it’s what they are there for.
That sentences are getting handed down to the thugs, terrorists and violent offenders involving themselves in egregious acts upon our country is good and right, they are too lenient when environmentalists get sent down for so much longer. It doesn’t matter how many of them get sentenced in the coming days and weeks, if the sentences are lower, if light sentences as a few months, a couple of years for the most violent attacks as has been the case thusfar, are all that is being given, then it doesn’t feel like justice and it also doesn’t feel like much of a deterrent for people who clearly get their rocks off committing such foul acts.
There’s another reason this discrepancy falls foul upon Starmer also though, whether you are of the opinion as I am that the climate protest sentences were overpoweringly disproportionate, or that perhaps you’re of the opinion that the rioters sentences are not tough enough, and it goes back to the last lot of riots the country endured, back in 2011.
At this point Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions, head of the CPS, sentencing was his bread and butter and he came down on those involved in those riots like a ton of bricks. One example was that of a 23 year old who stole a bottle of water getting given 6 months in prison, despite having no previous convictions, a 6th former from Wolverhampton who stole 2 left footed trainers got 10 months behind bars. Of the people arrested and charged in those 2011 London riots, 20% were under 20, 25% were technically speaking children and of course a large proportion of them in that instance, were from ethnic minority backgrounds. Now the longer sentences did not prove to be helpful at all, it became clear it actually promoted a cycle of reoffending, so perhaps there’s a lesson to learn there, but clearly not being learnt, if sending portesters down for 4-5 years is anything to go by and given Starmer’s involvement then, as now, then as DPP now as Prime Minister, if the sentences of all these white thugs attacking ethnic minorities on racial grounds are comparable, it will once more invite accusations of racism against Starmer too, not to mention more choruses of Two Tier Keir. And he’ll still deserve it.
Meanwhile, speaking of Starmer’s racism and bigotry, it’s come back to haunt him once more as his weaponisation of the immigration status of Bangladeshis in this country during the General Election campaign has come back to haunt him, as the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having fled the country, is now attempting to apply for asylum here in the UK. Another fine mess of your own making Keith. Get all the details of that story in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.