London Traffic Again

It is always difficult to get back to work after a holiday, I only had 5 days off work but as usual they felt more like 5 minutes.

Yesterday afternoon I had to drive to north London, as usual I listen to LBC Radio when I am driving as they provide a traffic news bulletin every 15 minutes, the traffic news was not good, in fact it was never that bad for me, first they said that Seven Sisters Road and Blackstock Road in Finsbury Park were closed due to a police incident (I will write about this later in this post) so straightaway I started to think of an alternative way as I was heading towards Finsbury Park, I thought OK I will go through Manor Park then Stamford Hill just to hear the radio presenter saying, avoid Stamford Hill as police have closed the road due to a teenager stabbed to death, he then said the delays were affecting Manor Park and causing massive delays, I thought mmmmm, what shall I do? the other alternative is to drive round the other way through Dalston or Clapton, it is a bit far but at least it is not closed or so I thought, the presenter went on to say that due to another police incident, Dalston and Clapton were experiencing massive delays, by then I felt completely lost, I was heading towards Stokenewington but according to this traffic news all roads leading there were blocked, great!!

Anyway, after a long delay I managed to get there thinking somebody must have put a spell on me or what?? all this in one day and one area!

Going back to the police incident at Blackstock Road in Finsbury Park, the police carried out a raid on this street yesterday afternoon, it was described as one of the biggest police operation to be carried out in London, I watched the report on the news, about 600 police men & women charged through this street, it looked like an invasion, at the end of this massive raid some people were arrested and stolen goods were recovered, something like 120 laptops, 110 cameras & 20 satnavs.

What I found strange about this is the fact that the stolen goods the police were boasting about recovering is hardly anything to write about in a massive police raid like this!

Blackstock Road is what we call here, Little Algeria, it is a road well known for its Algerian businesses and community, it is not the best place to be in as it can get quite intimidating at times, usually in the evenings there will be 100s of Algerian and Somali men hanging about, some of them can be a bit threatening, when driving there it can be difficult trying to go past the crowds without being sworn at, it is full of cafes and restaurants, while I am sure a lot of crime goes in there, does that justify what the police did? I mean London is famous for its hard core gangs like the Yardies who are responsible for much more dangerous crimes like black on black murder and arm robbery or the Triads who are known for similar crimes, shouldn't the police have put their efforts into these crimes especially that on almost daily bases young teenagers are being stabbed to death including 2 yesterday one of which was a 14 year old Egyptian boy.

Incidentally, Blackstock Road where the raid took place is situated between 2 of London's main mosques, one of them is the notorious Finsbury Park Mosque where Captain Hook Abu Hamza used to preach his hatred & claptrap some years a go.