December 6, 2024

"Children as young as 12 are being arrested on suspicion of extremism offences, Britain’s most senior counterterrorism police officer has said."

"Matt Jukes, assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, said there was a 'conveyor belt leading children towards extremism' being driven by tech companies 'making vast amounts of money' from them.... [G]overnment figures revealed that the largest group of people referred to the government’s counterextremism programme Prevent were children aged 11 to 15, who made up 2,729 referrals — 40 per cent...."

The London Times reports.

54 comments:

D.D. Driver said...

I'm sure all the allegations that likely come from *other 12 year olds* are credible.

Former Illinois resident said...

"Extreme" as in Moslem fundamentalist rhetoric, or as in "anti-immigration"?

Nihimon said...

Seeing the State file "Terroristic Threats" charges against a 10-year old American for using finger-guns told me all I need to ever know abou how much power the State should be given.

narciso said...

Tbe latter they are fine with al queda (stockport)

Dixcus said...

If you're old enough to decide to cut your weiner off, you're old enough for prison kids.

Hey, I don't make the rules. Your mom did.

tim maguire said...

Children have always been stupid. What's new is governments didn't used to waste a lot of time worrying about it.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Quick, someone call the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. I smell a nice big taxpayer-stolen NIH grant to search out an excuse instead of the justifiable problem.

Dixcus said...

The pedophiles in charge of most of the governments in the world need a steady supply of fresh children. This is how they intend to get them.

tim maguire said...

Extreme as in making fun of Muslim fundamentalist rhetoric.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Out: the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group.
In: the Fisher-Price terrorist group.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Actually B-M is still around, but they call themselves Taaddler-Meinhof now.

Aggie said...

What we need around here is more censorship, and we'll get there by arresting more kids for their bad online hygiene, and by more studiously ignoring any Muslim issues concerning pedophile grooming and jihad and other sharia-driven preferences.

rehajm said...

oh, my. I’m off to silently contemplate this greatness..

narciso said...

You though terry gilliams brazil was fiction

stlcdr said...

A lot of talk about ‘extremism’ but no real information about what that is. As such, based on the evidence of government overreach, it’s likely anyone saying a bad word is an extremist. It says more about the government(s) than the people - children in this case.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Key influences on the fana-tykes are said to be fundamentalist theologian John Calvin and absolutist political philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

Quaestor said...

Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him?

BudBrown said...

It's not the children. It's a 'conveyor belt leading children towards extremism' being driven by tech companies 'making vast amounts of money' from them..
I'm assuming since it didn't get the bad-ass school marm treatment it makes since but the driven's driving me dizzy. And you'd think it's the parents coming up with the money. Like when I was explaining to my parents I didn't know what on approval was a ll about.

Paul said...

1984 is fully in force in the UK. It will soon drift off into Stalinism/Naziism in maybe 10 years.

Goetz von Berlichingen said...

You forgot Dr. Suess.

rhhardin said...

Children younger than 12 are even worse. Sociologist Erving Goffman classed them as desperadoes, along with criminals.

Jamie said...

I'm in the middle of a Triggernometry interview in which they're discussing the ideological capture of the British police forces in the context of this "extremism" garbage. Done anything about the rape gangs yet, guys?

Let's face it: when you're a police service that is essentially unarmed because until recently there was no need for weapons in dealing with a very high-trust society, but you've recently had to start dealing with a recalcitrant minority (in some places, majority) with vastly different values and a willingness to defend those values aggressively as well as a tendency to use violence to further those values... it's easier and safer to go after children making playground taunts and journalists who express themselves honestly but perfectly legally on X. Plus, as I said, ideological capture.

Thank you again, Founders, for laying it out plainly rather than trusting to the good intentions of future leaders to protect our inalienable rights.

Jamie said...

It's not the children.

To the extent that we're talking about 12yo white boys advocating for rescinding women's right to vote (hey, rhhardin! Good morning!) or 12yo girls shouting their abortions, I think you're right: it is the social media operators. (OTOH, the kids joking or complaining about actions of unassimilated Muslim large minorities or majorities in their neighborhoods, I think social media tends to depress rather than amplify those messages.)

But it's the children the police are going after, not the tech leaders.

Rocco said...

Dixcus
"If you're old enough to decide to cut your weiner off, you're old enough for prison kids.

Hey, I don't make the rules. Your mom did.
"

Well played, sir. Well played.

Rocco said...

Paul Zrimsek said...
"Key influences on the fana-tykes are said to be fundamentalist theologian John Calvin and absolutist political philosopher Thomas Hobbes."

Don't forget that TERF JK Rowling

Rocco said...

Quaestor said...
"Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him?"

He's running his own website in the UK: Guido Fawkes

Peachy said...

Define extremism.

Wince said...

Isn't this an extreme example of bootstrapping one's own argument without evidence?

He said: “The fact that the Five Eyes have chosen youth radicalisation for our first public research collaboration indicates how concerning, escalating and pressing this challenge is.

Yancey Ward said...

This +1000. Police match their targets against their capabilities and rights to use force.

john mosby said...

Someone last week in the New Statesman, a lefty British mag, pointed out the perfect storm of imposing both racial sensitivity and numerical productivity metrics on British police forces at the same time. In other words, they have to produce more arrests, while being scrutinized as to how many of the 'wrong' people they arrest.

So the obvious solution is to lock up unresisting grannies, working-class family men, and children on ironclad electronic evidence. Lots of stats for the guv'nah, and no pesky brown faces marching outside the nick!

And this was a lefty mag pointing it out....

JSM

gilbar said...

yet ANOTHER Reason, to be THANKFUL that we kicked the brits out of here!

Aggie said...

The most popular male baby name in the UK right now is 'Mohammed'. I'm thinking of a slightly different direction 10-15 years from now, when the bottom line is more 'prophet-driven'.

The Middle Coast said...

Exactly. The police can’t find the grooming gangs, but they have time to scour social media.

Old and slow said...

That's just the sort of comment that might earn you a visit from the old bill...

Ralph L said...

In the 2014 play "King Charles III," he refused the royal assent to a bill to limit press freedom. Too bad life didn't imitate art. Grandson George will be 12 soon; maybe he'll defy the oppressors and be disobedient civilly.

Joe Bar said...

@The Middle Coast: Well, one is easier than the other.

Joe Bar said...

So, I went to the trouble of finding the actual document put out by the "Five Eyes" group. All I could find was a synopsis with examples, put out by the RCMP: Five-Eyes Insights – Young people and violent extremism: a call for collective action

It presents examples ranging from the expected Islamist plots all the way to Incels planning revenge. Broad range group there.

What it does not present is any quantification of any of the threats. How many are in each group? What are the targets? Is this real, or imagined?

One case presented was of a 14 year old building an "IED". Can a 14 year old really build and explode an IED? Or, perhaps, the lad was cutting heads off of matchsticks, crimping them into .22 casings, and making makeshift rockets. Fun! We are really not told the extent of the threat.

I suspect that, if those particular authorities were to catch a youngster playing with matches and brass casings, their disapproval might be just as strong as if they were building an actual bomb.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

I'm willing to bet that NONE of those "12 year olde extremists" are Muslims supporting the murder of Jews or other infidels

hombre said...

By focusing on children, particularly British as opposed to "asian," children, UK law enforcement and the Labour Government have found their niche.

chuck said...

Hunting for a butter knife. I think that is still legal in Britain.

NMObjectivist said...

Britain has abandoned free-speech which is the basis of a free civilization. This has been caused in part by poor immigration policy. Cultures are not the same.

Hassayamper said...

Seriously considering never setting foot in England again, despite my long ties to the country, including some cousins who still live there. I have definitely said things on line and in person that would subject me to prison under the Starmer reign of terror.

Interested Bystander said...

Thank the founders for our 1st Amendment. The UK does’t even allow for youthful indiscretion. Ridiculous.

JK Brown said...

I don't know if I want to meet a 12 yr old who isn't a bit extremist at times.

Rocco said...

Has anybody there called the police StarmerTroopers yet?

n.n said...

A child's cherry bomb can be mistaken for a DEI/IED/DIE.

Quaestor said...

The shade of Adolf Hitler looks up from Hell and says, "I won after all!"

Big Mike said...

If you are arresting children as young as twelve for wrongthink, it's not the children who are thinking wrong. It's you.

boatbuilder said...

+100. That goes for anyone under 16, and most of us up to about 25 or so.

Then when we get into our 60's we start thinking again, with fewer filters. The process reverses itself.

boatbuilder said...

Interested Bystander--Absolutely correct. Despite several centuries of efforts to eradicate free speech, the principle survives in America. Because the Founders put it right up there #1 in our Constitution. Even the opponents have to pay it lip service, and most Americans regard it as a fundamental aspect of public discourse (even when they don't fully appreciate or recognize what it is).
Not so in Europe. Which is why things like "the government program Prevent" exist and are tolerated.
The Founders also wrote Amendment #2, because they knew just how powerful the impulse to silence and control is.

Narayanan said...

Police match their targets against their capabilities and rights to use force.
===========
is this variant of going to war with army you have?

Ampersand said...

Maybe it's time to despecialize the relationship with the UK. Over there, if you don't vote Labor, you're an extremist.

Tina Trent said...

Jackpot, Class Traitor

Tim said...

The UK is gone.