Harrys Place forced to admit that one of its members posted racist emails.
For years I have been subjected to a sustained campaign of racist abuse from a man named Terry Fitzpatrick a former anti racist and anti fascist activist who with age, drink and a degree of senility has morphed into a rabid racist. Terry has consistently and repeatedly claimed to be one of Searchlight's key anti fascist activist's a claimed denied on only one occasion as far I am aware by Searchlight
On the majority of these occasions I have ignored him and one occasion yeas ago I rather foolishly let him both barrels in writing.
My own uniformed assessment of the man was that he is someone who has a serious drink problem and is best left ignored. I employed that strategy until earlier this year his emails became increasing racially abusive and threatening in their tone.
After a series of very nasty and threatening emails sent to both Simon Woolley Director of Operation Black Vote and myself we decided that these matters given the threat of violence should be reported to the police. As a result Terry Fitzpatrick was arrested and charged with serious criminal offences.
Subsequent to that I was surprised to find Terry Fitzpatrick posting on various blogs continuing to abuse others and myself.
One of those blogs was the weird and wonderful site Harry’s Place. It’s a home for failed lefties and the extreme right wing that parades itself as a ‘ left of centre” blog when in fact its no such thing.
They came to my attention after I put out a press release condemning on the raid by the Metropolitan Police Service on the Nation Of Islam Mosque in Brixton. The statement was posted by the OBV blog and Harry’s Place subsequently posted a deeply offensive and unfair critique of OBV, members of its staff ludicrously seeking to smear OBV as an anti semetic organisation.
What struck me immediately was the fact that Harry’s Place has a growing reputation of allowing Islamophobic comments posted without moderation. They made great claims of being anti racist site relying on the work of a largely unknown academic Edmund Standing. However having read some of the debate threads I found that claim was at odds with the rank racism and Islamophobia reflected in offensive and unmoderated comments, posted by Harry’s Place regulars.
Further investigation uncovered the fact that one of their trusted members was Terry Fitzpatrick.
I wrote a response challenging Harry’s Place smearing of OBV and pointing out that they were harbouring a racist in their midst. I suggested to them such a person, charged with racially aggravating offences should be banned from posting on their site if they were as committed to anti racism as they claimed.
What followed was the most sustained campaign of personal abusive I have endured as an anti racist campaigner of many years with the exception of the racist campaign conducted by the London Evening Standard. Harry’s Place engaged in a politically motivated defensive of the indefensible.
Harry’s Place stoutly defended their man using the ruse of “ a man must have his day in court “. Whilst this debate was raging Terry Fitzpatrick sent me two more racially abusive emails both of which I posted to the Harry’s Place blog as evidence that one of their members was indeed guilty of sending racially inflammatory emails. Here is the first email sent during the recent debate,
“Lee, Always thick you black cunt are you not? Why don't you shut your, actually not very black, thick gob? I gave you advice before you nigger, I flatter you, the last time you took me on. Always engage brain before opening mouth, you still can't do it can you? You have just sent Simon Woolley to prison for perjury, ask the nigger, he knows. Maybe I will get you sent there with him.”
And here is the second email,
“Yo big up innit?
Bro Lee, I put a question mark in there you semi literate cunt. You and you fellow nigger crooks have chosen to take me on. I promise you a fucking good fight that I will win. I will link you to crack dealing, pimping and the renting of guns that have been used in yardie murders. I am going to serve a subpeona on you as soon as I am committed for trial on the 9th of this month at Thames Magistrates. Although, being the cowardly nigger you are, you have refused to give a statement the police you are involved because of the email that you sent to me which I and my solicitors have and which is the basis of the police case against me.
It is a criminal offence to avoid a subpeona, which is an order of the court, and I will take the greatest pleasure in serving it on you personally with the media attending. Other crooks getting my attention will be Livingstone, Eboda, Holloway and possibly Wooley and Vishnawathan as I understand they are unhappy with what has happened and are not keen on giving evidence.
Also giving evidence will be Brian Paddick, who will be testifiying about your criminal activities, as will be individuals from Notting Hill who will link you to drugs, and the forcing of young women into prostitution.
And that is just the start. Once I am committed will I use disclosures to go into the books of OBV and all of the other scams that you and Wooley have looted money from. This is the end of OBV and all of the other scams that have kept you in luxury for the last twenty years.
Put this up on you site you fucking nigger ponce.
Terry Fitzpatrick.
In the post you have taken down you are so fucking thick that you sometimes call me Fitzgerald. My family were never members of the Geraldine ascendency. We are of the Ossory Sept, Macc Giolla Phradraigh. We are the old aristocracy you fucking nigger.”
The thread exploded and ran to nearly 300 comments the vast majority in defence their man. I was completely horrified and disgusted by what I read and my suspicions that Harry’s place was a haven for racists was confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.
Now I have a pretty thick skin but I have to say I was completely taken back at the sheer volume and ferocity of what then followed. I was barracked, libelled, personally abused, someone threatened to come looking for me and bizarrely accused of making up and writing the offensive emails to myself.
Harry’s Place stood by their man and I was subjected to a level of abuse and vitriol that was so shrill it still leaves me cold when I read it.
Unfortunately for Harry’s Place Terry Fitzpatrick commenting on another blog Socialist Unity actually confirmed that he had in fact sent the emails and repeated his abusive comments. I must point out that SU adopted a radically different approach to dealing with this man offering him no support for his racist views.
Harry’s Place then decided that it had no choice but to take actions and belatedly banned Fitzpatrick and issued a statement to that effect. In this statement they claimed to have banned Fitzpatrick from their site stating that " We had previously blocked Terry Fitzpatrick from posting on this website, pending the clarification of his authorship of the emails in question" adding " It is now proper that we make that ban public."
This is laughable given over the last week they have said repeatedly that they would not ban their man just because a "lying certinous scumbag" like me says he wrote nasty emails. This is the first public statement by Harrys Place to that effect and is undermined by the fact they spent the last week or so virulently defending their decision not to ban him on my request. Harry's Place must think people are are really stupid.
They are also in the process of rewriting history by deleting all of those 300 or so comments. Luckily others and myself have saved them.
A nasty little tale of collusion with racism you may conclude. Serious questions still remain as to why Harry’s Place continued to allow Fitzpatrick to post on their site when they knew he had been charged with racially aggravated offences?
Further why when presented by evidence by me that he was engaged in continued campaign of racial harassment did they discount that evidence?
There exists at Harry’s Place a culture of routine denial where any claims of racism or Islamophobia are made.
It is my view that on this occasion Harry’s Place actually knowingly colluded with racism in the face of compelling evidence. I don’t believe that their action was a mistake or some misguided act of solidarity.
I think their calculation was that following the London Standard campaign that I was a busted flush and thoroughly discredited in their eyes with most of their posters tirelessly regurgitating the racist bile of the unsubstantiated allegations of the Standard and the London Tory Party. As such they wrongly assumed that I was dead in the water politically and could simply be ignored. Big mistake.
Harry’s Place refused to take my complaint seriously. They trivialised that compliant, they denigrated me as a victim of serious racist abuse and they sought to obscure that compliant by constant counter accusation and showering me with personal abuse.
Whilst they have now belatedly banned Fitzpatrick the whole episode reinforces my claim that they are sympathetic to racist and Islamophobes. Their disgraceful inaction after receiving my compliant left me doubly victimised as victim of racist abuse. Their comments policy is not worth a jot and their collusion with racism is brutally exposed by this case. There are also questions for Searchlight why on earth have they said so little and remained virtually silent about this case ?
Harry's Place statement again makes reference to Fitzpatricks work for and provides a link to Searchlight's web site. Searchlight have been mealy mouthed about this issue and because of that I believe they bear some responsibility having indulged, encouraged and supported Fitzpatrick. My strong strong impression is that he has been egged on by his friends and with friends like these who needs enemies. Searchlight have said very little by way condemnation of a vile racist who repeatedly claims to be one of their key activists.
Such is the lack of political objectivity and absence of integrity I do not expect an apology from Harry’s Place. I doubt they have the necessary maturity to do the decent thing. What I can say is that the whole experience, even for me as an experienced anti racist campaigner leaves me sick to the stomach.
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