MET POLICE 'CBA WITH INVESTIGATING ASSAULT, SHOPLIFTING, GTA & BURGLARIES & MORE'

2017 has been truly loopy and you are 100% forgiven for not being to keep track with all the madness. Today, however, the Met police have made some pretty big changes that I feel we should all be aware of.

"On Monday, it was reported that the UK’s largest force would no longer look into many reports of crimes, including burglaries, thefts and assaults, where there was judged to be little prospect of identifying a suspect."

London's Metropolitan Police announced earlier today that they would be looking to save around £400m on their budget in the next four years as a result of over-spending and immense pressures caused by the current terror threat. Firstly, that's a huge sum. The fact that we're ready to reduce funding for our national/domestic security but happily increase our military budget is beyond crazy.

As a result of these cuts, police will now be investigating far fewer crimes, essentially giving free-reign to some criminals, some think. Nothing's been decriminalised so every crime is still worth it's weight in jail time.. What has changed are attitudes towards certains crimes, with less time being spent on the investigations of them.

Police will now be looking into the following a lot less;

- shoplifting

- burglaries and thefts

- assault (where the attacker isn't instantly idenitfied)

- car crimes

- criminal damage

The deputy commisioner of the Met Police, Mark Simmons said;

“With the pressure on our resources, it is not practical for our officers to spend a considerable amount of time looking into something where, for example, the value of damage or the item stolen is under £50, or the victim is not willing to support a prosecution.

The 'pressure' on their resources that Mr. Simmons is referring to is the supposedly ominous and looming 'terror threat'. 

“We need our officers to be focused on serious crime and cases where there is a realistic chance that we will be able to solve it. We also want them to be available to respond to emergencies and go to those members of the public that need our help the most.” 

He also added;

“Of course, we are not talking about things like homicide, kidnap, sexual offences, hate crime or domestic violence, but the lower level, higher volume offences such as shoplifting, car crime and criminal damage. 

Obviously, he's obliged to say everything he's said above, he has to do a job. However, I'd say that the Met Police are playing a risky game. They are fully aware of the mentalities the 'criminals' they have to deal with on a day-to-day and must surely know that the opportunist mindset of a potential wrong-doer is only going to see this as an opportunity?

This supposed 'let-off' is weirdly coupled with an announcement earlier in the week that the Police would now be looking to clamp down on people for the possession of corrosive acids/liquids in the wake of a recent rise in acid attacks, the most being one in Stratford's old shopping mall. All smells a bit contradictory to me.. 

The police are basically saying they're going to be harder on assault because that's what an acid attack is... at the same time as investigating it less?? I can only think that this will result in more people trying to get away with acid attacks and other assaults if they believe they can remain faceless, resulting in more people from that demographic being jailed. 

The Met are hoping to save this huge some of money over 2020, which is the tiniest bit more encouraging. Imagine if they forecasted themselves a year to save £400m we could be looking at a completely different story. Personally, I hope that these cuts of this nature don't continue. After all we fund the police through tax. If they do continue, we could be looking at a lot more 'leniency' on more severe crimes and that definitely wouldn't be good!

BARCELONA: WHY SO MANY VEHICLE ATTACKS?!?!

 A couple of days ago the world saw yet another terrorist attack in the form of a vehicle mowing down groups of innocent people. This time the the victimised city was Spain's second capital, Barcelona. 13 people have been confirmed dead and over 100 injured potentially in what seems to be a continuation of a growing trend.

"Car and trucks have now killed over 100 people in separate incidents in recent years. Extremist groups have long advocated for their supporters to use vehicles to target pedestrians." - according to HuffPost.

ISIS have claimed responsibility for the attacks this time but it isn't solely Islamic extremists that advocate for this kind of attack.

The attack in Barcelona comes less than a week after a member of the White Nationalist Party of America mowed down peaceful protesters in Charlottesville, VA, killing 1 and injuring countless. BUT WHY ARE SUCH ATTACKS TAKING PLACE SO FREQUENTLY???????

This seems to be an increasingly popular tactic employed by only extremists and I believe that they're ultimate aim is to scare people out of gathering in large groups. I mean, I like to bar in mind that however volatile things are the chances of being caught up in this kind of attack are low - but at the same time I had a few seconds yesterday where I stopped to myself and thought 'I'm never ever going to Oxford Street again.' But after another few seconds I rubbished the thought, realising that it was the common irrational fear that they want us to have.

I personally think that people shouldn't stop protesting or gathering in big groups but at the same time there is a threat out there. People are looking to divide us even more and once we can't stand together physically, we can't stand together mentally. I think it's important that we keep on talking, sharing information and learning more.

Police have allegedly foiled another attack in Cambrils, 120km away from Barcelona where 5 suspects were killed. The men were apparently planning to attack people with a car again and some were equipped with explosive belts.

Here are some useful links, if you'd like to read up on the Barcelona attacks;

Barcelona terror attack: What we know - CNN

Spain terror attacks: 13 killed and 100 injured in Barcelona and Cambrils attacks – as it happened - The Guardian

Barcelona Rocked By Terrorist Attack - The Young Turks

Everything we know about the Barcelona terror attack - Telegraph

COOL POINTERS; Hey, Sugar!

Sweet-toothed people are everywhere - I'm one of them, and I never really knew why until I realised that everything contains sugar so obviously our bodies naturally become sugar addicts whether we notice or not.  I mean, this probably isn't news to many of you, but at a recent university conventiony/pop-up stall thing I was shocked to find out how much sugar was really in some of our most beloved beverages!!!

Here are the sugar contents in some of our favourite drinks;

Whilst looking - bare in mind how many teaspoons of sugar, if any, you willingly have with your tea or coffee. 

Starbuck's bestseller the Frapuccino contains a whopping 16 teaspoons!! 

Flavoured water, 'the healthy option' has 7 teaspoons! Imagine 7 teaspoons in your damn tea!! 

Red Bull gives you wings..   and 8 teaspoons of sugar?

Good ol' tap water boasting an impressive 0 teaspoons of sugar.

If you're super concerned about the amount of sugar you're taking in you can use this little sugar intake barometer thingy to measure how much you're taking in daily.. if you're super concerned.

It's probably good to remember that sugar isn't all bad, after all it can be found in a high number of natural as well as unnatural goods but like anything.. too much of it will kill you instantly. 

Here are some quick links to some interesting articles:

           18 Foods and Drinks That Are Surprisingly High in Sugar - Authority Nutrition

How Much Sugar Is In Your Food And Drink? - MedicalNewsToday 

8 High-Sugar Foods You're Eating Every Day - everydayhealth.com

The Truth About Sugar - BBCGoodFood

Sugar Contents of Fruits - sugarstacks.com

For more information speak to your local health/fitness-freak or perform your own lil' google search?

Thanks for reading, bye!

COOL DEBATES; 'SCIENCE HELP US' - Why Are We Racist?

Good day beautiful people! I hope you've already done your good deed for the day, whether it was helping your mum with the shopping or letting the pregnant woman behind you with two shopping bags onto the bus first.

Recently, I have spoken to many people, family, friends and professionals, about the seemingly eternal problem that is racism. Racism isn't a new phenomenon, and we've most probably all been on the receiving end of it, whether it was 'light-hearted' and 'jovial' or outright, in-your-face, r a c i s m, we've all experienced it. But the question is, why? Why are we still racist, why does it still exist? What is the 'science' behind racism?

If you've viewed my last post, you would have seen that I was talking about our life's number one enemy, fear. Fear is the main thing that stops us from doing the things we want to in life. As people, naturally, one of our favourite things to do is meeting new people, not only is this one of our favourite things to do, but it is also essential for the growth of every human being, no exaggeration. If we all spoke to each other, the knowledge we would gain would make humans, as a collective, one of the most powerful forces in the universe. But anyway, back to fear. How is fear related to racism?

About two nights ago now, I found myself knee deep in a debate on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation, formally London's Biggest Conversation) 97.3 FM. It was around 2am and I was listening to Cristo Foufas' show, which is AMAZING. Cristo, an exuberant man of the Greek variety from St. Albans, loves to touch on all the topics that a lot of radio presenters are scared to talk about. He began by talking about UKIP and a news story that had broke, where a member of the party, Rozanne Duncan, was videoed saying that she "didn't know why, but she doesn't like negroes or people with negroid features", she then followed this by saying.. "I am in NO WAY racist", when I heard this it had me thinking.... 'what? How can that not be racist?!'...

The fab Cristo then opened up the show for listeners to call in, which they did, in their 100s. The majority agreeing with Cristo in saying that the woman was racist and her comments were derogatory. The mood of the conversation started to alter after a few people (from African backgrounds) phoned in, claiming that categorically, the entire white race is racist for one reason or another, a very racist statement, in itself, the issue was getting nowhere. This massive generalisation was picked up on by the LBC presenter, who said "hold on, we can't be making such huge generalisations.. It makes you just as bad".

After a few more opinionated callers, up stepped 'Anthony', a caller from Greater London, who votes for UKIP. Anthony came on, and some would say, bravely, defended Ms. Duncan's comments, claiming that he too was not racist but also had a problem with some Africans. This instantly alarmed me as I could hear the honesty in what he was saying, I could hear that he was genuinely distressed by his opinions and did believe that he was not racist. He specified, he stated that he was friends with plenty of Africans.. But mainly eastern and southern as he had a problem with the way Western Africans and Caribbeans looked. Cristo then stopped Anthony with a sentence, 'So.. you are basically saying that you don't like the black people that look more black?', to which Anthony replied, 'Yes. But I am NOT racist'. As you can imagine, given this day and age, Anthony was promptly laughed off the air as a racist.

I thought that something was wrong here, something fundamental had been missed and in order to get to the root of this serious problem, an element of understanding has to be applied to the situation. At 3am, eyes half shut, I tweeted Cristo, saying 'I don't think you should be so quick to call Anthony racist' and said that it seemed like he was being very honest and true to his feelings and when that is the case, you must first try and understand someone.

Cristo replied to me asking me to message him privately, where he asked for my number and said that the show would like to have me on, if I didn't mind. I accepted the offer and no sooner than 5 minutes later I received a call from the station. I spoke to the producer of the show briefly about my views and the girl I spoke to seemed to agree with, saying that Anthony seemed 'scared' more than anything.

I said 'exactly..'

Cristo then had me on the show and we spoke for a good 10 minutes on the subject. I explained what I believed the main problem was surrounding racism. I said that Anthony seemed like an honest, good person and pointed out that he wouldn't say he was friends with Africans (eastern and southern), if it wasn't true. This made it clear to me that the problem wasn't the fact that someone was a different colour, it seemed to be more about the features.. 'Why are their noses so much bigger?? Why are their lips bigger? How comes they are stronger?

Naturally, when we don't know why someone looks a certain way or why someone acts differently, you develop a natural fear towards that person. This only means that when something goes wrong, the people that you're unsure of will get the blame and as a result feel the wrath of the vexed individual. This natural fear can be seen as a wall that you put up to people, and it can only be knocked down by talking to people and learning about different people.

If you don't take the time to understand and appreciate the people around you, you are susceptible to having your mind polluted by the current social ideals we have in place.

People who are able to come out and say they don't like someone and they can't explain why, need to be helped and educated. This is clearly a cry for help as they wouldn't say a word if they were happy being labelled as a 'racist'.

The end to racism is only ever around the corner, and will come, it will come once we make social and cultural studies and integral part of the education system. When multi-cultural societies were created, basic essentials were forgotten, you cannot possibly think that throwing a bunch of people together from all the different corners of the Earth into the same place, without firstly educating people as to why we are so wonderfully different, is right. It is always bound to go wrong in some instances.

If you have a friend who seems to have a problem with people who look differently, they may not be a KKK subscriber/Nazi, talk to them, ask them why? What is it that you don't understand about the person and see if some simple explaining helps the situation.

When we call someone racist, it does absolutely nothing to help the situation and the person, it only keeps them in the same place mentally.

Taking offense to these behaviours means that you are turning it into a personal attack, the issue is well and truly global. Don't be selfish, we all do wrong, try your hardest to act with love and first understand where your opposite number is coming from, that way you can sympathise and educate them on what is right and what is truly wrong.

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend and is enjoying 2015 as much as I am. Stay blessed!

COOL MUSIC; WHAT'S OUT THERE?

WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF VIDEOS IN THIS POST, IF YOU WATCH EVERY VIDEO FROM BEGINNING TO END, I HAVE WORKED OUT THAT YOU'LL BE ON MY POST FOR THE NEXT 2 HOURS OF YOUR LIFE. JUST WATCHED A FEW MINUTES OF EACH. FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.

Okay, this is just going to be a short(ish) post. A shortish post that should educate you more about the grime scene, outside of London. Yes, yes, yes, we've all heard of Skepta, Wiley, Frisco, P Money, K Koke, JME, to name a few. BUT how clear a bell do these names ring? Marshy, A9, KB, Dorris, JayKae, Gino, Mez, Eyez, Dankz.....  Hmm, I thought so. Well these are the names of MCs who have been representing their 'ends' for the past few years now, all with different flows, bars, styles, fashions and goals not too mention accents. Without London and the Godafther, Wiley, the whole idea of grime theoretically may have never started, London has done very well to give the grime scene one demographic, one face. With the help of social media channels, grime now has many faces, many different demographics and a lot of accents.

The main grime following outside of London can be found in the Midlands, east and west but predominantly in Birmingham and then in Nottingham. Awareness has been raised in these areas mainly via YouTube and the work of online grime media channels, such as, JDZ Media and P110, that operate on YouTube. Both have emulated characteristics of the father of all YouTube media channels, SB.TV.

 I personally am a huge advocate for The Midland's grime music, what attracted me to it was the individually that  each rapper possesses. Crews like Invasion from Birmingham are a team of talented MCs coming in all in different shapes and sizes, MCs are solely judged on talent and how much their bars are believed, no matter what the bars are. This is better than being judged on what clothes you're wearing and how many times you've 'banged a strap', no? 

Anyway let the lessons begin! I'm going to kick it off with some videos of artists from Birmingham..

Invasion Alert - Vader, Hitman, C-Dash, Tazzle, JayKae (LOTM4), Depz (LOTM4), D2(LOTM5), Sox(LOTM3), Villain (In Order)

Here's some more talent from Brum..

Jaykae (Invasion)

KB & SafOne (StayFresh)

Devilman, the grime veteran of Birmingham who was banned from MCing, after an incident in which he was found to have snitched on a close friend. Devilman famously clashed Skepta (BBK) in LOTM2!

P110 have definitely been the main advocates for Birmingham, with JDZ raising awareness for surrounding parts of the Midlands. Other media channels have been around for a while as well, doing the same thing that the three platforms mentioned are currently doing. Here's a cypher from one of those channels.. UGX (UndergroundExposure).

These are MCs from Nottingham, Derby and Manchester.

In Order - D Flowz (NSB), Rikkers (NSB), Mez (NSB), Jay Eye (NSB), Don Dyno (Str8GzENT), Baz Brown (NewCamp), Wariko (LOTM3 & NewCamp)

Now let's have a look at Nottingham and what's going on there?..

Firstly, Wariko. Wariko is one of the first non-London MCs to really blow in the UK scene, with appearances on Westwood 1Xtra in 2009 and LOTM3, Wariko is DEFINITELY a grime veteran AND.. he has the lyrics to match the reputable career.

Mez (NSB), one of the hottest younger's in the country, beating Grimsta on Sunday to claim SilkCity Radio's Prizefighter award. Please look out for, for your sake.

You cannot forget Gino. Defintely Nottingham's most commercial MC.

This #SPITFIRE from A9, had to feature in this post. This is probably my favourite freestyle on any YouTube channel, MAD VERSES. 'I don't wanna hear man chat chat..'

Okay.. Now we'll have a look at Walsall, I think it's time to get the map out.

Walsall, is extremely close to Birmingham.

Here's Walsall's best MC, Marshy representing Higher Stakes and Young Guvament. Amazing flow and only 17 years old!

Flawzz from Walsall has his Story Teller shot by JDZ.

And finally. to rap things up.. we have Eyez (LOTM5) and Dankz representing Derby. And representing Manchester we have Dorris, accompanied by more Notts man in 'Deya'.

The scene is also exploding up north, so obviously, I'm going to show you more videos. 

From Liverpool, now representing a K Koke's crew, USG. We have Aystar. Then we to MCs that both broke through via DON'T FLOP rap battles, Blizzard (LOTM5) from Manchester and Lunar C from Bradford, yorkshire's first big grime name. 

 BANG!.. Aystar.

Blizzard!

and Lunar C, who's popularity is ever growing!!

Now, I hope it didn't take you 2 hours to read all of this. I also hope that you are now more enlightened on the exploding grime scene and that you all understand that good grime music is not solely produced by one demographic. If this is still the case and you're not convinced, have a look at my absolute FINAL vid. 

This is Cee Major, straight out of East London, the home of grime.

Have a great day! Listen to more videos on YouTube and follow and subscribe to the channels I've mentioned throughout! Here are the links..

SBTV 

SBTV YouTube Channel - SUBSCRIBE

SBTV Twitter - FOLLOW

JDZ

JDZ Media YouTube Channel - SUBSCRIBE

JDZ Media Twitter - FOLLOW

P110

P110 Media YouTube Channel - SUBSCRIBE

P110 Media Twitter - FOLLOW

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram and anything else you can think of @ZachEkpe, it'll be worth it. Stay Locked for more GRM News and videos, and stay blessed.

COOL POINTERS; iMOAN - WATCH YOUR STEP!

Afternoon beautiful people! After many years of procrastination, I present to you.. my FIRST post. As you've seen in my little bio section, 'I occasionally post things that I hope will fascinate people as much as me.' And boy o boy have I been swept off my feet by my latest discovery. 

I'm sorry to say that if you do not own an iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c, with iOS7, you will not be able to participate. That said, the relative next to you or downstairs is probably in possession of one, so use theirs!

ANYWAY.. Ever wandered how true the gossip about our privacy actually is? Well, here's something that should help you form your own opinion on the matter. I personally was amazed when I stumbled across this, since seeing this I have probably told everyone I know with an iPhone about it from friends to customers at work!

Ok, so finally.. Here are the steps:

1- Go to Settings

2- Scroll down a LIL to Privacy

3- Then go to Location Services (make sure they're turned on, if they've previously been switched off then this may not work as well for you, but credit you for your battery preservation skills!) 

- Scroll down,below all your apps, to System Services!

4- Now in your System Services you'll see Frequent Locations, GO TO FREQUENT LOCATIONS!

5- Make sure your Frequent Locations are turned on, scroll down and view your locational history, click on one of the locations if you're thinking 'hmmm.. this isn't THAT accurate..' (again.. if you previously switched off Frequent Locations then your results will not be as extensive as most, worry not though, this is a default setting and should already be turned by the cheeky buggers running apple.)

6- I won't show you all exactly where I've been and at what time but I feel as if I have taken you far enough. Press the addresses and your phone will pull an inch perfect register of where you've been for the past 2 months.

Amazed? I told you. 

Although this may be seen as an invasion of our privacy, it is also an example of human lethargy! We all agree to these terms as we hurry to set up our brand new iPhones, but next time take a step back, have a read, see what information you're nonchalantly handing over to these massive corporations. 

Thank you for reading! Eyes peeled for the next one. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram - @ZachEkpe for more blog info, and an look into my life!

Stay tuned, stay blessed.