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Nothing actually says they were chasing people WITH a bladed weapon, as in brandishing it specifically. Or that it is an ongoing event.
Or that it happened at all.
The linked report is pretty definitive that a 30 y.o was arrested in Belmont Road Reading on 23/1/25
Officers arrested a 30-year-old man at about 8.10pm, on suspicion of possession of a knife blade/ sharp pointed article in a public place and using threatening/abusive/insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment/alarm or distress.
Officers arrested a 30-year-old man at about 8.10pm, on suspicion of possession of a knife blade/ sharp pointed article in a public place and using threatening/abusive/insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment/alarm or distress.
Local news here would have reported that "cops had pounced" or "cops swooped". While doing the pouncing and swooping, there'd probably have been "traffic chaos" too. Everything causes "traffic chaos" in the local news.
Boring old "arrest" is hardly news, not if there's no pouncing or swooping or traffic chaos.
Kind of like how cyclists never just "ride", they hurtle. Menacingly or recklessly. They cause traffic chaos too.
Then people can post on FB that they were held up in traffic for hours while cops swooped / cyclists hurtled; like, share and comment if you agree!
TBH look at the number of ad’s they managed to serve up 🙂
Its a page of adds with a picture of a man with a knife - as opposed to the man with a knife just in case you can’t imagine it,
She’s just so incurious
I believe this is an evolutionary trait and very common. Thinking requires a lot of time and energy. Time and energy that can be used for more important things pertaining to our survival. Especially when others have already done the thinking for you.
It's not quite so useful when we have massive, global platforms, with unprecedented ability to engage and manipulate people, force feeding us questionable information, every hour of the day.
Well there you go.
There was an arrest, and a subsequent bailing out...
The rest of it? Who bloody knows, she's now not buying the pictures of some random brown person that were shared, or the reports of him wandering about town...
So we're both feeling strangely vindicated it seems. We've agreed that she won't to take these things at face value, and I won't be instantly dismissive. Equilibrium is achieved.
That's how they often work, teenagers kick off in the bus station, the facebook rumour is muslim teenagers attack poor defenceless british kids, someone's cat goes missing becomes immigrants stealing and eating pets (those example are real) the grain of truth makes the message of hate and division much more powerful.
Someone threatening another with a knife happens all the time, 99% of the time they know each other and have an existing beef. I have a big scar on my face from a knife attack 30 years ago, in my case it was a **** in a night club going out tooled. The crime isn't new, the way it is being manipulated is.
Top work by crazy-legs. Although it seems to be the choice of the official news feed too
I'm not saying Councillor Joanne Stewart (Conservative, Tilehurst Birch Copse) is stirring shit but her completely uncorroborated story that she's published on the local news site sounds exactly like the one in the OP.
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/24887912.man-reportedly-chasing-girls-knife-reading/
Normal for West Reading isn't it?
Oh dear, in a moment of weakness I read the comments in that reading newspaper article:-(
Normal for West Reading isn’t it?
I believe estate agents describe Oxford Road as a vibrant community.
I'd still put more money on the story being conservative councilor stirring up trouble though than it actually having happened.
I used to live in "South Reading", which was similarly a way of avoiding saying Northumberland Avenue. It was never as bad as people made out, and I still get my hair cut, go shopping, the gym, walk home late at night etc there. If I was going to die anywhere in Reading it's going to be a badly driven BMW in Lower Earley or Tilehurst!
I used to have mates in Reading. It seemed alright. Many a decent evening in the Purple Turtle or the 'Kitten' Tree.
Reading's neighbours on the other hand... we used to do site visits to a branch in Iver and the boss would put us up in Slough. My god the stereotypes about Sluff are true, it was dreadful. The first hotel we were booked into was crawling with lice. Our bags didn't touch the floor, we went to the nearest chain hotel instead. Maybe a Travelodge, I'm not wholly sure and it's not important. It's the only 'odge I've ever visited which had a security detail on the front door.
True story while I'm here. We got a call from the Iver branch going "where are all our new laptops?" Uh, pardon? Turned out, someone had rocked up with a big van, gone "hi, we're here from IT, we've got new laptops for you all, we just need to remove all the old desktops first," stripped the building and cleared off. We went down to refit the entire building including a new server. To be fair it wasn't a large building, maybe two dozen employees, but still. A week or two later we get another call, (presumably) the same crew had been back overnight and made away with all the brand new kit we'd just installed.
On the upside, we got a lot of mileage out of "Stolen From Iver" jokes.
Oh dear, in a moment of weakness I read the comments in that reading newspaper article:-(
Schoolboy error. Never, ever read the bottom half of the Internet.
Oh dear, in a moment of weakness I read the comments in that reading newspaper article:-(
If ever there was an example of "never read the bottom half of the internet" then a small regional newsaper is it
If ever there was an example of “never read the bottom half of the internet” then a small regional newsaper is it
To be fair, the top half is rarely much better in this scenario.
loved the comments.
there was a time when that, er, article would get a single, simple online response.
Sauce?
I actually had to re-read it to see if there was one single fact in all the words.
They somehow spanner net zero into the whole situation..... Bonkers