Three little girls allowed to be knifed to death so no one would be called racist
On 29 July 2024, 17-year-old Rwandan-born Axel Rudakubana entered a dance studio in Southport, Merseyside in the UK where a Taylor Swift–themed dance workshop was underway, attended by 26 children. He proceeded to stab two of the girls to death and critically injure eight others and two adults with a kitchen knife. A third little girl died from her wounds the following day.Rudakubana was arrested at the scene and charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and possession of a bladed article, in addition to being charged later for possession of ricin and an al-Qaeda training manual. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 52 years. No motive for the stabbings was ever identified.
The UK’s Daily Mail reported yesterday that a 760-page inquiry into the attack has concluded that “this terrible event could have been – and should have been – prevented,” and that “catastrophic” failures by Rudakubana’s protective parents and by indifferent agencies enabled the attack to go forward.
Born in Wales to Christian parents who had fled Rwanda, Axel was enrolled at The Acorns School, a pupil referral unit, at the age of 13 after being expelled from a public school for taking a knife into class.
He had been referred to the Home Office anti-extremism program called Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021, but was not accepted into the program as no evidence of terrorism was found; instead, his behavior was largely dismissed as attributable to his autism.
Headteacher Joanne Hodson told investigators that she realized from his first day at Acorns that Rudakubana was “very high risk,” with a manner “devoid of any remorse.” I’m no clinical psychologist, but I believe someone who is clearly devoid of any remorse is a ticking, psychopathic time bomb, and authorities need to be alerted before tragedy strikes.
Hodson apparently felt the same way, but she wasn’t counting on the willful blindness and cowardice of the authorities. When she took her concerns to children’s mental health worker Samantha Steed about the risk Rudakubana posed, Steed accused Hodson of “racially stereotyping” the teen “as ‘a black boy with a knife.’” That implied threat “effectively shut me up,” Hodson told the inquiry.
The warning about Rudakubana reportedly remained in a document about his education, health and care plan, but parts were rewritten; a concerning reference to his “sinister” internet use (more on that below), for example, was replaced with the weaselly word “inappropriate.”
Inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford conceded that “Mrs Hodson was raising a valid point about the need for a risk assessment,” and that this was “another example of insufficient emphasis being placed on the risks that child may present to others.”
Insufficient emphasis indeed. The report cited “critical failures in information sharing” among the various agencies responsible for monitoring Rudakubana. The boy’s autism had been used as an excuse for his past behavior, and a “merry-go-round” of referrals and assessments meant that no agency understood (or cared to understand, apparently) how dangerous the teenager was. No one wanted to be responsible for identifying a clearly disturbed child of black African migrants as a danger to others.
At the report’s conclusion, Sir Adrian criticized Lancashire Police, the government’s counter-extremism service Prevent, various NHS mental health services, and the County Council, among others. “This failure lies at the heart of why [Rudakubana] was able to mount the attack, despite so many warning signs of his capacity for fatal violence.”
Sir Adrian said the agencies also showed “scant regard” and a “lack of curiosity” over Rudakubana’s internet fascination with the sickeningly macabre, which included viewing graphic images of dead bodies, victims of torture and beheadings, and cartoons depicting killing, violence and rape. He was obsessed with wars, genocides, and mass-murdering figures such as Hitler and Genghis Khan. --->READ MORE HERE
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