Knee-jerk Reactions, Failures in Policing and Vigilantism

I had heard the name Bijan Ebrahimi before, but wasn't fully informed about the story. Now that I have, it's just an awful story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-25122280

A man who was murdered and had his body set on fire following false rumours he was a paedophile was "let down" by the police, his sister has said.

Manisha Moores said Iranian-born Bijan Ebrahimi had come to England as a refugee in 2001 to find a better life.

He was arrested by police after he was seen taking pictures around the Bristol estate where he lived.

Avon and Somerset Police said there was no proof to back up the allegation he was a paedophile.

Ms Moores said her brother had "no doubt" that he was coming to a safe place and that he did not believe anything bad would happen to him in the UK.

Mr Ebrahimi had been suffering racial and physical abuse on the estate he lived on in the Brislington area of the city, said Ms Moores.

She added he was told he needed to provide photographic evidence to support his allegations of harassment and damage to his property.

Basically, he had some learning difficulties and mild disabilities, was extremely passionate about horticulture and his garden (and cat) and became increasingly reclusive as a victim of abuse from those around him. He had previously been assaulted quite badly in a share home in 2006 resultingin hospitalisation, and faced further abuse in his new residence - complaining to police 14 times in 3 years over racist abuse and issues with neighbours. The breaking point for him was when kids in the area started destroying his flowers, so he took photos of them doing this, most likely to send to the authorities to try and get them to stop. After all, it's not like the parents of those kids were bothered to do anything, going by everything else we know.

Instead, the locals reported him for videotaping their kids and police wound up arresting him on suspicions of paedophilia - those same neighbours were cheering his arrest and shouting further abuse at him as it occurred - the eventual killer made a threat on Ebrahimi's life in the presence of police, and no action was taken. When the police found no evidence of any wrongdoing on Ebrahmi's part, they did not make this clear to any neighbours despite it such a blatantly hostile environment that they were releasing him back into (and instances like a convicted paedophile being burned alive in his council house only a few weeks prior). They also never looked any further into the abuse he was receiving from his neighbours.

Within two days, Ebrahimi was dead. 24 year old Lee James called to his door, beat him unconscious, stamped on his head and burned him alive... the very same vigilante justice that many in here often call for when a paedophilia story comes out.

Lee James has been sentenced to 18 years in prison today, an accomplice Stephen Norley who supplied the white spirits with which Ebrahimi was burned alive was sentenced to four years, and six police officers are being questioned for cross misconduct over their handling of the incident - three have been suspended, and (I assume the same) three are also being questioned for criminal charges. But Bijan Ebrahimi is still dead, still murdered despite believing he was moving to a safer place and better life back in 2001.

It's just an absolutely terrible, depressing story, perhaps mostly because it is not at all surprising.