Thread by @jimkillock

The debates over statues and today David Starkey’s racist remarks puts me in mind of this.

Doing some Wikipedia research in 2018, I found one of those statements that were “citation needed”. In this case, though, it really felt like it needed resolution, one way or the other.

Yes, you read that right. A school in Lincolnshire had allegedly designed its' logo to refer back to what is the most famous Jewish Blood Libel of the middle ages.

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti…

I found a source (an old school history from 1975) bought it on ebay and added the reference.

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti…

Sometime later, another researcher found the Wikipedia article, and let the @JewishChron know about it; they reported the story, and the logo was amended: thejc.com/news/uk/lincol…

The “ball” flying over the “wall” (and thus tempting the boy to his death) was removed.

I must admit that I don’t find this very satisfactory.

The wall is part of the story. If the school really wants to distance itself from the blood libel, they need to change the whole logo.

For another thing, though, never imagine that editing @Wikipedia is a waste of time. Sometimes it can lead to injusticies being addressed.

I will give you another @Wikipedia example, which hasn‘t led to any particular change, but gave me some satisfaction.

There was virtually no information on Wikipedia about the notorious West Midlands Serious Crime Squad:

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti…

This is how the page looks now:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midl…

The information mostly comes from @libertyhq’s report from the 90s.

“Plastic bagging“, forging confessions, fitting up black and Irish suspects: in the end around 40 convictions were overturned and a further 60 cases collapsed.

*One hundred attempts at fit ups*. This ought to be drummed into every UK citizen’s memory.

Here is the full list of shame and a few examples at random: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_f…