Thread by @SteB777

"David Lammy under pressure as two more prisoners mistakenly freed"

I'm somewhat puzzled about the way this is being reported, allowing serial conman Nigel Farage to make out this is just about criminal asylum seekers being released by accident.
1/🧵
theguardian.com/society/2025/n…

As this report makes clear, hundreds of prisoners, are accidentally released.

Nor is this new, there have been many cases like this for years.
2/
news.sky.com/story/how-many…

One of Britain's most notorious serial rapists (white), was released early, accidentally, and went on a spree of horrific offences.

3/news.sky.com/story/joseph-m…

I remember many such cases being reported over the years, often involving mixing people up with similar names. I'm not exactly sure how many times it happens, or the causes of it, only that it has been happening for a long time.
4/

However, what is important, is that it didn't just start with 2 criminal asylum seekers. Therefore, for the media and opportunist, far right politicians, to make this about asylum seekers, is grossly dishonest, as most accidental releases aren't asylum seekers, or recent.
5/

Of grave concern is this cherry-picking logical fallacy, is being used by the right wing media, for dog whistle racism, where they over-report crimes committed by non-white offenders, to give the false impression, that most crimes are committed by non-whites.
6/

Again, and again, statistics prove that the majority of offenders are white, which is not surprising in a country with a white majority. It is just that the right wing media make a bigger fuss, about offences, committed by non-whites, to reinforce false stereotypes.
7/

The problem is much deeper. The national press, can only report a tiny proportion of criminal cases, even serious ones. Therefore, it is very easy for the media to mislead the public, by selectively cherry-picking certain types of cases, to promote political agendas.
8/

This has been going on for a very long time, on so many different levels. It is not always clear what the agenda is, but there is clear selectivity in the type of cases reported, which is often strongly correlated with right wing political agendas/campaigns.
9/

It is impossible to prove anything, in specific cases, because of the way, what cases are reported by the media, and which are not, is very arbitrary, and highly selective. So it is possible to pretend it is just coincidence.
10/

@threadreaderapp unroll