Police called to sort out a young wargamer.

[lee337 505xp 4]

I don’t know about Britain but in the U.S.  right-wing terrorism is on the rise (people have been killed) and you can’t ignore things like this as the teacher you have a responsibility to act if you suspect something, and people should always er on the side of caution, not understanding wargaming isn’t that unusual. It’s how we as gamers react to it that matters.

[Anonymous 0xp 6]

Lots of what is being said on this is pure speculation.  The video only includes one side of a story.

[skiptotheend 4525xp 3]

Its also an interesting to step back and view in the sense normally as wargamers we get caught up in the rule set and the context be it history/semi history/fantastical

Whilst to the external of this hobby (and probably gaming in general) the aesthetic  is probably the thing they zero in on as the visuality of the game is the only bit they can put into context

 

In the wider context the school probably only did what it had been taught, the downside is there should probably be an intermediary section between reporting and all out police intervention, cutting the wheat from the chaff.

And lets be honest there probably is atleast  a handful  of people out there in the world playing some sort of wargame which is linked to a viewset that may not be entirely pleasent

The fact is extremism on the right and left is rising and the laws probably are a bit knee jerk at the moment and need refining but that is probably easier said than done considering the amount of meta data these guys are trying to sift through

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 1]

Yeah, there could be another side to the story.  But unless he was goose stepping around the school dressed in a black Hugo Boss SS uniform, I am struggling to see any justification for police involvement. So the explanation for this remains unnecessary over reaction and state  over reach.

Personally I don’t think we have really seen either side of the story.  We have seen a small part of one side of the story, the rest of which cannot be shared for legal reasons, which suggests that they are taking legal action against either the school or the police.

[lordsanes 6512xp 1]

@robert is wise. Listen to robert

[brennonKeymaster 31029xp 4]

Aye, as @lordsanes and @robert have said, best not to get too carried away with this. It seems like a small localised event which was blown out of proportion.

I think the police with guns used as the thumbnail for the video in the original post is sort of over the top which doesn’t help heh.

[lordsanes 6512xp 1]

Although a positive thing about this is how the community is rallying around. Everyone here is supportive of the young guy no matter what. I think that’s good to focus on in this community (and its nice to get something positive out of a negative thing like this)

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 3]

I don’t think it is a small localised event. It might seem that way when you limit this solely to wargames but in terms of heavy handed policing on the grounds of counter extremism, in a world where anyone can be (and indeed is)  accused of being a Nazi then no, its absolutely not small or localised, it’s symptomatic of the UK in general.  Terror and Extremis is now the means by which our freedom is being slowly eaten away. It’s a false moral panic being used to gain public consent for increased state and police power. This particular case is just another example.

Whilst I would love to try and keep an open mind over this, I honestly can’t think what he might have been doing that would warrant the involvement of anti-terrorism police and being questioned under caution. I think we need to at least take them at their word when they say that happened. So while it may well be true that there is more to this than just buying miniatures of imaginary British Fascist soldiers, if we accept that then we must also weigh that against where exactly we think the line is at which point anti terror police need to get involved. Ask yourself which is more likely, a teacher over reacted to a student showing an interest in the history of British Fascism and not taking the time to find out what was really going on, or the student expressing genuine fascist views and behaviours in class. In today’s day and age, I know where I would be placing my money.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6423xp 1]

Gotta love the utter stupidity of the PREVENT scheme. It was dreamt up in whitehall as a good idea but without realising that the real world is full of morons.

[soulman 2945xp 0]

Anybody fancy some Zulu gaming..!!!!   don`t go there…  🙂

 

[darthcheeseParticipant 4436xp 3]

A few things here. Interviewing someone under caution is really the only option with someone who may have committed an offence. In fact police have been rightly criticised for not doing this. Secondly far right extremism falls under the remit of anti terror police. Had he been a young hacker than a cybercrime team would deal with him. Specialist offences are dealt with by specialist officers.

So asking why a caution interview by anti terror, well that’s just how it is.

The real question is should it ever got as far as the police in the first place. A colleague left to work for the school prevent team at the DFE, she left after 6 months saying they were a total shambles, who didn’t know what they were doing. I’d hoped after 2 years they might have improved. But maybe not.

[unclejimmyMember 9225xp 2]

I have had similar problems on here with delusional idiots who just like to make a noise. This is not about 1984 becoming real (that happened years ago and nobody noticed) or erosion of anything, it is about stupidity and that nobody has sense anymore. It has all be replaces by delusional policy and leftie hee-haw.

What makes all of this worse is that you would expect a ‘teacher’ to know better. No, it all looks good in their records when the Overseer starts looking for someone to become the owner of a different coloured neck-tie!

@onlyonepinman – wow, they just let anyone in here! How are you doing?

[mecha82Participant 10037xp 0]

@brennon Agreed. Being calm and not allowing oneself to get carried away is sensible thing to do. Sad thing is cases like this are easy for certain groups to use as way to push they views and act all holier than thou like certain people in this thread have already been doing.

[limburger 21708xp 1]

Consider yourselves lucky that you can even read ‘Mein Kampf’ … over here it’s probably the only book that is not allowed to be sold to anyone (and even academics have issues gaining access as a result). 75+ years since WW2 and that book is still a major issue.

As for this incident … I hope there was more evidence of his potential for violence/exteremism than mere wargaming material, because I kind of doubt they’d bring out the big guns for this sort of thing. During slow news days this sort of thing is excellent click bait, which makes me wonder just how much of it was pulled out of context.

OTOH … it has been *ahem* enlightening how certain groups tend to be treated as potentially violent  while others are ignored. (and that’s all I’m going to say about this, because we’re here to have fun)

Meanwhile we as gamers/geeks/hobbyists should do our best not to needlessly antagonize outsiders of our hobby. We as geeks should be aware of the kind of damage those types can do when we aren’t supersensitive to what they think of us (need I mention what happened to RPG’s and comics ? ).

It sucks because it means we can’t just enjoy our hobby without having to worry about real world (identity) politics, but I’d rather handle potentially sensitive subjects within our hobby with care than to have to do without them at all …
Remember … we had to be aware of the potential for offense during the WW2 bootcamps already.

So please try not to give them a reason to tell others that we’re dangerous lunatics.

[bubbles15Participant 2308xp 2]

The teacher should be charged with wasting police time and struck off. The right thing to do would be to ask about the interest in history and praise the fellow’s imagination, the parent’s involvement and the learning you’re doing.

The teacher then should be reminded that the Nazi’s did just this – reported their neighbours and that Nazi is a short form for national socialists – Lefties. Fascism is a Left wing conceit. The teacher is the fascist and seems proud of their disgusting oppression.

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