For those who are interested in the court case I mentioned the other day, Kirk was convicted, given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs.
A few kind people expressed an interest in making a donation towards the costs. If you’d like to do so, please go here.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and emails.
You might also be interested to learn that the two owners of small-arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch are currently being sued by a group of investors who allege that they took €130 million out of the company and blew it on yachts, jets, helicopters and mansions. It’s gratifying to see these bastards facing a massive, whirling shitstorm of trouble but I can’t help approving of the idea that someone might take a truckload of money designated for helping an arms company, and piss it all up the wall instead.
35 Responses to “Quick Update”
Aye, it is a dilemma.
Yeah, I don’t have anything else to say. Sorry.
Wow. Who’d have thought that the owners of a stuff-for-killing-people company might have poor ethical standards?
Cheers for the update – been looking out for it!
Also:
Seeing as they have yachts, jets, helicopters and mansions … and guns, the shitstorm probably needs to be Arnie in Commando mode or Dr McNinja …
“You might also be interested to learn that the two owners of small-arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch are currently being sued by a group of investors who allege that they took €130 million out of the company and blew it on yachts, jets, helicopters and mansions.”
Maybe someone’s fighting them from the inside? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t lose any kharma points by defrauding a company of the money it was planning to use to help people blow poor kids to bits.
Hah. Apparently, the investors allege that the shareholders stole the money and “used it for a personal spending spree that shocks the conscience.”
Shocks the what?
Shocks the conscience, eh? I bet they have a product for that. It might also electrocute everywhere else, but I’ve yet to meet someone interested in military hardware for whom the phrase ‘collateral damage’ doesn’t induce at least a semi-on.
Defrauding a weapons company is practically a humanitarian mission, anyway.
I mean, you could spend the money on literally anything I can think of right now…helicopters covered in crack cocaine, programs to develop Quorn that feels pain, Nike or Coca-Cola…and still do less harm to society.
i would come down to nottingham to show some support but i normally like the kind of protests with a bit more violence, My general rule of thumb is if i can’t punch some utter cunt in the face after standing around getting shitfaced and chanting then it’s not worth the effort.
I get the whole peacefull thing, easier with the fuzz an all, but i just get pissed off and end up throwing bricks. Probably not what your mates looking for…
Not unless they’re looking for a total apolitical cunt who behaves like a police agent provocateur, no.
The conscience. Why?
So the fact that I spent much of the four years I was employed at QinetiQ pissing about on the internet (including this site, of course) is some kind of justification for my being there? Great
@jpr – I think, given the number and timing of comments on here, we’re all doing our bit to kick against the corporate machine. Solidarity, brother (or sister).
@-_- – please tell me you’re taking the piss? Please, please tell me you’re taking the piss.
Perhaps -_- is a drive-by troll from the EDL.
Sorry to hear the Muskers did a number on Kirk, and thanks for the donation link.
I’m glad your mate didn’t get a severe punishment. It sounds like H&K are a buch of knobs. I’m glad some people are prepared to get a criminal record to highlight this issue.
I think the reason why some people are hesitant about showing support is the number of fucktards taking direct action for stupid causes. (I’m thinking the animal rights movement and greenpeace who have no sense of perspective) But this is one case where direct action has made me think about how wrong the person being direct actioned is.
I just want to make it clear ‘cos some prats didn’t understand me last time: Nice one Kirk and Nelson, you have made me think.
@Brown Town – not the whole animal rights movement; it’s pretty big, and we aren’t all ALF loonies.
Sorry for the generalisation
Thanks – sorry for the throat-jumping! I campaign a lot and meet a lot of arseholes so I have a tendency to get defensive . . .
Thanks Nelson, for the link. Maybe I can stand you guys that round after all!
Thanks peeps.
@brown_town: At the risk of causing you to think further…
I think people who take non-violent direct action are rarely “fucktards”. (obviously the non-violent bit has already excluded the ALF, EDL etc)
They are, like the rest of the population, a mixed bunch. But just think for a moment what it’d take for you to go out and do something like that. It’s not a decision you take lightly. “Hmmm… shall I have an egg sandwich or go out and risk a criminal record for taking a non-violent stand against injustice?”. If all they cared about was themself it would ALWAYS be easier to toe the line. So, if the only way you can reconcile their actions with your own views is to assume that they must all be stupid or “fucktards” then you should maybe question some of your other assumptions.
And yeah, “outsider” movements and campaigns DO attract eccentrics (and occasional downright mentalists). But even the eccentrics have to be principled to stick at it. It’s a fuck of a lot of work
@ Nelson & Masked
Your right,
I guess I just feel a bit jaded because I am an engineer and Greenpeace made me feel guilty for along time about my chosen career. Until one day I thought, wait a minute, What I am doing is actually making the world a better place. Helping to provide clean water, electricity, blueray disks etc is something to be proud of (except maybe the blueray disks).
I guess I’m as prejudiced as the next guy..
We’re in danger of having a civilised debate on the internet.
Nelson: Hitler.
The Balance: Restored.
Nah the Hitler ploy in the context of an argument about kill toys is just a little too apt. Then again this is becoming a bit too opinionated, for a website that is dedicated to the trashing of other peoples opinions (regardless of how mindblastingly stupid they may be).
Comments like that make me wish I’d put google ads on here. I’d be several grand richer by now. It’s my blog, cunt. Read it or fuck off.
x
I’m sad to say I somehow missed the earlier post about Kirk (my RSS feed at work is a bit rubbish) otherwise I would’ve had a few things to add to that thread myself, e.g. Cor blimey, they lurk among us! Ed is obviously a bit of a dick, WTF?! etc etc.
Instead I will just say, glad to hear Kirk is not in prison and I will donate when I get paid next week.
Also, SYB fucking rulez. IDST 4eva
I like SYB today. I am fickle.
Personally this has really made me think. I work at a subsidiary of a large European company which provides arms. Although the arms are done by contract to major “good” countries this may have tipped the scales in my decision to leave or not. Best of luck to Kirk.
@ Ed aka What A Dick
You know Ed, you’re probably right. It’s fairly unlikely that I’ll become the William Wilberforce of the arms trade but at least I’m not a total weapon.
I’m deleting Ed’s posts until he can stop being a bumsprinkle.
“Shocks the conscience” eh, must be one of these then:
http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz359/DennisBloodnok/hksb.jpg
Available soon from your friendly neighbourhood gun-runner.
I am sorry to hear that Mr Kirk lost his case and I hope that it succeeds in raising public awareness of the issue.
If I had to comment (and I do, because the interweb is for the half-baked rantings of the uninformed) I’d say that another good approach would be to campaign for tighter regulation surrounding the supply of credit to pariah states and the companies that do business with them.
There is already EU legislation which prohibits financial institutions from knowingly providing credit either a) to pariah states or b) for deals involving prohibited products like guns, restraints and shock batons. Extending that legislation to allow regulators to prosecute firms even if they unknowingly bankroll an arms deal would go a long way towards choking off the flow of credit for the grey-market weapons business. Investment banks arrange or stand as guarantors to the majority of global debt. They really, really don’t like being embarrassed and I can imagine few things more embarrassing for a firm than being splashed all over the financial press for funding genocide.
Granted, lobbying MPs and MEPs for tighter financial regulation isn’t as exciting (or as satifying) as actively protesting an issue but better regulatory controls would be effective.
My bullsh1t internet qualification is that I am a former investment banking compliance officer. Obviously, in reality, I am a jobless overweight 40 year old self-diagnosed aspergers sufferer sitting around in my y-fronts eating cheetos.
I love SYB, by the way, some of the best comedy on the net.
Thanks Dennis.
Yeah, lobbying is worth doing. But only just.
e.g. my MP was a Labour whip for the last 10 years and I might as well have written my letters of complaint on own cock and then furiously rubbed them off again. Much more fun and marginally less pointless.
Unless there are LARGE numbers of people demanding change and causing real headaches, there simply won’t be any change.
You may have nailed an important part of the solution, I dunno – but to get there IMO people are gonna have to register their disapproval a little more forcefully than wondering “Perhaps we need a better legislative framework to control the credit extended to dodgy regimes?”
Nelson,
In order to effect change you need to persuade more people to join you. Your present tactics are going to have the opposite effect. Keep up the good work, brother.
Hehe. Only just checked yr image Dennis. Fucking brilliant. Can I use it pls?
Ed, I’ll leave that comment there in all it’s shameful transparency. I could do a “Delusions of Grandeur” post with it.
Nelson,
I, Major Dennis Bloodnok, formerly of Her Majesty’s 12th Mounted Cash Registers, KCB, KCMG, DSO and BAR, Vice Pomme-Frite of the Titikhakan Legation and Consul of no fixed abode do hereby grant you a perpetual, royalty free license to use, distribute, alter, fiddle with, print out, nail to the forehead of people like Ed with a heavy duty staple hammer, etc. I do not require any attribution, credit, glory or bragging rights.
Please note that both the Hk logo and (probably) the stunner image are copyright however using them may be covered by the rights surrounding satirical derivative works.
Apologies for the late reply I was away in an internet dead-zone for the bank holiday.
Dennis