Talk:New London police commissioner blames middle-class cocaine users for violence in Colombia and on British housing estates

If you want to remove vast sections from the police commissioner or any other article explain yourself on the talk page. I have reverted what you did, and await your comments about the original removal. In my opinion I gave the article a neutral point of view, which you then took away. I was not speculating, I was giving what many people think about Blair's statements, both in and outside the UK. Nor was the final paragraph copied from anywhere. Just because the original TIMES article was not from a neutral point of view does not lessen the duty of wikinews to attempt to be so.Squeakfox 23:46, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * You mis-understand NPOV. Just report what happened. If you want to play guessing games or pass comments on people or how they might be feeling, get a blog and do it there. Otherwise don't try and guess and motives, opinions etc as you could be wildly wrong.


 * If someone is actually on record as saying something, then by all report that, just reference it too. Dan100 (Talk) 10:54, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Let me deconstruct your paragraph to show you what I mean:

While Blair is clearly trying to prick the conscience of cocaine users, hoping to persuade them to boycott the product

Actually this idea came from The Guardian --Squeakfox 15:42, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source where Blair states that is his objective? Or are you just guessing?

there is another argument, made by those who propose the legalisation of drugs, that in fact the misery both in Colombia and on poor housing estates in the UK is caused not by cocaine itself but by the banning of the substance


 * Do you have a source document where pro-legalisation groups state this?

This, and this BBC article are 2 examples, the second commenting on how legalising drugs would lessen housing estate misery in UK and added as external link. Legalising drugs to elimimate the drug trade is a mainstream viewpoint, both in the UK and Latin Amewrica/Colombia. Squeakfox 15:42, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Sir Ian has also left himself open to charges of hypocrisy given that as an illegal product the trade in cannabis also generates violence both at home and abroad.


 * Who says he has? Has someone of importance (eg a politician, a campaigner) actually stated that he is being hypocritical?

I will drop the hypocrisy and merely point out that the cannabis trade also generates violence, a well documented fact. See and  --Squeakfox 15:42, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I hope that illustrates what I'm trying to get at. Dan100 (Talk) 10:59, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Have rewritten final paragraph. --Squeakfox 16:06, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

NPOV
NPOV is about giving a balanced point of view, something the Times article did not do, it only gave Ian Blair's point of view. We shouild never assume that commercial press, whose first priority is advertising revenue, is unbiased. The Times has a right wing reputation. So I did not just report what this one article said, I gave it breadth and attempted to give it a neutral point of view to Blair's one sided statement that users are responsible for the misery of drugs. I would not expect the police commissioner to put forward the argument that the law or the police are responsible for the problems created by drugs, but feel that we at Wiki need to give more than just one point of view. That the misery is caused by the illegality of drugs is another point of view expressed by many. I have attempted to rectify my bad sourcies. If you do not like my rewrite I would ask you to edit it not delete it. I am not happy with the article without a final paragraph. Squeakfox 17:13, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Lint.
edit protected Stray italics tag at end of entry for BBC source.ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 18:52, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ •–• 18:56, 9 September 2020 (UTC)