Footage has surfaced online of a group of people burning a cardboard model of the Grenfell Tower, a residential building that caught fire in June 2017, leaving 72 dead.
The building housed many black and Muslim families, and the high fatality rate was blamed on the UK government’s failure to provide adequate services to the poor. For example, British residents are told to stay put in high rise fires because regulations mandate that such buildings be made with materials and construction techniques that can prevent a fire from spreading as it did in Grenfell. Those regulations were skirted when Grenfell was constructed, however. Reports after the fire found that fire-resistant cladding that was supposed to be applied to the building had been left off because it was too expensive and considered an eyesore.
Britain’s collective shame over the horrific fire gave way to disgust for the people involved in the now-viral video, in which a group celebrating Bonfire Night cackles as a model of the building is burned. Now, politicians are weighing i6n.
The group placed the effigy on top of the bonfire. As it was increasingly overwhelmed by flames, people in the group chanted “help me, help me.”
The group put little figures, mostly cut out of brown paper, in some of the windows of the model building. One of them was wearing a burka.
“Stay in your flat; we are coming to get ya,” one person yelled, alluding to the ‘stay put’ order.
The video surfaced after it made the rounds on WhatsApp before it was reported it to the London Metropolitan Police, according to LBC. It isn’t clear who shot, appeared in or originally shared the footage.
Police have launched an investigation into the video.
“I want these beasts prosecuted,” Kay Oldroyd, who shared the video on social media, wrote.
“Flying the English flag and enjoying a good old laugh at the expense of 100’s of lives who died in the most horrific way,” she added. “This is the sick mentality of racist, bigoted individuals.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the video was “utterly unacceptable.”
London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton called it “appalling and disturbing.”
UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid and survivors of the fire have also condemned the video.
The British government promised when the fire broke out that Grenfell residents would be rehoused within a year, but 16 months later, more than 150 families who were made homeless by the blaze are still living in temporary or emergency housing, Metro UK reported on Friday.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
