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Razor blades allegedly stuck to the back of posters

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contrex

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Is there no limit to human wickedness?

In the Guardian today:

London transport staff warned of razors inside Covid conspiracy posters

Staff on London’s public transport network have been warned that blades are being concealed inside posters promoting conspiracy theories about Covid-19 and vaccinations.

Transport for London (TfL) said there had been a number of reports of razor blades being attached to the back of the posters intended to harm anyone taking them down, and that at least one person was harmed in an incident outside its network.

Trade union representatives for transport workers, who likened the tactic to that used in the past by fascists from the National Front, have raised the issue on a safety forum for staff and management and are to provide a warning to members.

 
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Darandio

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Disgusting.

Not unknown for them to be left for track workers as well at places such as access point handrails etc. Used needles often get stuck behind padlocks and on handrails too, near impossible to pick out a needle end in the dark.
 

al78

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That is about what I expect from the extremist corner.
 

furnessvale

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That is about what I expect from the extremist corner.
Which corner? Just as likely to be people attempting to discredit an opponent.

Before anyone jumps in, I am a double jabbed pro vaxxer who still wears a mask in most locations.
 

stut

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The razor blade behind stickers/posters rumour has been going around as long as I've been alive. Not saying it doesn't happen (and that precautions shouldn't be taken), but it's an easy rumour to start on either side - either to scare people into not removing material, or to discredit an opponent.
 

185143

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The razor blade behind stickers/posters rumour has been going around as long as I've been alive. Not saying it doesn't happen (and that precautions shouldn't be taken), but it's an easy rumour to start on either side - either to scare people into not removing material, or to discredit an opponent.
The RMT have posted a picture of a sticker saying "Masks don't work" with a razor and blood on the other side.
 

TheManWho

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We certainly get briefed about it during events like the arms fair at ExCeL London to not attempt to remove the stickers and report them
 

furnessvale

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Possibly because that is a poster that was found with a razor blade attached which had injured a member of staff? It's kind of what the thread is about.
I have no doubt that razor blades have been attached. As a police officer I had to take great care around abandoned stolen cars as thieves routinely insert dirty needles into seats and steering wheels for fun.

My main point was that the statement from RMT gets us no closer to who is doing this.
 

Gloster

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Much as I have no time for the anti-vaccers, it is probably only one or two extremists who would otherwise be objecting in an extreme way to something else. The great majority of the anti-vaccers just continue their (in my opinion) ridiculous behaviour in a relatively peaceful fashion. It is still unpleasant.
 

MattRat

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Which corner? Just as likely to be people attempting to discredit an opponent.

Before anyone jumps in, I am a double jabbed pro vaxxer who still wears a mask in most locations.
That was my first thought too.
I'd be using a tool, a palette knife, wallpaper scraper, or what I recently discovered is called a 'spudger'. And/or check with a little magnet.
It seems they need to hire you as they can't seem to think of that themselves for some reason.
Much as I have no time for the anti-vaccers, it is probably only one or two extremists who would otherwise be objecting in an extreme way to something else. The great majority of the anti-vaccers just continue their (in my opinion) ridiculous behaviour in a relatively peaceful fashion. It is still unpleasant.
There are extremists on both sides. Who's to say which extremists they were. But, some so called 'anti-vaxxers' are just people worried about side effects, and the situation really isn't helped when people call them insane becuase of their genuine concerns, especially as we know very little about Covid vaccine side effects.
 

matt_world2004

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The RMT have posted a picture of a sticker saying "Masks don't work" with a razor and blood on the other side.
The picture the RMT have posted is the same as the one posted about an incident in Cardiff in a health care setting so I don't think it has been found in a transport environment .

Although staff should certainly be made aware of it.

The tabloids have jumped on
On this and said it was found on the tube. I don't know if any razor blades have been found behind posters on the tube, but the pictured one was not found on the tube

I am concerned that wider reporting of this would lead to copycat behaviour

People who complain about it being a false flag without evidence seem to be engaging In the no true Scotsmen falicy
 
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185143

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The picture the RMT have posted is the same as the one posted about an incident in Cardiff in a health care setting so I don't think it has been found in a transport environment .

Although staff should certainly be made aware of it.

The tabloids have jumped on
On this and said it was found on the tube. I don't know if any razor blades have been found behind posters on the tube, but the pictured one was not found on the tube

I am concerned that wider reporting of this would lead to copycat behaviour

People who complain about it being a false flag without evidence seem to be engaging In the no true Scotsmen falicy
I hadn't realised that bit. I was merely intending to point out that it's not just rumour, it does actually happen. I've been warned of it more than once at work.
 

matt_world2004

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I hadn't realised that bit. I was merely intending to point out that it's not just rumour, it does actually happen. I've been warned of it more than once at work.
Yeah, same here.I think the RMT was posting the picture to illustrate the same thing can happen in a transport environment. I was just clarifying some information and I do believe there is a genuine risk to transport staff removing posters of such a thing happening

I have previously been verbally abused on duty for removing bible tracts from bus stops so people who do engage in such vandalism can be violent and intimidating.
 

big_rig

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Somebody has tracked down the person on Twitter who reported this to the police. They have previously made fantastic claims such as having been disemboweled by a man on the street and denies hospital care with their intensities hanging out in the hospital waiting room, and that they have separate beings living inside them.

I struggle to think of when a single one of these ‘razor blades in posters!!’ stories has ever actually been true.


https://t.co/q7dZXTaKLe?amp=1
I just did a deep dive into the person behind the ‘razor blade behind anti-mask sticker’ story. They are absolutely lying. Here’s the BBC article on the topic. This was a major story. And it was obviously a lie
So to start, even if there was no other evidence against them, the story is absurd on the face of it. How could somebody have sustained a slice down the middle of their palm from taking down a laminated poster with a razor blade glued flat to the back of it?
The person who claims this happened to them also claims they were disemboweled by a stranger in Leeds, then walked to the hospital carrying their own intestines.
 
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sjoh

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I can confirm that this has happened in some instances. I work at an NHS vaccination centre in East London, and we have found a number of these posters stuck up around the area near our centre. I can't comment on the veracity of this particular claim obviously, but it sounds very plausible to me.
 

Bayum

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She crumpled up a laminated sticker? Has she actually ever tried to screw something laminated up?
 

skyhigh

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Layla Stokes sounds like a con artist to me.
Having seen the video linked on one of those twitter feeds I knew exactly who they were. They were the one who plastered my train with anti-vax/weird out of body/trans stickers a few months back while I was in a different carriage. Also heard some very odd stories from them regarding why they had no ticket previously.

Don't know if they're a con artist, but they clearly have significant mental health challenges. Knowing the source of this report now I'm convinced it's fake.
 

Mainline421

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From the article in the OP:
“None have been detected on our network and there have been very few instances of unauthorised adverts and materials relating to the pandemic.” ... "The images appear to be from an incident in July in which a woman in Wales was cut by a razor blade found glued to the back of a poster"
So this entire story is basically completely fabricated.
 

AlbertBeale

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We certainly get briefed about it during events like the arms fair at ExCeL London to not attempt to remove the stickers and report them

Are you suggesting that staff are being briefed that campaigners against the arms bazaar at Excel are likely to do something like putting razor blades behind anti-arms trade stickers they put on trains in the area? It seems far-fetched (to put it mildly) that people opposing violence would do that!


There are extremists on both sides. Who's to say which extremists they were. But, some so called 'anti-vaxxers' are just people worried about side effects, and the situation really isn't helped when people call them insane becuase of their genuine concerns, especially as we know very little about Covid vaccine side effects.

I'm not sure how people promoting a life-saving procedure, however enthusiastically, can ever be described as extremists... At least not given the commonly pejorative implication of the word "extremist", as here.

People choosing not to be vaccinated themselves might indeed be motivated by their lack of knowledge of the safety of the vaccines. (Even though, if you read the scientific literature, it's clear that there has been more research into and assurance about the effects of the Covid vaccines, and their safety relative to the increased risk of contracting the disease if unvaccinated, than there has been into all sorts of things that people don't think twice about. So it's not so much that little is known, more that people are scientifically illiterate and/or can't be bothered to check reliable sources.) However, if by anti-vaxxers you mean people campaigning against others begin vaccinated, and against the promotion of vaccination at all, then as far as I'm aware (and I know a few of them) they're all motivated by incredibly stupid and non-scientific - and sometimes religiously-inspired - conspiracy theories. For most of them, I would use the term extremist.)
 

MattRat

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Are you suggesting that staff are being briefed that campaigners against the arms bazaar at Excel are likely to do something like putting razor blades behind anti-arms trade stickers they put on trains in the area? It seems far-fetched (to put it mildly) that people opposing violence would do that!




I'm not sure how people promoting a life-saving procedure, however enthusiastically, can ever be described as extremists... At least not given the commonly pejorative implication of the word "extremist", as here.

People choosing not to be vaccinated themselves might indeed be motivated by their lack of knowledge of the safety of the vaccines. (Even though, if you read the scientific literature, it's clear that there has been more research into and assurance about the effects of the Covid vaccines, and their safety relative to the increased risk of contracting the disease if unvaccinated, than there has been into all sorts of things that people don't think twice about. So it's not so much that little is known, more that people are scientifically illiterate and/or can't be bothered to check reliable sources.) However, if by anti-vaxxers you mean people campaigning against others begin vaccinated, and against the promotion of vaccination at all, then as far as I'm aware (and I know a few of them) they're all motivated by incredibly stupid and non-scientific - and sometimes religiously-inspired - conspiracy theories. For most of them, I would use the term extremist.)
Both of those types of 'anti-vaxxers' exist, it's just that they get lumped together becuase 'they're the bad guy' without any thought about the possibility they might not be. That is the extremism I was referring too. I'll put it another way, my mum would probably be considered an insane 'anti-vaxxer' becuase she physically can't take vaccines, as she has an allergic reaction to something put in vaccines. In fact, she's been advised by a doctor not to take vaccines, as that would endanger her life.
 

matt_world2004

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Both of those types of 'anti-vaxxers' exist, it's just that they get lumped together becuase 'they're the bad guy' without any thought about the possibility they might not be. That is the extremism I was referring too. I'll put it another way, my mum would probably be considered an insane 'anti-vaxxer' becuase she physically can't take vaccines, as she has an allergic reaction to something put in vaccines. In fact, she's been advised by a doctor not to take vaccines, as that would endanger her life.
Anti vaxxer doesn't refer to someone who for medical reasons cannot take vaccines bur for people who philosophically refuse to
 

61653 HTAFC

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Both of those types of 'anti-vaxxers' exist, it's just that they get lumped together becuase 'they're the bad guy' without any thought about the possibility they might not be. That is the extremism I was referring too. I'll put it another way, my mum would probably be considered an insane 'anti-vaxxer' becuase she physically can't take vaccines, as she has an allergic reaction to something put in vaccines. In fact, she's been advised by a doctor not to take vaccines, as that would endanger her life.
If you refuse the vaccine for yourself, that alone does not make you an anti-vaxxer regardless of your reasons. To me an anti-vaxxer would be someone who actively tries to persuade others to avoid the vaccine. If someone calls your mum an anti-vaxxer then they're an idiot.

Anyway, this "razor-blades behind stickers", "used needles left as traps" stuff has been rumoured for years, and I'm sure that some of the reports and anecdotes have a germ of truth to them... but the vast majority of them are utter hogwash. You'd have to be a special kind of **** to do such things, and contrary to popular opinion there aren't many of those people around. There are far more of the sort of **** who would make up a rumour about it to demonise their opponents.

(You can decide what the **** means)
 
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43066

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Anti vaxxer doesn't refer to someone who for medical reasons cannot take vaccines bur for people who philosophically refuse to

People at low risk of Covid might quite reasonably decide the Covid vaccine isn’t worth it for them on balance. Equally a lot of people are simply fed up of being told what to do. Anti-vaxxer is a pejorative term which is deliberately used by those with an agenda to lump those who refuse vaccines for perfectly valid reasons in with nutcase conspiracy theorists.

It’s pretty clear that the subject of the OP of this thread is a load of unsubstantiated, hysterical nonsense.
 

MattRat

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If you refuse the vaccine for yourself, that alone does not make you an anti-vaxxer regardless of your reasons. To me an anti-vaxxer would be someone who actively tries to persuade others to avoid the vaccine. If someone calls your mum an anti-vaxxer then they're an idiot.
Well those were the extremists on that side I was referring to. I'm just tired of people pretending it doesn't happen, sorry, so thank you for understanding.
 
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