i do it for the people that like a rogue or like a villain because at the end of the day that’s what i am i am a villain so i might as well be what i am and then you know what in this country the letter of the law says as long as you’re not being dishonest you’re not committing a crime and i figure if i’m dressing like the joke and i’m dressing as a villain i should be allowed to be a villain and get away with it this is damien hammond or what is more commonly known as the joker of nottingham a man who slipped through the cracks of society struggling with severe mental health conditions and was left on the streets to spiral into an incredibly sad and shocking situation from age 12 damien was known to the law for minor offences and by the time of his latest imprisonment 19 years later had been convicted of over 110 offenses the timeline of when damien decided to become the joker is unknown but according to court documents his crime spree started escalating around 2016. by 2018 you’d really struggle to find somebody who lived around nottingham city center that didn’t know of the joker that wondered the streets seeing him around nottingham dressed like the joker all the time seen this guy around knotts for years the guy’s a literal nutcase i’ve seen that joker guy so many times i’ve grown to accept him as part of the bus stops and not a person since he was always there even when the police searched for him which was almost a daily activity they simply asked locals have you seen the joker which of course they had just perhaps not recent enough to point them in his direction now let’s take a bit of a step back before we get more into his story since the joker was actually much closer to his fictional home than reality would indicate but first a word from today’s sponsor ease online the ark of napistim is out now and available to download using the link in the video description have you ever felt a strong sense of urgency to rush to the aid of fictional characters me 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today’s video click the link in the video description to get started and on with the content nottingham is a city in england’s midland region known for its role in the robin hood legend surrounded by historically interesting locations like sherwood forest where the merry men allegedly made their home one place in the nottinghamshire region that people may not know about is funnily enough for a small village called gotham the name gotham comes from old english goat home and the correct pronunciation is actually goatum the village became famous for stories depicting the inhabitants of being stupid or taken with madness though it’s believed that the reason for this was more of a ruse to prevent a royal highway being built through the village saving themselves the work of creating and maintaining it you see back in the rule of king john madness was thought to be contagious so when king john sent his knights to scout the village to see if it was good for the road they saw the villagers acting as if they were insane and left as quickly as they came this meant that the road was never built in gotham so this was the known inspiration for the nickname given to new york city by american writer washington irvine all the way back in 1807. over a hundred years later the batman comics were created and they were originally set in new york city that is of course until writer bill finger saw the name gotum jewelers in a phone book and changed the name of batman’s home to gotham city which of course is a vastly different pronunciation but how you would read it not in the old english so that’s where the joker comes from which is a really perfect villain to live in a village known for its madness when you know the backstory of how it came to be now if that’s not strange enough for you for this whole story wayne manor the home of batman was literally shot in the movies a real estate known as wallington hall which is of course also in nottingham so there we have it we have wayne manor we have goatum or gotham and the joker but unfortunately no batman at least as of yet now it’s very unlikely that damien hammond knew all of this but he was a self-proclaimed obsessive about the comic book villain the joker and he definitely knew about gotham the village as he was seen there dressed in the permanent attire of the villain he saw himself to be now it’s very hard to find footage of the nottingham joker it’s very few and far between but social media comments regarding his arrests or brief cop show fame illustrate that he truly played the par he’s a madman was driving my car through the town center coming home from work he walked out into the middle of the road in a 30 zone and pointed his cane at cars ordering them to stop laughed and then continued to walk off i’ve seen this guy in a night out ran out from the dark wanting to do card tricks scared the out of me and me mate he cursed me out for not wanting to see his magic trick for money obviously though of course given the fact he was supposed to be an insane villain and not just making jokes people’s interactions were not always funny often involving violence or theft he threatened to stab me with a flu i once stopped in on tesco on the way home and this guy just walks in grabs two boxes of celebrations and leaves he’s a freaking fruit loop he was begging outside poundland on parliament street nottingham standing in front of the door stopping people on their way into the store asking for money then chase someone in the store throwing abuse at them because they told him to shift out the way he was screaming like a madman i helped the security guy remove him from the store he then gave me abuse so i just got my phone out and said i’m calling the police and he ran off i didn’t even have any charge on my phone who’s the joker now so it’s pretty clear that damian had picked a perfect role for someone with a very obvious untreated mental illness he was living at an unknown address which usually indicates homelessness he was seen on the streets begging across the city frequently stealing whatever he could and ended up in court dozens of times in 2016 he was given a 12-month prison sentence for wounding which involves doing grievous bodily harm to another individual in 2018 he was handed a suspended sentence for theft possession of an offensive weapon and indecent exposure a suspended sentence of course meaning if he committed no further offences he would not have to serve that time unfortunately it didn’t take very long for him to go on a three-month crime spree for which he was picked up multiple times by the police and later that same year ended up in front of a judge again this time for obstructing police in unlawful possession of cannabis which triggered the previous conviction and earned him 22 weeks in jail with a three-year ban from nottingham city center which of course for most people would be quite hard to enforce i mean how are you going to recognize most people on the street but obviously you’re going to notice the joker walking around as everyone frequently did so what exactly did he do on his crime spree well some of them include hitting an officer in the head while he was being searched for drugs intimidating employees in stores criminal damage involving spray painting the floors in bathrooms and my personal favorite which you might have actually seen the real joker do standing in traffic waving around a gun-shaped lighter unfortunately it’s not all fun since upon hearing his sentence he did scream send me to prison i don’t care see what you have done i will kill today it’s very clear from how exactly he did things damien was obsessed with the comic book villain he was mimicking the things the real joker would do and from people’s experiences interacting with him it’s clear he was becoming increasingly paranoid and this was before going to prison met this lad down at waterfront showed me a card trick he’s obviously not all there but seemed in all right lot said the police are constantly harassing him even showed me a card trick and said police are trying to kill him i was like what after being released from his 22-week sentence the joker continued his antics which involved not taking his prescribed antipsychotics and getting hooked on a drug known as mamba this is what is commonly referred to as a synthetic cannabis product but has no similarities in use or effects and is more in line with something much more sinister it’s common in england to hear people talk about spice which is all over the place at the moment and really harming society it’s a very similar product to mamba and the people using this are often incredibly dangerous to be around as they’re prone to temper lack of judgment and will also do almost anything to get their next fix obviously not a great combination of things for someone with a proven history of untreated mental health issues multiple stints in prison for violent crimes a propensity for paranoia and a fixation with a make-believe villain so this is where the story takes a turn and comes to an end on december 30th 2019 a pair of local city workers were driving their van down strelli road nottingham when they spotted a broken television outside a building this is not an uncommon occurrence as people will often leave unwanted possessions outside their residence which are collected by local scrap dealers or city workers unfortunately this television was the property of nottingham’s comic book villain he spotted them from his window 14 feet up and began shouting aggressively that it was his property to leave it alone and how he was going to come down they explained to him that it was their job to clean up the streets so they should take it off the pavement that’s when the joker picked up a bowling ball wrapped it in a pair of jeans held it outside his window and let go the bowling ball traveled from 14 feet in the air directly onto the head of one of the workers instantly sending him to the ground and changing his life forever the victim says his injuries affect him and his family daily his personality has changed and he must wear a card to explain why his behavior in public might be considered odd this will likely be the case for the rest of his life in terms of what happened to the joker he then had a two-hour standoff with police in which he threatened to kill anyone who approached him and then he set himself on fire and jumped out of the window damien hammond was later sentenced to 12 years in prison with an additional four years extended sentence period which is handed to individuals who a judge considers to be of great danger to the public the judge told hammond during sentencing you are a volatile individual who will almost certainly offend again and it would be short-sighted on me if i were to not protect the public you are dangerous and you need to be released only when the danger has subsided now one comment on social media i want to draw your attention to is the following came across him a good few times the tram stop giving him a good stare back to show him he wasn’t freaking me out seemed to do the trick now this comment obviously comes before the joker was put in prison for 12 years for dropping a bowling ball on somebody’s head i think it serves a good lesson that you should probably avoid trying to assert dominance with people who are clearly struggling with reality in their place within it as you never really know what minor incident could cause a life-changing one to end this there is also a change.org petition which nine people have signed which reads drop all charges against damien hammond aka the nottingham joker in which the body reads free damien hammond from his 16-year prison sentence for attacking a council worker who was taking his property society made him like this and his mental health issues were ignored so that is the story of nottingham joker a man who on the surface is a funny story walking around dressed as a comic book villain doing the things the villain would do in the popular movies and comics underneath is a severely unwell individual whom society failed to help for the decade they knew of his issues as a result he’s spent years in prison and will spend many more meanwhile his latest victim will spend the rest of his life in the prison of a broken mind

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