Saturday 30 January 2010

Can Someone Tell Me Why This Is Regarded As A ‘Tragedy’?

A teenager who died after being shot at a friend's house was a member of a notorious gun gang, it emerged today.

Police are investigating whether Lewis O'Brien was intentionally killed or died while playing with the gun with friends.
Does it really matter? I imagine the neighbours are throwing a party right about now…
The tragedy happened at a round 4pm yesterday afternoon at a terraced property on a housing estate in Huyton, Liverpool.
The what..?
One woman, who refused to be named for fear of reprisals, said a petrol bomb had been thrown at the house where Lewis died just last week.

'There has been trouble between youths here for months,' she said.
Savour that. Even with the little scumbag cooling on a slab, this woman is too frightened to give her name to the press.
Another added: 'We have a problem with a gang of yobs around here. They take potshots, cause trouble and terrorise pensioners.'
One won’t be doing so any more. Mind you, probably plenty more where he came from.

So, who is broken up about this?
Yesterday it emerged that Lewis was a troubled youngster who had had difficulties at school.

He was a former student of the Newstead Vocational Educational Centre, in Kirkby, a special school for children removed from mainstream classes due to their persistent behavioural difficulties.
Looks like that school should have concentrated less on the three ‘R’s and more on the ‘This is the end the bullets come out…’ safety lessons…
Mike Marshall, headteacher, said: 'We are saddened by the news of Lewis's tragic death and the fact that he died at such a young age.

'Lewis was a former student at Newstead and our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and friends.'
I wonder if his tongue was in his cheek when he wrote that little eulogy?

Even the police were stifling sobs at this cruel twist of fate:
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Carr, who is leading the inquiry for Merseyside police, said officers were still trying to piece together exactly what happened in the run up to the tragedy.
What exactly was this tragedy then?
'I would like to appeal to anyone with any information about the incident or events leading up to it to come forward,' he said.

'This incident has resulted in a young man's life being needlessly cut short.'
Or needfully, you might say….

29 comments:

dickiebo said...

Correct, J-M.

Jeff Wood said...

Yep, good riddance to the little scrote. There are better people to spend our anguish on.

What cases like this show is that officialdom and some senior police officers regard the underclass as "their" people, not honest folk.

Sue said...

One less scumbag in the world doesn't seem like a tragedy to me neither!

richard said...

in answer to your question, i will. this is a tragedy because of the normalcy of feral little bastards with guns as an "occupational hazard" in schools. it's a tragedy because most of the population is oblivious to the deliberate ruination of society by Socialists. it's a tragedy because the scrote could have been a useful member of society and an upstanding human being, if it hadn't been for governement-run sink estates and state schooling. it's a tragedy because there seems to have been a purposeful policy of de-sensitisation to violence, that effort isn't rewarded and failure is ALWAYS blamed on someone else.
the tragedy is that we are rightly relieved when some menacing oaf gets wasted, but then, unforgivably, forget that there could have been, and must be, another way.
what about philosiophy and ethics in schools? pistol-shooting clubs to teach responsiblity for those interested in firearms? effective policing, stern but just punishments, no free handouts for blatant wankshaftery? no? well that's a tragedy, that is, but not much of a fucking surprise.

Anonymous said...

A former colleugue who used to be attached to the Met's Op Trident unit told me that they (the poh-leece) took over looking after the family of the dead baddy even so far as arranging funeral, body viewing (in addition to official procedures), transporting family mmbers around, arranging flowers etc etc. All that and investigating which one was going to be next - sorry should read investigating who was responsible.
At one funeral the parent(s), brothers, sisters, aunties, cousins and fellow yo's seemed to enjoy the whole shebang. The brother of one dead 'un even stopped a car journey to the funeral to go back and get another pair of shades he thought he'd look cooler in. I suppose they enjoy getting some attention. Bizarre! On another occasion a burglar slipped whilst exiting a flat five floors up and fell to his death in the well of a west London Mansion Block. Great joy and hilarity all round for us unreconstructed officers. How do you know he was a burglar said the DCI, something to do with the socks over his hands and the loot spilling from his pockets was the reply. Oh, said the DCI and then insisted that the dead flying burglar be called 'The Victim' from then on. Again, bizarre. What is wrong with today's Old Bill? (No need to answer)

MTG said...

How gratifying are just deaths that never touch us, yet why settle for hor'dourves JuliaM?

A main course beckoned with the promise of hot sanguine details, screams and death throes. And what a dreadful pity to squander the chilled millefeuille of his parent's grief.

Anonymous said...

There are, no doubt, a number of specific people who would have fallen some kind of victim to this lad and his mates at some stage. They will not know who they are, nor how lucky they just became.

dr cromarty said...

As someone once said, those who live by the sword.....

dr cromarty said...

One can only wait in joyful hope for the txtspk comments on the local paper's website:

"RIP, Lewis, m8. U woz a gd boy LOLZ OMFG"

or the like...

Angry Exile said...

The tragedy is that he could have shot someone else in the gang first?

Furor Teutonicus said...

Yesterday it emerged that Lewis was a troubled youngster who had had difficulties at school.

which is "P.C speak for; "He was a thick twat".

FireForce said...

These little bastards get my back up, I have shot firearms all my life and now thanks to crap government laws, I can not now shoot the guns I love, as I am law abiding, yet scum like this can get guns anyway they like,but because I am law abiding I can not now do my prefered sport.

James Higham said...

Seems quite un-tragic to me but perhaps I'm wrong.

Anonymous said...

lewis? he from a long line of true born anglo saxons was he?

Mark Wadsworth said...

This morning you were a bit harsh on Mrs Richards, but this time you are being way to kind to Lewis O'Brien and his ilk. Maybe you could decorate the article with little smiley faces or something?

MTG, I think it's "hors d'oeuvres" actually.

Angry Exile, yup, that's what made this a tragedy LOL.

Anon, yup, "O'Brien" is a traditional Anglo Saxon name.

staybryte said...

richard:

Really interesting post that, no bull.

Ranter

I remember nearly twenty years ago a former classmate of mine was shot in the head (thus cleverly bypassing the bullet-proof vest he was wearing at the time) in a similar, er, tragedy.

The funeral was solemnized by his grieving relatives with a display of dignified, pious and restrained grief - oh, no, hang on - they spent the whole time screaming abuse at da racist police maan, who had so conspicuously failed to prevent a depraved 15-year old illegal black immigrant from killing their equally depraved son in a row over a 10 pence orange juice carton.

JohnRS said...

I think this is a perfect example of "Evolution In Action". At least he's not polluting the gene pool any longer.

Richard Dawkins would be proud of him.

MTG said...

It was blog courtesy Mark. JuliaM's oeuvre shows preference for the spelling.

Robert said...

Law abiding Englishmen are the natural losers of the western world.Study Michael Collins, you wimps.

BTS said...

For dr cromarty's edification I decided to take a squint at the Liverpool Echo for any mentions of the 'unfortunate young man's' demise. There's a whole bunch of entertaining stuff but I really enjoyed this response to someone's comments:-

L36 wrote:
... "truescouser1982" very ironic considering anyone who would consider themseleves a "true" scouser knows that we do not ever speak ill of the dead, we have at least enough compassion and respect to not bad mouth a kid who lost his life no matter how bad he may or may not have been. As far as wanting to round them up and have them all killed, i think id be very careful what you say. its ok hiding behined an internet chat forum giving it the big one, but you have to remember that there is a grieving family who have lost there lad. am almost certain you wouldnt have the nerve to go say it to the lads family members face, so dont try and act the tough guy on your laptop. The fact is, we all know what it is like in huyton, its always been the same but as things progress in life so has the violence, we still had this going on in the 80s and 90s but because it was knuckles and baseball bats and nobody got killed people used to call it a fair fight. its the huyton mentality that has been around forever its just a shame that a bullet cant heal the way a broken nose could. i didnt know the kid personally but sympathy to his family at this hard time x
as for all you people with negative thoughts, if you have nothing good to say, go read the sun or the manchester evening news and stop pretending you are "truescousers"

JuliaM said...

"What cases like this show is that officialdom and some senior police officers regard the underclass as "their" people, not honest folk."

Well, of course. After all, they are their raison d'etre, their mealticket, their way to increase their resources.

We need to get back to Peelian principles, and quickly!

"One less scumbag in the world doesn't seem like a tragedy to me neither!"

Indeed. SAdly, there's a lot more where he came from.

"...it's a tragedy because the scrote could have been a useful member of society and an upstanding human being, if it hadn't been for governement-run sink estates and state schooling."

I don't know, though, Richard. It can't be a case of purely Nurture.

Otherwise, everyone from that background wiould be the same, and clearly, they are not.

Nature muust account for something. Some people are just born bad, and it's time we accepted it, instead of making excuses for them.

"...they (the poh-leece) took over looking after the family of the dead baddy even so far as arranging funeral, body viewing (in addition to official procedures), transporting family mmbers around, arranging flowers etc etc."

Good lord! And not, I suppose, with an eye to keeping tabs for clues, either?

JuliaM said...

"And what a dreadful pity to squander the chilled millefeuille of his parent's grief."

I'll cleanse my palate with the relief that the neighbours must feel, MTG...

"They will not know who they are, nor how lucky they just became."

Some of them likely to be innocents, some of them likely to be his equal in scumbaggery.

How strange is fate, eh?

"One can only wait in joyful hope for the txtspk comments on the local paper's website..."

On several of the first reports, just such appeared...

"The tragedy is that he could have shot someone else in the gang first?"

Oh, good point!

JuliaM said...

"These little bastards get my back up, I have shot firearms all my life and now thanks to crap government laws, I can not now shoot the guns I love, as I am law abiding, yet scum like this can get guns anyway they like..."

Yes, worked just about as well as the Dangerous Dogs Act, didn't it?

And still, the politicians focus on the tool, and not the hand wielding it...

"...I really enjoyed this response to someone's comments.."

That's a pretty good one, actually. No txtspeak, very few misspelled words, no profanity...

But though he/she sees the problem clearly - 'its the huyton mentality that has been around forever its just a shame that a bullet cant heal the way a broken nose could.' - there's no outrage, no desire to change.

Strange, and sad.

Furor Teutonicus said...

- 'its the huyton mentality that has been around forever

Strange perception of time these scouse gits have.

Huyton was, until the mid 60s, a small village, that, as with all small villages at that time, had virtually no problems at all.

Gibby Haynes said...

Natural Selection, baby.

Anonymous said...

I shocked at people writing about 'one less scumbag'.

It's one fewer scumbag!!!

JuliaM said...

"...shocked at people writing about 'one less scumbag'.

It's one fewer scumbag!!!"


Lol! Very true. It's all those '10 Items or less' signs at checkouts that is responsible for the spread of that particular howler.

Anonymous said...

because such young people can get involved in such terrible things, because we live in a culture where access to guns is as easy as getting a packet of crisps, and because he was just 16. Im sure he will have left behind a devastated and broken family, who has to carry this tragedy with them everyday. So you people, who think you're so much better can be proud in the fact that you can sit behind a computer and name call dead children. and who is the scum bag here?

JuliaM said...

"...and who is the scum bag here?"

*ponders*

Nope. Pretty sure it's still the cretin fooling around with a lethal weapon.

And if you really CAN get a gun 'as easily as a packet of crisps', I'll have a cheese & onion Smith & Wesson, please...