Tuesday 30 March 2010

Avoiding The Difficult Questions...

So, as noted by Dumb Jon, as the BBC and the left join forces in preparing the ground for soft punishments for those involved in the Massacre of Victoria, other pundits are desperately searching for answers to why this happened at all.

No, not the real answers - that would be crazy, right? They are looking for 'answers' that deflect, that obfuscate, that point people away from drawing inconvenient conclusions.

Mary Dejevsky in the 'Indy' thinks she's found one: it's Tube stations that caused it!

No, really:
Sofyen Belamouadden, it is reported, had been hunted down, then knifed to death – not in the crime-ridden slums of South-East Washington or any benighted banlieue of Paris – but in the ticket hall (District and Circle lines) of Victoria Underground station in central London.

Almost as shocking as what happened, though, is that anyone who passes regularly through this ticket hall, as I do, would not have been entirely surprised.
Why so?
This focal point of the capital's transport system may be overdue for a makeover, but it also seethes with barely suppressed lawlessness. Nor, in this, is it unique. If you have the time to notice, many other London stations, away from the glitzy shops and actual trains, have a similar, slightly menacing air.
Umm, no. Actually, they don't.

Oh, they might be dirty, crowded, noisy, and with the odd beggar or tramp, a little bit annoying, but on those occasions when they are not home to a pack of savages intent on hunting down their human prey, they are perfectly safe to use.
City stations attract all sorts: not just travellers, but people who prey on them. Indeed, stations offer a whole chain of predation. Regular passengers, though, know to keep their eyes and ears about them; they treat stations with the wariness they deserve.
Wariness about having your pocket picked or your shoes vomited on, yes. But wary about the constant threat of gang warfare? I don't really think so. That's hardly an every day occurrence, and nor is it a phenomenon caused by those stations...
The savage children in William Golding's novel are restrained with the reappearance of (a few) responsible adults. Where those responsible adults were as youths routinely ran amok in the weeks before the Victoria station murder is a question that needs to be asked just as urgently as who killed Sofyen Belamouadden – and the two are surely not unrelated.
There's something else that's not unrelated, Mary.

But let's not go there, eh? I mean, if you did, someone might point out you once pooh-poohed such fears, mightn't they?

They might also point out how you routinely make excuses for the worst crimes, and how such attitudes have lead to the situation where no-one is ever punished for their actions.

10 comments:

manwiddicombe said...

Having been in Frankfurt Central rail station a few years ago with a young gentleman cleaning his nails with a 12" bowie knife as he walked behind us, and whores and pimps throughout, the stations in London are really rather tame.

I wonder what Mary would make of the situation there?

Trevor said...

Although there is the seemingly ever-present and studiously ignored 'elephant in the room' to which I think you allude, Contrary Mary does mention the absence of authority as one of the factors enabling this savagery. I don't think this can be dismissed.

Where once the behaviour of the young was constrained by many authority figures (e.g. bus conductors, park wardens, adults in general) we now have CCTV, PCSOs and even 'proper' police who offer little more than a simulacrum of authority, and whose bluff has been called by the savages.

The irony (if that's quite the right word) is that Mary and her fellow-travellers are the ones largely responsible for the emasculation of authority.

Jiks said...

It never ceases to amaze me how people are able to construct the most complex structures for events to fit their belief system ... rather than using reason and admitting they might be wrong.

Who killed the stab victim? Clearly it MUST have been anyone other than the ones holding the knives. Frankly I'm surprised Global Warming wasn't invoked somewhere...

Anonymous said...

Quite simply the woman is a dangerous lunatic and should be locked away....errrmmmmm!

English Viking said...

I know the cause of this young lad's death.

Dare me to say it. Go on.

English Viking said...

PS.

May I nominate Trevor for 'Word of the Week', with his use of the noun, 'simulacrum'?

Anonymous said...

Who was it who once said, "More Joy In Heaven Over One Sinner That Repenteth?" Give Mary a chance. The clue train left from platform 4, Victoria, and she only just missed it this time.

Trevor said...

Jiks said: 'Frankly I'm surprised Global Warming wasn't invoked somewhere...'

Not quite 'global' warming, but could 'thermostatic impairment' be to blame? This condition was identified by no less an authority than Camilla Batmangheldjh, who must surely be one of the most eminent Iranian-Belgian beturbanned psychotherapists in the entire Camberwell area:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4045185.ece

It all sounds terribly scientific.

JuliaM said...

"I wonder what Mary would make of the situation there?"

That it was delightfully 'foreign'..?

"...Contrary Mary does mention the absence of authority as one of the factors enabling this savagery. I don't think this can be dismissed. "

No, it's true that that has had an effect, and it's certainly true that she and her ilk have been the main drivers in removing all authority, too.

"Frankly I'm surprised Global Warming wasn't invoked somewhere..."

And as Trevor notes, somewhere, by someone, it is!

"Give Mary a chance. The clue train left from platform 4, Victoria, and she only just missed it this time."

Heh!

"...who must surely be one of the most eminent Iranian-Belgian beturbanned psychotherapists in the entire Camberwell area..."

Ouch! Harsh, but accurate... ;0

Jiks said...

Jesus H Christ! I post a completely ludicrous comment and its true ... words fail me.