Friday 1 October 2010

Vignettes Of Modern British Life…

Two stories, as Tweeted by @SteelRainMkIII this morning:
Mother-of-four Mrs Hamilton, a receptionist, attempted to address the media to speak about Sean and began by thanking police for their help, but the family were then ushered away by officers because of the appalling harassment by the yobs.
Now, I hope that the ‘officers’ referred to are court officers and not police officers. Because if they were the latter, why the hell were they not arresting the yobs?

And then we have this…
Robert Wilshire, who is believed to have been murdered, was discovered partially submerged in a stream by a group of youngsters from a local school.
They gathered around the body and some of the children took out their mobile phones to take pictures and film the scene. Footage is believed to have been posted on the internet.
*speechless*

Update: Yes, I take your points. Children have done this from time immemorial. And I loved 'Stand By Me' (the book and the film). But they didn't boast about it, except to other kids. It was seen as something that they needed to keep to themselves, seen as something that wouldn't be viewed as normal or acceptable by adults or those in authority.

And that's the difference between then and now. This bunch don't care who knows...

11 comments:

Macheath said...

Chilling stories, both of them.

What's worst about the second case is that it wasn't certain he was dead - the first adult at the scene actually went into the river to check.

I can see a rewriting of the Good Samaritan parable in the offing:

'Then the Pharisee passed by, and he took out his mobile and filmed the man and put it on Facebook, innit.'

Fascist Hippy said...

Swindon again - home of the failed social experiment I mentioned on the 'pink cat' posts earlier this week.

Anonymous said...

Oh behave!

Kids who used to find dead bodies would poke them with sticks, or dare their mates to touch the body.

Now they take pictures instead.

Not really that shocking.

Mr H said...

Anon - There is a massive difference between curiosity of the dead and filming them for You Tube and the lols.

These stories reflect a very broken society. Be it big or small, it's beyond repair I feel...

microdave said...

*speechless* - You obviously haven't seen this yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UHN3zHoYA0

Shaun Pilkington said...

"And then we have this…

...

*speechless*"

Sorry, this isn't a new thing. Did nobody see the film Stand By Me? It's kids being kids.

facebookin' said...

Don't be shocked. This is what the underclass do: they all have mobile phones, they all make movies of themselves, they all post them on YouTube or wherever.

And they exist because they are paid for and subsidised (at least the parents, initially of course) and the phone and tinterwebs technology that supports their efforts comes from someone else.

All the acts of these kidz are in line with the U-class style of merely abusing, taking and lolling over what others have created.

Clarissa said...

Careful Macheath, English Viking will complain you are being anti-Christian. :)

Taking pictures of the scene is noting new. An acquaintance once told me of her brother, a policeman, taking pictures on his phone of a hanging man (no, I didn't find out if it was murder or suicide). I gather he wasn't the only one doing it.

JuliaM said...

”I can see a rewriting of the Good Samaritan parable in the offing:

'Then the Pharisee passed by, and he took out his mobile and filmed the man and put it on Facebook, innit.'”


Heh!

”There is a massive difference between curiosity of the dead and filming them for You Tube and the lols. ”

Yup! As I pointed out in the update to the post, there's no sense that this might be something they want to keep to themselves.

”You obviously haven't seen this yet”

Seems to be no longer available? Perhaps I should be grateful!

”...merely abusing, taking and lolling over what others have created.”

Hmmm. Could say the same about bloggers! :)

microdave said...

Sorry to sound rude, but where have you been these last 24hrs? This story has exploded (pun intended) all over the web. Have a look at WUWT.

This link works:

http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=sE3g0i2rz4w

JuliaM said...

Oh, it's that one! Was on my alternate machine & the link wouldn't work at all. Wouldn't even tell me what it was.