Yes, the Mary Dejevsky who couldn’t wait to find out the identity of her latest sob-story stars before rushing to print. And yes, the Mary Dejevsky who thought that the design of Tube stations might be to blame for gang massacres.
Oh, this’ll be fun….
In those bygone days when Raoul Moat's peculiarly dissonant name first landed in the national consciousness, it belonged to a just-released felon wanted for a double-shooting – a serious baddie by any definition. When this same Moat shot a policeman on duty at a roundabout, he was dispatched straight to that special hall of infamy that the British reserve for those who kill or maim police officers. And there he remained until... Well, it is hard to fix exactly when the mood changed.Did it, Mary? Are the people now lauding Moat the same people who were urging the police to catch him, then?
I don’t think so, somehow…
Unless you mean ‘media people’. The mood changed for them when they realised they wouldn’t get many more column inches out of a dead Moat unless they changed the focus…
For me, it was about four days into the police pursuit: after they had brought in the 4x4s from Northern Ireland, started consulting survival specialists and arrested several people for assisting him.Should they not have arrested people thought to be aiding an offender?
At that point, Moat passed almost imperceptibly from one most-wanted category to another; from that of hardened criminal to be shot on sight to that of victim and renegade – a delightful word heard all too rarely today.Yes, you never hear it applied to people like Joe Jackson, do you?
He was ugly, a steroid-user, and, yes, a killer. But deep down, I was rooting for him.I think that says a lot about Mary, frankly, and very little about anyone else.
Two mornings running, I awoke, fully expecting him to have been caught overnight, only to learn rather too cheerfully that he was still on the run. When he died under the arc lights, in circumstances that still have to be elucidated, it was hard not to share a little of his brother's fury against this "public execution".It wasn’t hard. I didn’t share it.
He was no random killer – not at the outset, anyway – but a man with profound personal grudges bent on vengeance.Well, yes, they all are, Mary. They all have ‘reasons’ for doing what they do.
And there’s no doubt whatsoever that Moat had a horrible childhood. But so do many others who somehow do not end their days with a sawn-off shotgun pointed at their head by their own hand…
Take the police. There is a shared sense of outrage when officers are killed or injured doing their duty. But you do not have to belong to a criminal underworld to harbour misgivings about aspects of modern policing, such as the lack (until very recently) of officers visibly on the beat, the way whole estates are felt to have been abandoned to gangs, and overzealous policing of public protests. How many householders have not vented frustration at the way burglary is tossed off as trivial by boneheaded officers too idle to do anything.Lots, I’d imagine. And it’s been quite a feature of this blog.
Yet somehow, I fail to be moved by a fugitive killer’s death as a result. Go figure.
Fairness is an overused word these days, but most Britons have a highly developed sense of what it means and, in this case, the feeling grew that the police operation lacked proportion.Yup, agreed. It was a giant farce for most of the time, and showcased, in Sue Sim, the kind of useless ‘top cop’ we know we now have in charge in most forces. Sorry, ‘services’.
And yet, I still can’t find it in me to summon up any sympathy for Moat. It’s not ‘fairness’ to do so, Mary.
This is in part because people like an outlaw; it is not only in Britain that fugitives from justice have an honoured place in popular lore. But it is also because, to judge by their comments, there are many who genuinely feel that the odds, in the way society is organised today, are stacked against them, as – they sense – they were stacked against Moat.You mean, even paranoids have enemies?
Well, yes. That’s what happens when you shoot people!
Social media, such as Facebook, have, perhaps for the first time, given such sentiments a voice. Mr Cameron and his ministers may, for propriety's sake, condemn them, but they would be wasting an opportunity if they did not read at least a sample of the tributes – and take note.They certainly would. They would be wasting an opportunity to see what 13 years of NuLabour rule (and the long march of the progressives through our institutions before that) hath wrought…
I was vaguely hoping a crack police marksman would fire a single bullet through Moaty's forehead, like in the films. That would have given Moaty proper martyr status at least.
ReplyDeleteIn the films I watch, it never takes those police marksmen 12 shots to kill an escaped cow either!
ReplyDeleteBest way to understand the Left is good = bad and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter what the issue is, be it a psycho with a shotgun or stoning rape victims to death or bombarding your neighbour with missiles at school leaving time, these are all good things to the Left.
"This is in part because people like an outlaw; it is not only in Britain that fugitives from justice have an honoured place in popular lore."
ReplyDeleteFugitives from injustice, yes, we British do have a liking for that kind of outlaw. Maybe this silly woman is one of those who marry men on Death Row or become a Kray groupie, while saying 'Nobody understands him like I do, he loves kittens and flowers and his old mum. And he hasn't murdered anyone for ages!'.
There are many questions AP, including why your column is so much better than the Indy original. Sue and I can barely watch-read current affairs without wanting to vomit because everything that matters is elided. Note that threats to bus passes bring out the 'broken promises' routines, but they have hardly noticed all the election charabanc evaded the truth on finances that would have amounted to making us turkeys voting for Xmas.
ReplyDeleteMoat is not being confused with Robin Hood but with blokes who keep order because the cops and legal system don't. I saw this as a cop failing to deal with drug dealers and violence on a new estate in Sale years ago (the estate was new, but also Moss Side overspill). I see it round the corner now. I've seen it in any number of places I could fly out of.
In a shoot out in France, I found myself in cover with two terrified crooks desperate to give themselves up to 'le flic Anglais'. They were unarmed and it was then I realised two sets of French cops were blasting away at each other. Voltaire might have said, 'sometimes it is good only to have cops who shoot at moving cows and miss'.
You are right, but the analysis is incomplete. How might we produce the full monty without boring everyone to death - after all, most people can't wait for ther next episode of Bleakenders?
don't speak ill of the dead, it serves no purpose
ReplyDeleteif you have nothing good to say then i am relaible told you have the right to remain silent
oh and there was no need to execute Moat regardless of his actions he could easily have been taken alive
PS fcuk the POlice
ReplyDeletethey want to stop clearing up chav TWOK road kill 'cus its messy and eat doughnuts because they r lazy and fat
how do they clean a lions ball bag?
ReplyDeleteits not f'ing rocket sience is it?
no sympathy, just Camerooon and a piss poor bunch of snarling copper thugs to deal with now
iPhone my arse it makes no calls how is that a phone?
ReplyDeleteiBrick
“He was no random killer – not at the outset, anyway –“
ReplyDelete“...a man with profound personal grudges bent on vengeance.”
As you say, these statements are kinda, well, utter shite. No end of murderous nutters fit the latter description. I’d say it included Derrick Bird (Cumbria), Michael Ryan (Hungerford) and Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane). The first two also started off by killing people personally known to them, and Hamilton’s victims were certainly not random: he targetted a particular group. Come to think of it, so did Peter Sutcliffe (only females) Dennis Nielson (spelling?) (only males) Harold Shipman (knew all his, mostly elderly, victims). Did she root for these ‘vulnerable’ outcasts too?
And she should know that Charles I, Guy Fawkes and Dick Turpin were ‘publically executed’. I only know a few of the events surroundng Moat’s death, but the fact that he was seen holding a loaded gun to his own head shortly beforehand must at least raise the possibility of suicide. The police gave every indication that taking him alive was the preferred option, even though it put them at greater risk.
(BTW regarding the cow on the loose (the ruminant, not Mary D.), I wonder if the Police are trained where to aim on a cow or other large animal to kill it humanely. I think they're strictly speaking normally trained to shoot to incapacitate humans, suspected suicide bombers excepted. George Orwell famously didn't know which part of an elephant's head to aim at and ended up emptying two rifles into one without killing it).
Recent events reveal the deep hostility of a minority towards Gestapo methods. Successive governments have shamefully allowed the proliferation of bullies within public services, notably police. We have shamefully stood by, tutting here and there.
ReplyDeleteThere will be no formal announcement of the inevitable police cleansing. The Chief Constable shielding Gadget will name the traitor before David Cameron has no alternative but to skewer both. Either way, it will begin closure of the UK's maverick police blogs and herald the creation of the working relationship between police and public, expected within a democracy.
Every rogue police officer who abused position in any way, or assisted corrupt colleagues to evade justice, or stirred hatred anonymously, will be identified. UK Citizens have the moral right to this information and every moral right to reject by any means if necessary, a State Police growing ever more maniacal.
Bliss at last - the bacon is in formation against the sunset, shortly to be joined by flying chickens laying pre-fried eggs!
ReplyDeleteThe double-standards on Moat are brilliant. Information from prison could be ignored as indistinguishable from 'millions of others', then they leak out he was an utter,raping toerag who should have had 15 previous convictions except CPS and courts are useless. Next there will be an IPCC statement that all is hunky-dory except for a few procedural errors and the need for some protocols, along with their standard fob-off that no one could have foreseen events.
If there are 'millions of threats' how come there aren't all crimed and investigated?
Meds Melv...take them NOW!
ReplyDeleteGood knock
ReplyDeleteTbf, before the controversy over what I said kicked off the first thing I noted was how disproportionate the police reaction to Moat was.
http://benjaminbartonformp.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/im-beginning-to-think-the-raoul-moat-manhunt-is-a-bit-over-the-top/
"Maybe this silly woman is one of those who marry men on Death Row or become a Kray groupie..."
ReplyDeleteShe shows the same worrying lack of perspective, it's true...
"Note that threats to bus passes bring out the 'broken promises' routines, but they have hardly noticed all the election charabanc evaded the truth on finances that would have amounted to making us turkeys voting for Xmas. "
Indeed! Proper analysis of the budgetary crisis was woefully slim in the MSM, leaving the running there to the blogs...
"oh and there was no need to execute Moat regardless of his actions he could easily have been taken alive"
Difficult to see how, when his fate was - oh, so literally - within his own grasp.
"BTW regarding the cow on the loose (the ruminant, not Mary D.), I wonder if the Police are trained where to aim on a cow or other large animal to kill it humanely."
Since it seems to form a very large part of their duties - more so than apprehending armed felons? - I'd hope so!
Perhaps they should take a look at Amazon?
"Recent events reveal the deep hostility of a minority towards Gestapo methods. Successive governments have shamefully allowed the proliferation of bullies within public services, notably police."
ReplyDeleteThe minority have ever been with us. So, too, the minority of those discovered unfit for police duties.
Are both minorities growing?
Or, are we just more aware of them now, and able to more quickly communicate our displeasure via the Internet?
"The double-standards on Moat are brilliant. Information from prison could be ignored as indistinguishable from 'millions of others', then they leak out he was an utter,raping toerag who should have had 15 previous convictions except CPS and courts are useless."
Well, CPS & court are certainly useless, it's true!
"Tbf, before the controversy over what I said kicked off the first thing I noted was how disproportionate the police reaction to Moat was."
I wonder what will happen the next time? In a different police area, will the response be different? Will they really have 'learned lessons'?
@Benjamin
ReplyDeleteGiven that the loony had shot three people, killing one, you would have been happy to accept his word that he would not hurt members of the public? (Somehow those three were not members of the public?)
Rather than just criticise, tell us do, what you think a proportionate reaction would have been?
"I think they're strictly speaking normally trained to shoot to incapacitate humans"
ReplyDeleteThere's no such thing; in the real world you only shoot someone if you're justified in killing them. People have died from shock after being shot in the hand, and survived to beat the cop to death after being shot a dozen times in the torso. 'Shoot to incapacitate' is a Hollywood fantasy.
I am on record as not beig a huge fan of our current-day police. But if they'd scrambled am AH-64 Apache and landed a Hellfire missile on Moat's hidey-hole I would have cheered.
ReplyDelete'Cos there's a difference between between being an officious little twat telling people not to take pictures of the Arndale Centre and hunting down murderous rapists.