Mood
To continue with the recent downbeat theme of this place of late (is it SAD, I wonder?), many of you will have probably seen Steve's appalling news, either through his blog or in the newsmedia. It does seem that a full physical recovery will be made although goodness knows what the trauma of experiencing such an event will leave behind. Thankfully the upside of living in a nanny state is that there is theoretically no shortage of support networks in place to take advantage of.
Steve has quite rightly made a point about the apparent insensitivity of certain local media editors in naming the victim. There should have been due consideration given to the family in such a difficult situation - would it have been too difficult to ask? No, it wouldn't and an extra day would have been a useful cushion for them, especially as the perpetrator was soon caught so there was no need for the manhunt circus to go into full swing.
A difficult judgement call to make by the media though in hindsight. A police shooting is still terrible news in this country and this is as it should be. Despite the proliferation of guns and the idiotic culture that goes with them we are not yet blasé about gun crime and I hope it stays that way. We still debate arming our police officers because we still appreciate that with the best will in the world, the less crossfire there is, the fewer innocent deaths there will be. We still get scared. Only then can we, as the shocked and scared, still hold sway over the idiots. It's front page news because we're still shocked and 'Outraged of Sevenoaks' must always be encouraged because in the absence of any moral guidance elswewhere that everyone, regardless of background, can agree on and respect, he's the moral barometer we need to tap into life every so often. The fall-out from that outrage is still felt by enough potential criminals to spark some kind of sense that what they are about to do would be very wrong. Society hasn't quite gone to the dogs. Yet.
Steve has quite rightly made a point about the apparent insensitivity of certain local media editors in naming the victim. There should have been due consideration given to the family in such a difficult situation - would it have been too difficult to ask? No, it wouldn't and an extra day would have been a useful cushion for them, especially as the perpetrator was soon caught so there was no need for the manhunt circus to go into full swing.
A difficult judgement call to make by the media though in hindsight. A police shooting is still terrible news in this country and this is as it should be. Despite the proliferation of guns and the idiotic culture that goes with them we are not yet blasé about gun crime and I hope it stays that way. We still debate arming our police officers because we still appreciate that with the best will in the world, the less crossfire there is, the fewer innocent deaths there will be. We still get scared. Only then can we, as the shocked and scared, still hold sway over the idiots. It's front page news because we're still shocked and 'Outraged of Sevenoaks' must always be encouraged because in the absence of any moral guidance elswewhere that everyone, regardless of background, can agree on and respect, he's the moral barometer we need to tap into life every so often. The fall-out from that outrage is still felt by enough potential criminals to spark some kind of sense that what they are about to do would be very wrong. Society hasn't quite gone to the dogs. Yet.
posted by Richard at 12:28 pm
3 Vegetable peelings:
I think I'm pretty with you on this. There are senior policemen e.g. Sir Ian Blair, Lord Stevens, who do their profession no good with alarmist talk, but the basic bobby trying to stop crime and nick villains is someone who, in my experience, is just trying to do his best for society. And I'm damn glad they aren't gun-clad too; like you say, it means that gun incidents still shock and upset us, which is as it should be.
I fear it's only a matter of time before we follow America down that route as we seem to do with most things....
It might interest you to know that my B-i-L is against arming the police.
Although he may have changed his views recently.
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