Raoul Moat, Legend?
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Sunday 18 July, 2010
If you missed the news coverage lately, I will bring you up to speed. Raoul Moat was an alleged wife-beating, child-harming, policeman-attacking, shotgun-wielding man who hid from the police recently and ended up shooting himself after an armed stand off. He is believed to have shot an unarmed copper and blasted a gun at his ex-girlfriend.
Did the UK breathe a sigh of relief when his brain got splattered?
No, they set up a Facebook campaign to ‘Honour the legend’.
Questions were raised in Parliament to get Facebook to pull the page down; so far they have refused as it ‘didn’t breach their rules’.
The Facebook Page ‘RIP Raoul Moat’ is horrifying some people and, for some reason, making others more eager to write glowing praise for Moat. The messages are reaching fever pitch!
Britain is up in arms. David Cameron (the co-Prime Minister) said: “This man is despicable and no legend.”
Yet the disaffected, the working class, the men and women with no real role model to root for believe Raoul Moat was indeed a true legend.
Personally I don’t agree with what Raoul Moat did, but I am starting to understand why this online support has happened.
Criminologist David Wilson says Moat tapped into “that dispossessed, white working-class, masculine mentality.”
The Mirror newspaper in the UK stated: “We have been here before. In 1966, Harry Roberts killed three policemen and slept rough in woodland before being caught. And, in the season after England won the World Cup, the terraces would ring to a song in praise of this triple-murderer, sung to the tune of London Bridge Is Falling Down. ‘Harry Roberts is our friend, is our friend, is our friend, Harry Roberts is our friend, he kills coppers. Let him out and kill some more, kill some more, kill some more. Let him out and kill some more – Harry Roberts.”
Roberts is still a legend in some parts of the country.
Now I am not saying Raoul Moat is a hero or someone worth praising on a Facebook page BUT it says something about a society when they raise their cups to a cop killer.
The UK newspapers have been doubled in angst over this issue. How can people praise a man who shot at an innocent policeman? The police are there for our protection and deserve better support than this.
I think this Raoul Moat Facebook campaign has raised an ugly fact that we don’t want to face.
Lots of people still hate the police and laud with happiness when they are outwitted or killed.
I think that’s awful; but I do believe, since the gunning down in cold blood of the innocent man Jean Charles De Menezes on the London tube in 2005 by several policemen, some members of the public don’t really hold the police in high regard.
Something was lost that day in 2005 and when all the police officers charged, got off lightly for shooting an innocent man seven times in the head. A section of society felt aggrieved.
The Facebook campaign to raise Raoul Moat to ‘legend’ status has unsettled many people in this country. But we have a history in the UK of making our criminals legendary. You just have to look at the many marriage proposals to The Yorkshire Ripper, the many documentaries about Shipman, Crippen and the latest Ipswich lady killer.
Legendary killers is what they have become and some people with a macabre taste in death still obsess about them; but no-one more than Moat has been so emotionally supported by the public.
Siobhan O’Dowd set up Raoul Moat’s Facebook page and defended her actions. In a radio interview with Talksport Radio's Ian Collins, broadcast on Wednesday night, Ms O'Dowd said: "We don't condone what he did, as what he did was wrong. I feel sorry for the families, but he was still a human being at the end of the day. He had problems and needed help and he didn't get any help."
Moat has become the anti-hero, the cop-killing outcast; he has touched a nerve with an underbelly section of society.
That’s what worries people.
Whilst I don’t agree with anything that Moat did, I can see why people get angry at our so-called civil society.
We have a Parliament that allows MPs to steal taxpayers’ money and yet be allowed to pay it back. If I screwed my taxes, I would be taken to court and my assets seized by the law. We have bankers who are were so stupid and greedy that they caused a national debt, yet were gifted millions in bonuses. And we have a police force that got off scot-free for killing an innocent man. And then society wonders where it all went wrong.
So then up pops Raoul Moat, the renegade cop killer, the Rambo of Northumberland, the man who voiced a disenchanted call on behalf of the so-called disaffected and then the media scream in horror as the British public pour their praise in an online public forum.
The media itself has to a take some blame in this issue. They were happy to have hours of footage of ‘live’ action of a clearly distressed, agitated Moat lying in the woods with snipers’ guns trained at him. It was live emotions happening in the moment, people watched, this wasn’t Big Brother style entertainment; this was a real man with highly emotive issues and the media milked it for all it was worth. Now they are in shock as the backlash of those emotions are poured out in a Facebook campaign.
They are hounding and demonising Siobhan O’Dowd, the woman who started the Facebook page. She watched the news footage, she identified with Moat’s mental state, she cheered him on for avoiding arrest, she cried when he died and now her opinion is the vehicle of a hate campaign. ‘Tis a weird world we live in.
I am disgusted by Moat’s actions, yet am horrified that our government demands that public opinion - misguided or not - is censored from expressing its feelings. The internet should not be parented by any government. Freedom of speech is what a democracy demands and if Parliament, the press and people don’t like what they are reading then they shouldn’t have the right to ban it. Where are we living? China? Berlin circa 1961?
The freedom of an open forum should be allowed to stay public, whether it is unsettling or not.
They say it takes a government to raise a nation. Well this current and past government here in the UK has to accept they will reap what they sow.
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I totally agree with your sentiments
Finally a balanced article regarding Raoul Mooat. Not a very nice man by all accounts, but someone who had mental health issues, & the way it was all played out in the press was somewhat disturbing.
Brilliant again, Janey.
He was a lunatic bell-end, like anyone that lifts their hand to their wife or kid. The worlds not worse off for him feeding the worms.
Hero my arse.
Great article, raoul moat was a nut job, whether or not he was clinically mentally ill or not hasnt been established yet most of the people in support of his actions have said he "didnt get the help he should have" or that he was "entitled to". was he? i dont know, from reading his background, albeit the newspapers take on it, he was basically a ... See more
We all need help at some stage in our life, I must confess I used to have a drink problem' 'I still do' as I still dream l of having a drink to this day. Does that make me a nutter? yes we all need help' HELP! HELP! I'm mad I want a drink. but has of yet i'm pleased to say I have not shot anyone!
I feel this subject of Raoul Moat, may run and run, ... See moretill one day it runs out of steam: Yes though I do agree there should be more help for people that want help.
Again!!! it all come,s to one point! The Goverment!!!!!!''''''''
Frank
Everyone will experience mental health issues to some degree whether first hand or otherwise.
I don't really like to quote the red tops, but one of the quotes attributed to Moat was "no-one cares about me." Call me harsh, but after he had hospitalised his daughter and knocked his ex around, that kind of violence is beyond help.
You go down a ... See morecertain path and Frank, you had the inner strength to recognise there was a problem there, but I'm assuming there was no violence involved. This guy, I don't know, people continually make excuses for simply evil and downright nasty individuals and the blame inevitably ends with his GP or social services. What happened to personal responsibility?
Yep personal responsibility is important I agree my article was really about how his supporters gained such numbers and the reflection on society regards his actions
It's a frightening reflection on society in general, Janey.
I dunno how anyone can try to build this guy up as a misunderstood hero.
Good article Janey. This, like many things, can’t be taken on its own and it’s good that you linked it with how society works.
Great Hub Janey
A curious phenomenon that he has become an anti-hero. He was a thug and a murderer and aside from the 38,000 who signed up to Facebook I think the consensus view in society was that this 'legend' campaign was highly inappropriate.
I'm all for free speech but when there is obviously a consensus of what should and should not be said (e.g. racist remarks)then I think people should respect that and not publicly post such distasteful comments.
The wider picture is true though that many working clas people feel disaffected by the system, distrust the government and authority. And who can blame them? The gap between rich and poor has never been wider and I think ordinary people feel more powerless and alienated than ever before.
I suppose I see your point but remember that he did kill a man and I don't see any public support for him. The victims are always considered second class in these situations. Like their lives matter less than the event that ended them. Disagree all you want, its true.
stevenjh 22 months ago
Great well reasoned article
Social networking has changed the way we act and react.
Without a second thought we can be persuaded that our perception of things is skewed and we should really believe everything we are told by the media and those controlling it.
A successful public campaign can be run based on sentiment alone rather than being based in reality .