Violent feelings
Yet another tragic story in the news has failed to surprise me: that of Tom Grant's being stabbed when he made the mistake of trying to intervene in an altercation on a train.
Whenever I read about yet another grizzly story of GBH, murder, rape, etc, I often ask myself whether there really is more violence around these days, or whether I have just become more sensitised to these reports and therefore think there are more of them than there used to be, when in fact there are not. Given the frequency with which these stories appear, however, and the official statistics (already pointed out on this blog), I am forced to conclude that society is indeed becoming more violent.
As well as the increasing violence in this country, the stabbings of Tom Grant and Kiyan Prince highlight a disturbing trend. According to reports, both of these young men intervened in a fight in which they were not involved in order to protect the vulnerable underdog. Both of them were promising, popular students and both of them are now dead. The message which is being sent loud and clear is that if you see someone doing something obviously wrong and obviously harmful to another, you should turn a blind eye or be prepared to accept that you may join in the original victim's fate. These thugs are so emboldened by the incompetence, impotence and apathy of the criminal justice system, that they feel entitled to carry on as they please with impunity, and woe betide anyone who tries to stop them.
I have experienced a few minor, but nasty incidents myself. For example, when I looked at a brutish looking man casually throwing his fast food wrappings in the street, he rushed at me screaming abuse. Another time, I saw three kappa-beshelled youths brazenly attacking the locks on a mountain bike with an enormous pair of boltcutters in broad daylight and was told to keep walking or to risk discovering to what other purposes their boltcutters could be put. These, as I said, are minor incidents, but they have left me cowed. Now, whenever I see an argument, or a kid with their feet on the seats of the train, or a man urinating in the street, or any number of unpleasant manifestations of human behaviour, I look down, and walk on. I am too afraid to intervene, for fear of bringing the attention of these yobs upon myself.
I know I am not alone. Most people who see someone being beaten up, or even someone collapsed on the street, will not intervene, for fear of endangering their lives. It is a damning indictment on the state of our communities, not to mention a tragedy for our society, that we have reached the point where the majority of the population is held to ransom by an unchecked and violent minority.
Whenever I read about yet another grizzly story of GBH, murder, rape, etc, I often ask myself whether there really is more violence around these days, or whether I have just become more sensitised to these reports and therefore think there are more of them than there used to be, when in fact there are not. Given the frequency with which these stories appear, however, and the official statistics (already pointed out on this blog), I am forced to conclude that society is indeed becoming more violent.
As well as the increasing violence in this country, the stabbings of Tom Grant and Kiyan Prince highlight a disturbing trend. According to reports, both of these young men intervened in a fight in which they were not involved in order to protect the vulnerable underdog. Both of them were promising, popular students and both of them are now dead. The message which is being sent loud and clear is that if you see someone doing something obviously wrong and obviously harmful to another, you should turn a blind eye or be prepared to accept that you may join in the original victim's fate. These thugs are so emboldened by the incompetence, impotence and apathy of the criminal justice system, that they feel entitled to carry on as they please with impunity, and woe betide anyone who tries to stop them.
I have experienced a few minor, but nasty incidents myself. For example, when I looked at a brutish looking man casually throwing his fast food wrappings in the street, he rushed at me screaming abuse. Another time, I saw three kappa-beshelled youths brazenly attacking the locks on a mountain bike with an enormous pair of boltcutters in broad daylight and was told to keep walking or to risk discovering to what other purposes their boltcutters could be put. These, as I said, are minor incidents, but they have left me cowed. Now, whenever I see an argument, or a kid with their feet on the seats of the train, or a man urinating in the street, or any number of unpleasant manifestations of human behaviour, I look down, and walk on. I am too afraid to intervene, for fear of bringing the attention of these yobs upon myself.
I know I am not alone. Most people who see someone being beaten up, or even someone collapsed on the street, will not intervene, for fear of endangering their lives. It is a damning indictment on the state of our communities, not to mention a tragedy for our society, that we have reached the point where the majority of the population is held to ransom by an unchecked and violent minority.
posted by Token Bird at 7:00 AM
1 Comments:
Where there is no fear, there is no respect. There is no respect or fear for criminal protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.
If we don't get out, the political backlash will be as brutal as the criminals are now. We live with the opportunity now to turn things around without being thrust into a political dark age, but we must quit the EU and get control.
Post a Comment
<< Home