John Hayward Posted: 15 July 2010
Keywords: Crime & Justice, Government & Foreign Affairs, Worldviews & Culture,
Yesterday the Prime Minister told the Commons, 'It is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, full stop, end of story. I cannot understand any wave, however small, of public sympathy for this man. There should be sympathy for his victims and the havoc he wreaked in that community. There should be no sympathy for him.'
Clearly, Moat was indeed a callous murderer. That said, I confess that my reaction earlier in the week was: 'Why didn't the police accept his uncle or brother's offers to speak to him during the six-hour stand-off after they surrounded him?' Moat clearly believed nobody cared for him and those who knew and loved him might have been able to help him gain a better perspective on his situation. No doubt the official inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission will shed light on this question.
Following yesterday's parliamentary request for David Cameron to contact Facebook and to ask for the R.I.P. Raoul Moat group page be taken down, my thoughts were, 'Is it really the role of government to restrict free speech on the internet and to tell us who we can and cannot feel sympathy for?' If people want to leave flowers or express their belief that Moat was a victim of society long before he became an offender within it, then who is the government to prevent them from doing so? At what point did we switch from being a tolerant, libertarian society to an intolerant, tyrannical one? Voltaire, whose ideas were so famously captured by Evelyn Beatrice Hall's maxim, 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,' would warn us we tread a dangerous path when we begin taking offence so easily.
Now, today we learn that Moat recognised he was 'quite emotionally unstable' and asked for psychiatric help months before he was released from prison. He was, it seems, just one of many let down by a criminal justice system that is only just beginning to accept that its narrow concept of what constitutes justice is 'costly and ineffectual'. What lessons should the government learn from Raoul Moat's life that might help the nine in ten prisoners who have at least one significant mental health problem and the one in five who 'have four of the five major mental health disorders'? †
Finally, when all else is said and done, as I noted when the media was baying for the blood of another offender earlier this year, surely it is wrong to demonise anybody, no matter how terrible their crimes? After all, Moat was not always and not only a callous murderer—just as David Cameron is not merely defined by his identity as the Prime Minister, hated by many, yet a hero to many others:
'What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! ... As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."' (Romans 3:9-18)
† Hansard, Prisoners (Mental Health), 17 March 2004
My understanding is that relatives are not brought to the scene in case they cause a scene (if you get my meaning). Negotiating with a person who is intent on harming themselves or others needs a cool head, not someone who is being distracted by a distraught relative.
It has also been said that some men of violence wait until their nearest and dearest are present before killing themselves. This is another situation the negotiator will wish to avoid.
All in all, I am coming round to a position where Mr Moat might be considered a victim. Whatever acts of violence he may have committed, one has to applaud him for trying to get help to deal with his aggression from his family doctor. Unfortunately the help he needed was not forthcoming.
There are many Raoul Moat's in our society; men who find themselves disempowered and increasingly helpless members of a generation that has been left without hope by the endless bureaucracy and red tape that successive governments have encouraged.
Please remember Raoul, and those who travel the same path he did, with compassion. Give no ear to the uncaring and unfeeling who would have you believe they played no part in this drama because they, like we all, are guilty in some part.
Graham Smith 15 July 2010
I do not wish to demonise the late Raoul Moat, however, I am also concerned about the opposite tendency within our society of 'canonising' someone once they have died. This is often the case with public figures, celebrities and even Christian leaders. I do visit teachers who are seeking to help those in prison who often have learning difficulties and mental health issues. So I am aware, first hand, that many are more victim than criminal. However, I still feel that we should give more attention to the families of those who have been murdered rather than those who have commited the murder.
John Barton 15 July 2010
Apart from the tragedy of Moat's own life and death, one of the most distubing features is the active involvement, it seems, of others in helping Moat evade capture. The most helpful thing to have done in friendship to Moat would have been to persuade him to surrender peacefully to the police. Whether Moat's brother's intervention would have helped, we don't know, but by then a policeman had been maimed for life, and the public had been put at serious risk for an extended period of time. We are all sinners, certainly, but this does not mean condoning the sort of violence which Moat carried out and was threatening
Jeremy Ive 16 July 2010
Romans 13:1 ff. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has insituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Jeremy Ive 16 July 2010
Somehow we need to hold together our appropriate horror at the crime which Raoul Moat committed, and our compassion for the individuals -- both Roaul Moat himself and his victims. This tension cannot be lessened, on the one hand, by playing down (or worse, celebrating) what he did as simply a victim of the system; or on the other, simply writing him of as a mere criminal. And indeed we need to learn the lessons of neglecting those suffering from the mental distress which he seems to have gone through in the events leading up to killings. To have right judgement, the horror at his actions and pity for him as an individual need to be blended in equal measure.
Jeremy Ive 17 July 2010
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o A very smart and diplomatic answer. It’s really appreciable and
general.
Debt Free
michkel400 21 August 2010