David Cameron criticises public sympathy for Raoul Moat

[T_i_B]

The latest bandwagon politic ans are jumping on. Mind you, the pro-Raoul Moat on Facebook is undeniably pretty disgusting. I expect the numpties who are posting that crap will be getting monitored by the authorities though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10633297

Prime Minister David Cameron has said there should be no sympathy for "callous murderer" Raoul Moat. Mr Cameron was speaking after flowers were left at the scene of Moat's death in Northumberland and messages of sympathy to him were left on Facebook.

Moat shot Samantha Stobbart, 22, and killed her boyfriend Chris Brown. The gunman went on the run and apparently shot himself in Rothbury on Saturday.

Speaking during Prime Minister's Question Time, Mr Cameron said: "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."

Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris asked him to contact Facebook requesting the RIP Raoul Moat group page, which has attracted more than 30,000 members, be taken down. He described it as carrying a "whole host of anti-police statements".

[non sociopath skin]

1. This is a difficult one ...

... particularly, I guess, for those of us up here in the territory, and especially those of us who work with Raoul Moat Might-Wannabees.

On a professional level, it didn't take long for me to realise that the man clearly had huge mental health issues and was an accident waiting to happen. It looks now that he was seeking the kind of therapeutic help which - from a cost-effective/ health and safety point of view - you'd wrongly think was readily available to someone detained by HM for violent crime, and - surprise, surprise - didn't get it.

But he did murder in cold blood and he did seriously injure two other people and, with the best will in the world, he was no kind of hero, except to people as troubled as himself.

It doesn't surprise me that Cameron exploited the Facebook page for political purposes. But I am deeply uncomfortable with it being there ...

The Skin

[T_i_B]

2. The page has now been removed

Not by Facebook (who should have acted aginst this if I'm honest) but by the creator of the page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10653075

If you had visited that page then you would have been shocked by the morons who posted on there. I have a quite a few friends on Facebook who I generally consider pretty unshockable who were revolted by the people on that page.

[Hopeless Romantic]

3. I used to know a woman who corresponded regularly with one of the Kray twins in jail

and on one occasion visited him.

She certainly regarded him a some sort of hero.

In all other ways she was normal and respectable.

I understand that that is not an uncommon thing.

People eh?

[B Whale]

4. On a more general level, i think some people can

identify with his life, rather than what he did. In the North East, and other parts of the UK, i think some can identify with a hopeless, directionless character, who feel persecuted by life, feel anti-authority and have things spiral from your control.

That's the feeling i get listening to pub talk up here. There are of course moronic nobheads who regard him as a hero, but i think a lot of people can feel a certain amount of empathy with his life, not his actions.

[non sociopath skin]

5. I think you're right. There are a lot of Raoul Moats in the post-industrial North.

Thirty or forty years ago he'd have been a miner or a riveter. But now ...

The Skin

[dipsydoodle]

6. Despite the fact he didn't deserve sympathy

those Taser shotguns are cause for concern especially given they were used without Home Office approval.