Not far away from where I live there has been an incident recently which has been catastrophic for the people directly affected as well as to the surrounding community.
I have listened, watched and read many articles and social media posts which, frankly, have angered me. There are many questions surrounding the circumstances and motivations around this incident. The police have released what information they can given that there is an ongoing investigation which has to be carried out meticulously.
Understandably the public have been outraged. Is the outrage being expressed due to the nature of the incident? I’m not convinced it is. Is it due to the failings of procedures and protocol in place to deal with issues and concerns raised about the perpetrator? That may be part of it.
However, the biggest outrage seems to be connected with the way in which the incident has been described because it has not been labelled as a terrorist act. In the statement issued by the police they initially referred to the incident as “domestically related”. This seems to have caused the most outrage on most platforms including the mainstream media.
A lot of coverage and articles have focussed on the social media posts made by the person responsible for this heinous act. I have not yet seen anyone piece together a timeline of the events leading up to this shooting. The focus has been on the most inflammatory pieces of available information which has caused, in my opinion, a loss of focus.
A lot of people have also been questioning why this person had a legally owned firearm. Why did he have a gun licence in the first place. When the news first broke that he had a gun licence I was not surprised. A lot of people, particularly in the countryside, have gun licences due to farming connections or for sport. However, my concern rose when it was revealed his licence had been revoked and then reinstated. That, with hindsight, needs to be investigated and the protocol for such instances needs to be overhauled. In addition there has been a lot of speculation about the mental health of this person and, again, outrage has followed.
This man is rapidly becoming a poster child for changes in classifications and for abolishing guns and many other things. He is being held up as an example and his actions will be used as a battering ram to effect change.
I am in no way defending this person. His actions have caused devastation for many many people.
He has not only taken the lives of several people including a young child, but, in addition, he has shaken a whole city and the surrounding area to its core.
Everyone is expressing their condolences to the families. This is quickly followed by a “but” and their views of why the incident classification is wrong, followed by their reasoning that the incel movement needs to be added to the terrorist list. Maybe it does however, this movement was unheard of by the majority of people until now. The focus should be on supporting the grief stricken families and friends. That community has been rocked but rather than show them some respect and support it seems this mans name and face are brandished everywhere.
This is the first mass shooting in the UK for 11 years. Ask me how many of the previous shooters names I know. Zero. I know where those shootings took place, the names of the communities affected but I could not tell you, without googling, the names of the shooters responsible.
That’s the way it should be because the people responsible should be forgotten. They do not deserve any form of recognition.
How many of those mass shootings were categorised as acts of terrorism? How many of those caused a similar level of public outrage so quickly? If I remember correctly the initial public response was grief, sympathy, shock and support for those communities and families impacted.
So I am angry and I am outraged just not for the same reasons that everyone else seems to be. How dare anyone try to use a community in shock to further their own agenda. How dare anyone exploit that community to score points in an argument so quickly. It took less than 12 hours for this perpetrators face and name to be known to the nation, plastered on every newspaper and shared on every social media platform in one way or another.
How dare anyone make him the centre of any coverage when it should be the circumstances together with the support and recovery of the community affected.
That’s my view on it. Plymouth does not deserve to be forgotten which it has been. The people of that city have been forgotten it seems by the mainstream media. There are lots of headlines about gun licensing reviews, online rants and whether the incident will be reclassified.
Social media searches show a similar pattern. Out of curiosity I did a Facebook search of posts using just “Plymouth”. Out of the first 20 posts that came up, 9 of them had his picture on them. 9 of them had pictures of the various crime scenes and a couple of posts have pictures of tributes that have been paid to the victims.
Other than local or regional sources there are very few posts about the community response.
So, I repeat, how dare anyone use this tragic and shocking event for their own ends and forget that community.
Shame on anyone who uses this to further their own agenda and profile. His name and face should be lost in time like all the other perpetrators. He will not be forgotten by the community, his name will always be known by them, but, he should not be shown on a national stage or allowed to become the lasting image from this shooting.
Mumma Bear Roars 