As a footnote, a friend of mine had Dennis Nilsen as his dole officer and confirms he was the best dole officer he ever had. He was in a band, and Nilsen used to leave him alone free from job searches. Now a successful musician in the US....
Time and again the crude prejudices of tabloid hacks imperil the pursuit of justice. The Rachel Nickell and Joanna Yeates cases for starters. But they’re equally happy to smile on a murderer they like. Sun Chief Reporter John Kay, who killed his poor solitary Japanese wife, was lauded in his obit as the greatest reporter of his time, inspiring ‘generation after generation of young reporters’.
Terry Pratchett was a very wise observer of society. Columnists would do well to read and cite his stuff rather than shoehorn the cartoon version of Orwell they keep in their heads into every other column.
"Evil" is a favourite fall-back for hacks when faced with actions that they can't explain - either because of their limited intelligence or their editors' demands for sensationalist red meat, or both. As you suggest, such explanations *themselves* are all too often banal. I've closely studied the use of this term in the Bulger case, where it actually served to mask other possible explanations for the actions of Venables and Thompson, explanations which, in my considered opinion, the hacks and their editors actively suppressed.
Thanks Mik, interesting as ever. I read an analysis of Hannah Arendt’s racism in the 1960s and I now think of it every time I see her quoted. I wanted to ask what you made of it. Fwiw a relative, an academic who has occasionally taught Arendt, wasn’t aware of that aspect of her work until today https://www.diggitmagazine.com/column/racism-and-how-read-hannah-arendt
I'm at work with nothing to do, so read every word of the linked articles about the Lucia de Berk case, and the concerns of Richard Gill about the Letby trial. On the face of it, this is a horrific case of child murder. It seems very possible that a few years from now we could be reading about it as a horrific case of injustice.
Having seen Gill's incredibly bad taste jokes and memes about this on Twitter I would hesitate to think he has a genuine motivation about this case at all.
Maybe he deleted them because I failed to find them. But irrespective of one person's tweets, the fact remains that this was a flawed investigation and a possible miscarriage of justice.
He retweeted a meme that I found to be incredibly insensitive given the subject-matter. Generally find he has his own agenda as a statistician with recognition and is tweeting about this case as if it's a foregone conclusion that she is innocent when that has far from been proven. There was plenty of time and opportunity to find her not guilty. In my opinion the circumstantial evidence was very strong and the case is not devoid of witnesses. The consultants and the parents' observations must not be discounted. Her behaviour alone was odd, tone of her text messages, insistence to keep doing overtime (and pushing to get back onto the ward knowing she had management in palm of her hands), remarks she made to the parents, morbid Facebook searches, stashing medical notes, etc. In a case such as this, the pattern of her behaviour is a relevant factor. I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that the investigation was flawed. The lead detective ensured each death was reviewed independently and the team all came to the same conclusion as the doctors. And this was after Management has stalled and stalled.
As a footnote, a friend of mine had Dennis Nilsen as his dole officer and confirms he was the best dole officer he ever had. He was in a band, and Nilsen used to leave him alone free from job searches. Now a successful musician in the US....
Incredible and terrifying footnote. Thank you.
Funnily enough, he was also the dole officer of one of my friends too.
Time and again the crude prejudices of tabloid hacks imperil the pursuit of justice. The Rachel Nickell and Joanna Yeates cases for starters. But they’re equally happy to smile on a murderer they like. Sun Chief Reporter John Kay, who killed his poor solitary Japanese wife, was lauded in his obit as the greatest reporter of his time, inspiring ‘generation after generation of young reporters’.
Terry Pratchett was a very wise observer of society. Columnists would do well to read and cite his stuff rather than shoehorn the cartoon version of Orwell they keep in their heads into every other column.
I try to quote Pratchett as much as I can.
Sam Vimes Boots - brilliant explanation of how expensive it is to be poor.
"Evil" is a favourite fall-back for hacks when faced with actions that they can't explain - either because of their limited intelligence or their editors' demands for sensationalist red meat, or both. As you suggest, such explanations *themselves* are all too often banal. I've closely studied the use of this term in the Bulger case, where it actually served to mask other possible explanations for the actions of Venables and Thompson, explanations which, in my considered opinion, the hacks and their editors actively suppressed.
Thanks Mik, interesting as ever. I read an analysis of Hannah Arendt’s racism in the 1960s and I now think of it every time I see her quoted. I wanted to ask what you made of it. Fwiw a relative, an academic who has occasionally taught Arendt, wasn’t aware of that aspect of her work until today https://www.diggitmagazine.com/column/racism-and-how-read-hannah-arendt
I'm at work with nothing to do, so read every word of the linked articles about the Lucia de Berk case, and the concerns of Richard Gill about the Letby trial. On the face of it, this is a horrific case of child murder. It seems very possible that a few years from now we could be reading about it as a horrific case of injustice.
Having seen Gill's incredibly bad taste jokes and memes about this on Twitter I would hesitate to think he has a genuine motivation about this case at all.
Maybe he deleted them because I failed to find them. But irrespective of one person's tweets, the fact remains that this was a flawed investigation and a possible miscarriage of justice.
He retweeted a meme that I found to be incredibly insensitive given the subject-matter. Generally find he has his own agenda as a statistician with recognition and is tweeting about this case as if it's a foregone conclusion that she is innocent when that has far from been proven. There was plenty of time and opportunity to find her not guilty. In my opinion the circumstantial evidence was very strong and the case is not devoid of witnesses. The consultants and the parents' observations must not be discounted. Her behaviour alone was odd, tone of her text messages, insistence to keep doing overtime (and pushing to get back onto the ward knowing she had management in palm of her hands), remarks she made to the parents, morbid Facebook searches, stashing medical notes, etc. In a case such as this, the pattern of her behaviour is a relevant factor. I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that the investigation was flawed. The lead detective ensured each death was reviewed independently and the team all came to the same conclusion as the doctors. And this was after Management has stalled and stalled.