Sunday, March 16, 2008

Human nature.

I'm sure we are all delighted that the 9 year old girl Shannon Matthews, has been discovered safe and well after all this time. As events unfold, I find a couple of points worth consideration.

Firstly that within a 20 mile radius of Shannon's home there were 1,387 registered sex offenders. I found that unbelievable and especially difficult for the police, when they use such individuals as a starting point in such investigations.

No one can have any sympathy for Mick Donovan, Shannon's Mum's partner's uncle, but the description of his lifestyle, is the current stereotypical media description of a rapist, murderer or child molester.

' 39 year old loner who spent hours obsessively cleaning his car '

It seems a 'loner' is not simply a person who avoids the company of others, but has been hijacked by common perception, as a dreary, forlorn, sexually deviant, murderer.

You never find such a person being described using another media favourite phrase 'a family man'.

3 comments:

Monique said...

Hi there and I completely agree. The description of her mother, a former hippy, living a certain life style and seven children by five different fathers was also frowned upon by the general public. As if to say, she was asking for it. I found only a columnist in The Times speaking in favour of her, saying that her children had had a good education and were very polite, unlike some.

Monique said...

Just passing by to let you know that episode twelve is posted on Middle Ditch

David John Caswell said...

Dear Monique,
Racism is frowned upon quite rightly, but many forget prejudice, which to me is even more of a problem in our society. This is something we are all guilty of, even if only in a small way. It is so easy to judge, rather than be open-minded.
Thanks for letting me know about Episode 12, I have been looking forward to it.
Thanks again and will drop by soon.
Dave.