This is a photo of a fifteen year-old who in It’s a really very tragic story, of course. He cynically persuaded the younger boy to his house, made a sexual advance on him and, upon being rebuffed, apparently felt that he had to kill the younger lad as this was the only sure fire way of making sure that nobody would find out. This latter stage of the plan also appears to be premeditated as a contingency.
A few thoughts occur to me on this, in addition to feeling the pain of the family of the victim. The first is what the hell is going on with our society when a fifteen year old is so messed up about his sexuality that the fear of it being discovered motivates murder? Obviously, this kid had some huge psychological damage but it was a gay panic moment that caused the murder itself. The media is making a bit of a deal of the fact that he’s gay, which I can’t help but feel is probably helping create the circumstances that caused this murder in the first place.
I also did find the photo rather sad. This is obviously a kid who is really scared and he looks vulnerable too. This kid seems to me to be a bit of a victim too. Obviously, about 0.0001% as much of a victim as the kid that he killed with a frying pan and a knife, but a victim nevertheless.
Perhaps most disturbingly of all, I have to admit that I found him really cute. It’s something to do with the rabbit caught in headlamps look. Perhaps this explains my tendency to find occasional romantic partners who are both younger than me and generally also nutters? They’ve never been fifteen though, I wish to point out!
It’s all very sad indeed. I don’t think that vengeance is an honourable thing in a civilised society and I do wonder how this kid (who is a few miles from my flat I presume) is feeling tonight. Still, at least nobody in the prison’s preparing a lethal injection as I suspect they would be on the other side of the
2 comments:
Am I the only person commenting on G's blogs?
He's doing his best, you know!
Obvious comment on this one: would you be so understanding if it had been a queer-basher who'd kicked someone to death for making a pass at him?
What about those confused poor kids who killed Damilola Taylor, etc, and other meaningless inversions...
Yes, I know that there are a fair few readers from personal conversations and emails, but not many people post comments. Please hear Fat Tony's plea and join in.
I'm not saying at all that this kid doesn't deserve what he gets, nor that public confidence in the justice system can be maintained without him getting a good stretch inside. I just don't like the coverage of it.
The kids who murdered Damilola Taylor, it seems, had learned their race hatred from others. Similarly, homophobia (and hence queerbashing) tends to be learned from others. The proven best remedy for homophobes is to find out somebody they know is gay.
If somebody did have a personal pyschological problem (rather than one affected to fit in with scum mates) and they became a queer-basher then I'd like to think I could have some compassion, yes.
Of course, if the "bashee" were me or somebody I care about, I wouldn't. That's why victims should have no say in punishment in our system.
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