Points of view - 28 July

I thought about writing this article about three weeks ago.  I thought about writing it again last week. I'm sure you'll have done something similar.  You'll have written a letter, decided to sleep on it, read it again in the morning and, sure enough, that turned out to be a good idea.  You'll have consigned draft one to the bin and maybe even draft two and three too.

When the news media began to report that Raoul Moat was attracting positive comments on social networking sites I thought I'd better take a look.  Sure enough, thousands of people (most estimates hover around 18,000) ranging from the understanding, through sympathetic to the explicitly supportive, were writing that he was a ‘legend' and that the police were ‘pigs' and ‘deserved it'. Some have said the majority of supporters were from the North-East of England but I don't know if that is true.  There was a lot of poor spelling, a lot of bad grammar, but that couldn't detract from these thousands of messages of support about actions and events which, in my view, couldn't be supported by anyone in their right mind.

If you'd read the first version of this blog you would fully appreciate that I was apoplectic - you might have learned a few new words. You know what happened in those few days as well as I do, you don't need me tell you the story again.  How could anyone be supportive of someone like that or try to give him some form of hero status?

Version two of the article was only slightly calmer - you would have known most of the words in that. I was beginning to remember that I believed in free speech and the other freedoms enjoyed in this country - even when they do come at a cost. I was beginning to recall that history has shown that even the worst of people have had followings or cults in their honour.

Around the time I was calming down and delivering my version two to the bin, the news media, as it does, was turning away from the Moat supporters and giving others a hearing. Voices of reason came to the fore, none more impressive than that of PC David Rathbone and his wife Kath (real heroes). Mr and Mrs Rathbone's respect, support and dedication to the police service was and is incredible considering what they have just been through and did much to restore my faith in humanity. It also reminded me what a special group of people police officers and their families are.

Back to the Blogs and the social networking sites and it was obvious the tide had turned. Media coverage of the Moat supporters had encouraged huge numbers of others to express their revulsion and criticisms of anyone who could commit such crimes or support them. So, as I write version three, I remind myself that the UK has over 60 million of a population and thankfully the vast majority are law abiding and police supporting.  18,000 is nothing like a significant minority and we shouldn't over react when people express strange views.

I send Mr and Mrs Rathbone and everyone hurt or bereaved in this incident my best wishes.

The Station Blog is written by neither a Federation Representative nor an employee.  The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Joint Central Committee of the Scottish Police Federation.