Personal tragedy used for political aims

Personal tragedies used for political purpose

Political activists using peoples personal tragedies, as excuses for demonstrations.

Is this a new low in political campaigning, or a justifiable attempt to highlight problems through publicity for an individual tragedy?

Large scale industrial accidents, with multiple loss of life, has always been used by reformers and unions, to highlight the shortcomings of the owners of industry. They have rightly, forced improvements in working conditions, by exposure of such tragedies. A more modern trend is to use personal tragedies that are the result of criminal activity, for the furtherance of political objectives.

A genuine concern about ecology, pollution and environment has long been overtaken by political activists who are more intent on replacing democracy with an extreme version of socialism, where total control over people is exerted by “the chosen elite” rather than any democratic pragmatism that gets indicated by secret ballots.

Genuine and universal condemnation of an example of police brutality, that was filmed; got lost in mountains of racial overtones, accusations, extreme socialist demands. The main and overriding issue is and should have been, the totally unacceptable behaviour of some police officers in that particular instant. Yes the unfortunate victim was “a person of colour” but while statistic show more people of certain racial origins, get subjected to dubious police activities, it is also true that statistics are rarely kept showing white skinned people, who are victims of any form of discrimination. Turning the whole sorry incident into a global protest with agendas, held by some activists, to remove democracy, to replace the police with some form of militia that they and they alone control, undermined the real issue. The need for sanctions against wrongful behaviour by police officers and the apparent racial attitude of some police officers.

The murder of a young woman in Britain, sadly not the only murder that has taken place in the last 6 months, resulted in a natural and understandable outpouring of grief for the loss of a life. This then gets taken over by political protests, the heavy handed police response is condemned. The facts are difficult to ascertain, were there breaches of the laws regarding social distancing in a pandemic? Were there acts of provocation by political demonstrators trying to use this victims loss of life as a political campaign? Were the police, including female officers, “out of control”? Did they panic? Was this organised police violence or just one or two officers who behaved so very badly? Were the media photographs “arranged”? How did it come about that the press were in the right place at the right time?

We may never know, but what is very probable is that the police are being targeted by political activists. Getting the authorities to act, then condemning the action; is a very old activist tactic but now it seems to be refined and better organised.

The knife crimes in London get reported and forgotten, the victims and the perpetrators do not elicit much widespread genuine sorrow or “middle class” protest. The usual attitude of the majority is that it is for the police to deal with.

For the political opportunist, the need is to find a genuine cause for concern, with an appeal to those not usually associated with, or involved in, political protests. They need a victim who is “socially appealing.” They then attend as genuine supporters of the grieving family, make sure the media publicity machine is ready, instigate some action to bring the police or authority, into action, escalate that action and claim victimisation. It is important for them that cameras, held by “independent” photographers, just happen to be at the exact spot, at exact time that action occurs, The objective of anti authority publicity is achieved; the real victim and their grieving family are treated as almost irrelevant by the activists.

In Britain most police units have body cameras, intended to provide evidence that refutes claims of police wrongdoing. The authorities need to get far more proficient at getting images from these cameras, into the public domain. If they wait until after accusations appear, with photographs, on social media or TV news, then no matter what the reality, no matter what they can show; the damage is done. The police are the bad guys. Proving this to be wrong some days or weeks later may be valid in a court of law but has no effect on the “court of public opinion.” Political agitators do not pay much attention to laws, unless they can promote themselves as martyrs, they are only interested in getting some mud to stick.

The question; is it a new low in political campaigning, or a justifiable attempt to highlight problems through publicity for an individual tragedy? can only be answered by an understanding of what is the majority public opinion. How to find what that majority really think, is even harder than finding truthful and unbiased political explanations, on social media.