Friday 5 September 2014

This happens and the media just don't care

On the 17th August 2014 an 18 year old male with Asperger's, fell, broke his spine in four places, and will, as a result, never walk again.

You probably won't have heard about this in the media. It has hardly been mentioned. Not on social media forums, apart from ITV News on Facebook. It has hardly been mentioned on the national news.

He now will have to face and come to terms with a permanent and life changing, not to mention mentally and physically devastating disability, as well as his Asperger's, which presented challenges in its own right. This was compounded with society misunderstanding him, and ignorance and bigotry.

You might say that this is a tragic event or accident, and very sad for the young man, and his family, but, not really worth mentioning. Tragic and devastating accidents such as this do happen. There is one exception though. This wasn't an accident. It was caused because he was running away from bullies, whose hands Joshua had been suffering at for five years. Earlier this summer he refused to buy alcohol for local youths. For that, somebody jumped on his back, and started hitting him on the back of his head. Joshua retaliated and was charged for assault, making him scared to defend himself again.

South Wales Police said it dealt with three allegations of assault against Joshua between April 2011 and June 2014. This still happened. Such is life. Such is the law.

This incident has hardly been featured on the national news. No politicians or celebrities have spoke out against it. If they have, I haven't heard them. There's been no condemnation of it from Ed Miliband or David Cameron or Nick Clegg. There has been no national uproar or outrage. There have been no campaigns demanding that those responsible are brought to justice. Nobody has launched a "Justice for Josh" page on Facebook or Twitter. It hasn't made the front pages of hardly any national newspapers.

Yesterday an 82 year old woman was beheaded in a garden in North London. This was an horrific and barbaric murder. It also received gallons of media attention and publicity. Umpteen threads forums devoted and dedicated to it on social media. Pages and pages in the national newspapers. People demanding the shooting, hanging, and repatriation of all Muslims. It seems much of the public are enraged, just as they were, (rightly) over Lee Rigby's murder on 22nd May 2013, another horrible, brutal and savage crime.

The victim has been named as Palmira Silva. I send my condolences to Ms Silva's family. Her murderer, Muslim or not, is a brute, who has to be locked away for a very long time, if not for the rest of his natural life. If you can have such a disregard for human life, then you are a danger to the public and should not be mixing with them.

Why though, does one cruel and brutal crime receive wall to wall coverage and attention and the other almost indifference?

What has happened to Joshua is a hate crime, which is as much as a social evil as racism, but whilst the latter is now a stigma (Rightly so) in society, the former is hardly mentioned or recognised. If those responsible are caught, they should receive at least five years in prison, their parents should be prosecuted and they and their parents should pay for his care for the rest of his life.

If the media aren't talking about the beheading in North London, they are talking about the middle east situation, which was partly created by us invading Iraq illegally in 2003. Or they are talking about X-Factor and Big Brother.

It makes you want to weep.

I think a Facebook group should be set up in support and demanding the convictions of those responsible.

Imagine if they had done it to a black man or an OAP. Imagine the outrage that would be occurring instead of the almost indifference from the media and society we are currently getting.