The People's Outlaw

[poliphilo]

Raoul Moat (allegedly) shot three people- two of whom were unsuspecting and defenceless. This should alienate all sympathy from him- but it won't because the rest of the story- the declaration of war on the police, the taking to the hills, the sending in of an army (complete with armoured cars) is just so gripping- so archetypal. We see one man against hundreds, Robin against the sherrif, a fox evading the hounds- and we can't help ourselves. Raoul Moat is an immature, self-dramatising narcissist- but so was every heroic outlaw in history.

I'll bet there are already books being written, films being scripted...

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Do you really think that is how the media are playing it? I haven't picked up much sympathy for Moat from the press. The spin I am getting is that hundreds of armed Plods can't catch one guy living rough with a shotgun.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think the media are powerless in the grip of a great story. They're not showing any particular sympathy for Moat- but they don't need to- because this is a story that appeals so powerfully to the imagination. Moat is making the police look silly- and the sympathy for him is growing no matter what the opinion makers say and do. We forget the low-down crimes he committed and buy into his increasingly mythic status. I understand there are now fan pages and communities all over the Web.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I think that Moat may fancy himself as a Richard Hannay or a Harrison Ford playing the Fugitive, but that's definitely not how I see him. He is a violent bully and an inadequate partner and father. I just hope that he's caught soon before he kills anyone else.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. The trouble is legends grow in spite of the facts. Jesse James was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, so was Billy the Kid, so was Dick Turpin...

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I am still not finding any sympathy in my heart for him. Had he simply surrendered to the authorities to pay for the MURDERS he committed, he would not be in that predicament.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He's a stupid, vain, ignorant, self-absorbed criminal- but then so was Jesse James- and look how history has treated him!