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...