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.