Ched Evans, the Paris Massacre and Freedom of Expression
Posted on January 9, 2015
What a chilling week it has been for democracy, independent thought and freedom of speech, with the tacky tale of a footballer not going away as the horrendous events in Paris continue to unfold.
Because the whole seedy affair surrounding footballer and convicted rapist, Ched Evans, rolled on and on, I finally, after being persuaded by a solicitor friend, took some time out to read the details of the events of an evening that changed his life and indeed, the life of the girl involved, who is getting hounded by thugs and lunatics.
I am not going to list everything but it is worth going to his website (you will get it on Google) cutting out all the sympathetic crap and propaganda nonsense, and reading witness statements and the statement of events leading up to the rape.
It is sorry and seedy affair involving a totally irresponsible woman and two ill-informed and ignorant young men that ended in disaster when Ched Evans got the brunt of the fall-out, serving two and a half years in prison and facing a career in tatters.
What I found most disturbing though, is the fear within media circles to make comment on what clearly isn’t a black and white situation. In fact, it is a situation where a catalogue of circumstances has many people now doubting a rape had even ever taken place but they are terrified to say it.
However, judge and jury decided it did, so I will run with it for now, but what did disturb me was the condemnation by pressure groups thrown at The BBC’s Michael Buerk because of what he said as a pre-cursor to his excellent Radio 4 feature ‘The Moral Maze’.
Buerk commented that no-one had come out of that evening with any credit, including the woman, which, when you read the events of the evening, is a fair assessment, even if it is not an assessment you might not necessarily agree with. It is just an opinion and the last time I checked comment was supposed to be free.
At no point did Buerk insinuate a rape had not taken place, he was just putting it out there that there was not a great deal of credit due to anyone involved, which would have probably been somewhere near the thoughts of many parents with teenage daughters.
However, Buerk had to apologise for expressing his beliefs or he would have been hounded out of the BBC. The people demanding that Buerk, who is suddenly a mysodginistic potential rapist, be removed from the planet, probably haven’t even read the statement of events that make the whole case flaky at best…In my opinion!
Ched Evans: A Very Moral Dilemma
Freedom of expression then took a far uglier twist on Wednesday when Islamic terrorists opened fire and killed 10 journalists and two policemen at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French Magazine.
Even as the events unfolded there were security professionals on radio stations demanding for CCTV, more guns, more laws against Islam and more state control. These lunatics with a lust for bullets are almost as rabid as the lunatics who carried out the massacre; they feed off each other.
When these fundamentalists carry out attacks like this, there ultimate aim is to antagonise people into right wing extremism, state control and a guerilla war with Islam. They can’t get enough of it and their agenda is to isolate Muslims to the point where they feel persecuted enough to join the cause.
To condemn every Muslim as an extremist is like denouncing every Christian as a member of the Klu Klux Klan and the result of doing this will be eye for an eye terrorism where the only winner will be the nutters in the security services salivating at the prospect of a police state where helicopters circle the skies and armed gunmen stand waiting for action at every street corner in every city.
I’d rather die than live like that. If there is one thing that makes me want to weep, it is the thought of living under state control.
We are at crossroads in history now, a time where comment and opinions are being crushed by religious extremists, certain pressure groups and right wings lunatics. They are on a feeding frenzy off each other in their lust for controlling the minds of the masses.
Political correctness has brought about valid changes in our country, quashing racism, sexism and homophobia, but it should never be allowed to become a runaway train where professionals in the media are terrified of expressing their views, whether we like them or not. If comment is no longer free, nor are we.
People scream until they are blue in the face without even reading the facts about Ched Evans, security forces take delight in the new powers that they can execute because of the atrocity in Paris and the rest of us are told to sit down, be quiet and let the experts deal with it. Why do we allow that when the majority of them are nothing but idiots?
As this all goes on, big fat bankers are delighting at the distractions caused by atrocities and even more so, pantomime villains like Ched Evans, Katie Hopkins and Nigel Farage. Because whilst all this goes on they are merrily quaffing Dom Perignom and transferring ready cash from quantative easing in to their hideously inflated bank accounts. They are the real crooks.
It’s high time the good and decent folk of this planet, who are in fact, the majority, grasped freedom of speech and democracy and started using it as tool to beat the maniacs who try to control and the thieves who put the country on its knees.
My fear is that Britain will try to deal with it with more guns because hey, it works in America right?
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