|
Man charged in murder of Patrick McGee
Readers will remember the beheading of Patrick McGee in Manchester, England, last December, a crime that disappeared from the media as soon as it appeared. No information was given beyond the bare fact that McGee had been beheaded and, it emerged, stabbed at his home. There was no response by his neighbors to this shocking crime other than passive regretful comments quoted in the newspaper about what a nice fellow the victim had been and how sad it was. As far as appeared from the minimalist reporting, the fact of a beheading on a suburban residential street of a man who had lived there most of his life aroused no particular interest or concern, let alone shock or indignation. No one asked how or why such a thing had happened. Not even the name of the man who had been arrested at the scene of the crime was given. All we were told was that the suspect (who had initially been described in the Mail as a Filipino, though that was dropped in a later version of the same article) had been “sectioned,” meaning designated as mentally ill, which meant that no further information about him, including even his name, would be provided. The VFR entries on the story are collected here. Yesterday I had the idea of checking once again to see if there had been any progress in the case. Surely, I thought, after all these months, even if the killer was mentally ill, there would have to be some legal proceeding in which basic information about the murder and the suspect, including his name, would be officially stated. I asked VFR reader Karen in England if she could call the Greater Manchester Police and the Manchester Evening News and perhaps speak with Paul Britton, the reporter who had written one of the MEN’s stories on the murder. A few minutes ago Karen wrote back:
There is progress in this case. Apparently a man has been charged with murder. The press office of Manchester Police is going to send me and you a copy of the press release. I am also waiting for a call back from the journalist at the MEN. The murder rather than manslaughter charge means that the accused must be off his section and he is apparently named in the press release.A minute later this came from the Greater Manchester Police:
Issued by GMP Press Office Tel: 0161 856 2220 Fax: 0161 856 2236 Email: press.office@gmp.police.ukI wrote to Karen:
This is great news. Thanks for this.Karen wrote:
Just spoke to Paul the reporter and he has done nothing since the original article. He did not know about the charges until I told him. There is a plea and management hearing at Manchester Crown Court on July 3rd and he will follow up then. He confirmed it was a decapitation.I replied:
Remarkable. So the authorities issued this absolutely minimalist press release to the media on April 29 stating that there had been a charge of murder and naming the suspect, and that was it. The media didn’t report it. There is still the same strange lack of interest in McGee’s beheading that we noticed last December.Karen replied:
Looks as though that is it. The lesson is: If you want people to remember you when you die, don’t die by beheading, because the world will pay no attention and the very thought that you ever lived will be dropped down the memory hole. The reason is that even if the beheading is not by a Muslim, beheading inevitably reminds people of Islam, so they will ignore and downplay the murder, so as to avoid any reference to the reality of Islam.
Mike Berman writes:
Karen replied:Laura G. writes:
Thanks so much for dogging this. If you don’t, it is a certainty that the entire atrocity will fall down that huge and convenient memory hole that seems to be sucking in most of the West. Please ask Karen to do her best to keep close to the reporter, too, and thank her on behalf of all of us. Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 12, 2009 12:54 PM | Send Email entry |