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Killing, by the sounds of.
May. 23rd, 2007 09:45 amIn Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, the student Raskolnikov murders an old lady for her money before spending hte next two hundred pages hanging round the police investigating the killing saying things like "Gosh, comrades. Wouldn't it be funny if I were the murderer, eh? Eh? Nudge nudge?". The police in their turn respond to this behaviour with "Ah, Raskolnikov, you old japer! Always funning about and joking. What's this? A hammer covered with matted blood, hair and brain matter? What a practical joker you are! What will you think of next?"
When the emotional pressure of having committed a terrible crime finally makes Raskolnikov crack and he breaks down and confesses, the police stand there with their mouths hanging open in shock at the revelation that the bloodstained young man who hung around the crime scene making inciminating comments could possibly have had anything to do with it. Despite Dostoevsky's book apparently being a triumph of psychological realism, this always struck me as a mite unconvincing.
There's an old rule of thumb used by the police when sexual crimes against women and children are carried out - the first place to look is at men over 30 who still live with their mother within a mile of the crime. This is apparently 80% effective as a means of catching villains.
I was reminded of this last week when the Portugeuese police told the press that they were considering a 33 year old British man, Robert Murat, as the main suspect in the investigation of the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann. When I read the description of him in the press, my immediate reaction was "He's never 33!". My second reaction was to think "By golly, he sounds incredibly dodgy."
As well as being a man over 30 who lived with his mother, Murat had hung around the crime scene making incredibly odd comments, much like Raskolnikov. I'm not surprised he got nicked, and I'm just surprised it took so long for the beady eye of the law to settle upon him.
Murat has gone on record as saying he's innocent and that the suspicion has ruined his life which, if he is innocent, is perfectly true. What's most telling is how many of the facts about him printed in the press are perfectly innocuous but have been presented by the press to make him appear as some kind of monster. Stripped of the spin, Murats worst excess are that he lives with his mum, he's said some fairly stupid stuff, and he once had a threesome. As far as the tabloids are concerned, that's enough to send him to the gallows. As far as I'm concerned, he's an average member of my friends list.
The ease with which perfectly innocuous facts about someone can be presented to make someone appear incredibly dodgy is worrying. What if I were arrested for some awful crime, for example?
David, 33, is the chief suspect in the Hammersmith stranglings. Described as a martial arts fanatic and loner, David regularly attended Goth nightclubs. His landlady said; "David would go to the gym every night and then come home and play violent computer games and listen to heavy metal music. I hardly ever saw him except at mealtimes".
A police spokesman today confirmed that David was known to play Dungeons and Dragons. "We all know about that sort of person", said Detective Wainwright, tapping the side of his nose and nodding meaningfully.
The Sun says: We never condone violent sexual assault, but we hope this sicko gets raped in the showers.
So anyway, here's a challenge for you: Imagine you have been arrested for a terrible crime and write a news report about yourself which, using only perfectly true facts, makes you sound as dodgy as possible to the Sun-reading population.
When the emotional pressure of having committed a terrible crime finally makes Raskolnikov crack and he breaks down and confesses, the police stand there with their mouths hanging open in shock at the revelation that the bloodstained young man who hung around the crime scene making inciminating comments could possibly have had anything to do with it. Despite Dostoevsky's book apparently being a triumph of psychological realism, this always struck me as a mite unconvincing.
There's an old rule of thumb used by the police when sexual crimes against women and children are carried out - the first place to look is at men over 30 who still live with their mother within a mile of the crime. This is apparently 80% effective as a means of catching villains.
I was reminded of this last week when the Portugeuese police told the press that they were considering a 33 year old British man, Robert Murat, as the main suspect in the investigation of the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann. When I read the description of him in the press, my immediate reaction was "He's never 33!". My second reaction was to think "By golly, he sounds incredibly dodgy."
As well as being a man over 30 who lived with his mother, Murat had hung around the crime scene making incredibly odd comments, much like Raskolnikov. I'm not surprised he got nicked, and I'm just surprised it took so long for the beady eye of the law to settle upon him.
Murat has gone on record as saying he's innocent and that the suspicion has ruined his life which, if he is innocent, is perfectly true. What's most telling is how many of the facts about him printed in the press are perfectly innocuous but have been presented by the press to make him appear as some kind of monster. Stripped of the spin, Murats worst excess are that he lives with his mum, he's said some fairly stupid stuff, and he once had a threesome. As far as the tabloids are concerned, that's enough to send him to the gallows. As far as I'm concerned, he's an average member of my friends list.
The ease with which perfectly innocuous facts about someone can be presented to make someone appear incredibly dodgy is worrying. What if I were arrested for some awful crime, for example?
David, 33, is the chief suspect in the Hammersmith stranglings. Described as a martial arts fanatic and loner, David regularly attended Goth nightclubs. His landlady said; "David would go to the gym every night and then come home and play violent computer games and listen to heavy metal music. I hardly ever saw him except at mealtimes".
A police spokesman today confirmed that David was known to play Dungeons and Dragons. "We all know about that sort of person", said Detective Wainwright, tapping the side of his nose and nodding meaningfully.
The Sun says: We never condone violent sexual assault, but we hope this sicko gets raped in the showers.
So anyway, here's a challenge for you: Imagine you have been arrested for a terrible crime and write a news report about yourself which, using only perfectly true facts, makes you sound as dodgy as possible to the Sun-reading population.
