Angry and upset in equal parts...

[sildil]

Bromsgrove, where I live, is a reasonably ordinary West Midlands market town where nothing much happens really. We have a couple of big estates where there is sometimes trouble, but usually nothing horrendous.

But yesterday evening at 7.30pm apparently a gang of youths decided it was 'fun' to torment and bully a local eccentric chap until he fell, hit his head and died.

Now this guy was a lovely man, harmless, cheery, always chatting to anyone who sat on one of the many benches in the pedestrian High Street. He was a REAL eccentric who dressed in flamboyant waistcoats, smoked a meerschaum pipe and was known as 'Doctor Who' because of his very long striped scarf, like the Tom Baker version. I chatted to him occasionally as he used to attend a drop in centre near my house, and he had an INCREDIBLE knowledge and interest in old films.

The police have five youths in custody, and are treating it as a murder enquiry. Their BMX bikes are still scattered where they abandoned them outside the supermarket where it happened.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH THEM?

I am seriously upset and seriously angry, as are the majority of the townsfolk who knew him.

Comments

[jaiden-s.livejournal.com]

OMG. I'm beyond stunned. How can anyone be that cruel and heartless??!

I hope those kids are locked up for a LONG time. Bastards.

[sildil]

Because they are stupid, think it's all a great game, have no sense of right and wrong.

Yeah so do I, but I doubt they will be.

[mirien.livejournal.com]

I think maybe I look at this from a different viewpoint, having seen quite a bit of this side of humanity. But I hope it NEVER ceases to sicken and disgust me. Human nature? Pah. Hope the little bastards get their just desserts, but then, knowing the British system of justice, I despair on that front too.

Now if they'd committed a high value robbery....*snort*

[sildil]

Quite. A robbery would be far more serious.

The only hope that there will be some sort of real justice IS that the guy was a very well liked local...but I'm not holding my breath.

[mirien.livejournal.com]

It used to make me so fucking angry. Serious and aggravated assaults, that wreck lives, GBH, even manslaughter and the sentences are laughable. But an armed robbery on, say, Mappin and Webb in Bournemouth in the March of 2003? Now THAT wasn't acceptable. Tsk. The sytem protects property, not people and it stinks. I only hope they get one of the few judges who disagrees with that, there are, fortunately, a few.

[sildil]

Quite. Property is of course far more important.

[erestor.livejournal.com]

Absolutely outrageous. But it happens more and more often, also here. Homeless or "excentric" people being attacked by youths. And if you ask them why, they only shrug and mutter something about being bored. It makes me froth at the mouth, really. >:( Poor man - I hope they will at least get a decent punishment rather than just a slap on the hand.

[sildil]

As I said to Jen above, I won't hold my breath, but he WAS well liked and respected, it might count for something...

All my nice, middle class ethics disappear with this sort of thing...give me five minutes with them on their own, without their little gang behind them...

[talullahred.livejournal.com]

My mom would beat the crap out of me if I *thought* of doing such a thing. I think this is yet another symptom of parents not spending enough time or energy in raising their kids properly - of course that I'm not excusing the kids themselves, btw.

[sildil]

It is yet another example. The kids ARE at fault, obviously, should know better and will have to take some sort of responsibility for their appalling actions, but you are right, it DOES go back to the parents ~ I saw little kids in first school that were heading for trouble, already unruly and allowed to get away with anything. It's terribly, terribly wrong...and sick.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Oh...that's awful. As a great lover of exactly those sort of eccentrics - wonderful people and far more interesting than your average chav - that really does make me sad. What a disgusting, senseless attack, and what a terrible way to treat a good, innocent and generally upstanding person.

I suppose it saddens me even more because I have friends who are very much like that, and I have one very good friend who is both eccentic and autistic and has been bullied and tormented by the local estate kids to the point where he nearly had a panic attack, and it really brings events like that home to me.

The insanity and pure lack of humanity in some people makes me appalled to be part of the same species.

[sildil]

EXACTLY. I love people like him, we need them to brighten and cheer the world. It's such a waste of a lovely person and a despicable, cruel thing to have happened. I'm sorry to hear your friend has had trouble too, it's wrong, wrong, wrong.

[chloe-amethyst.livejournal.com]

How horrible and tragic! Seems like the world is becoming more and more like "Clockwork Orange" every day. *sigh* The elderly, the unusual, the eccentric seem to be the most vulnerable. I'm sorry for the town's loss.

[sildil]

THAT'S exactly what it is, 'the town's loss', you have summed it up perfectly. It will be duller, feel more dangerous, more unsettling without him around.

[myth-adventure.livejournal.com]

Oh Christ, that's beyond horrible! Let's hope those hooligans are old enough to get more than a slap on the wrist for murdering this man.

[sildil]

Yes though I am worried that they are young kids which is worse on so many counts.

[phyncke.livejournal.com]

Aww. Kids used to murder homeless people in NY here. That gets me so mad. People are so vulnerable. This seems like an unfortunate incident....

I would be upset by it too. In fact I am to read about it.

*sigh*

[sildil]

Yes, people like that are so vulnerable - but until recent years I would have said that Bromsgrove didn't have crimes like this, it really IS a small, friendly town where people felt safe. Sadly, that's no longer the case.

[lotrangel17.livejournal.com]

That is absolutely revolting that someone did that. Add to that the fact that they are younger! It is outrageous. I hope something serious is done to those young men.

What a sad world we live in when something like this happens. I bet those boys could have learned a lot from him instead of ending his life :(

[sildil]

It IS outrageous. The TV had a photo of him today, standing beside the old police box in the local museum...he was such a character.

[blue-blue.livejournal.com]

I got very, very scared when I heard this. This lovely eccentric guy with the incredible knowledge of old films... could he have been a bit autistic? You know, an Asberger? People with that syndrome do often become eccentrics in this exact way, and they have so much to offer people in that area where their special expertise lies. My son is one of them, and I often fear for how his adult life will be. He has already been treated badly by youngsters who don't understand how special he is, so to hear how a gang of bullies torments and kills one like him, is horrible.

I honestly hope they get a very strict punishment for this. People MUST learn to accept people who are not like them! I'm really both seriously upset, seriously angry - and seriously afraid for my son, now.

[sildil]

He may well have had something like that...he was a lovely, friendly man, would talk to anyone and was well loved. It's tragic, and yes it IS worrying. *hugs*

[blue-blue.livejournal.com]

It's terribly tragic. People like him - and my son - are among the beautiful innocents of this world. They are pure, honest and loving, and because of that, targets for the bullies.
*hugs*

(PS:
I wish you could meet my son. He is 18 now, and one of the kindest, most loving persons I've ever known, always helpful. He loves being around mature people, because they are patient, listen to him and understand him - and speak a language he understands and can relate to. All his teachers love him, and he is not afraid to give them a spontaneous hug when he feels like it.

He takes everything litterally, has an unerring eye for every little detail, and is a wizard with computers and technical drawings.

But the kids of his own age? They mock him, call him strange and stupid, and behave very nastily, because he doesn't understand their social codes. They don't know what they are missing out on. I'm very afraid they will do something really bad to him if they should happen to get bored and think he could be an entertaining diversion.

*shudder*