SEYDOU’S DEATH

The news has been full of the stabbing of an 18 year old boy in Oxford Street on Boxing Day. Allegedly it was between rival gangs. He bled to death in front of hundreds of onlookers and on the news they showed a group of other teenagers from the gang arguing with the police. In the paper it say that officers “battled to hold back an agitated crowd while first aid was administered”.

I talked to an 18 year old girl yesterday who knew him. They had been friends as children. She said that they weren’t random gang members arguing with police but Seydou’s brother and some of his friends trying to get to him. She said that as far as she was aware he wasn’t in a gang, but was stabbed for the goods he had just bought from the shop.

But the worst thing about our modern day media and the spin we are given is that she was telling me that a lot of Youtube footage of him dying has been uploaded. Some of it has people laughing at what was happening. This is what is disgusting. This is what shouldn’t be allowed. His Facebook page is full of comments about how can people laugh at somebody’s dying expense and what is more, how can it be allowed to be shown? Surely, although I guess it’s very difficult to monitor reality and some would argue that they have a right to become Citizen journalist and post what they want – but mocking and laughing? Surely something should be done about that.