Violence and a Mother’s Agony

I cried along with a woman on the news tonight. The news about her was that she had ‘shopped’ two of her sons who had beaten someone up and left him bleeding in the street with horrendous injuries. She said she had overheard them bragging about it.

What a terrible thing for a mother to find out. I really felt for her. She was interviewed after the young men had been sent to prison for two years. You could see the tears, and the agony, on her face as she spoke, telling the interviewer that her sons knew she loved them. But she said that, if she hadn’t called the police and given the information, she would have been as guilty as them.

She is a different kind of victim of the escalation of drink fuelled violence that we are hearing about in the UK. I just pray that I never have to hear anything like that in my family.

In my youth, we were shocked by the escalation of muggings. I used to think that there had always been violence, but we didn’t get to hear about much of it before we had so many different ways of receiving the news. I still think that was true then, but now is a different story. There is no denying that there is more violence on our streets today.

I do believe that part of the trouble is how every incident is sensationalised by the media. It’s really hard to understand what motivates the perpetrators. Part of it is the drink, of course. But I wonder how much is due to the fact that impressionable people are following the herd while trying to get some attention for themselves. And if it wasn’t reported in the way that occurs now, would there be less of it happening?