Rauol Moat: whatever the way it is told; is a murderer

There were 4000 officers, 200 armed officers, 20 snipers and marksmen, dogs, helicopters, 20 armored cars from Northern Ireland and a Tornado jet deployed.

This was not Sangin in southern Afghanistan, but rural England. The enemy was not the Taliban, but a troubled individual who had killed one individual and seriously wounded two others, while threatening the lives of many more.

Raoul Moat was finally cornered near a river in the village of Rotherby at six o'clock last Friday evening. There followed a six hour stand-off culminating in Moat killing himself with the sawed off shot gun he held to his head. At one o'clock yesterday morning Moat pulled the trigger and he was dead.

There is now to be an IPCC inquiry into the events that unfolded, particularly those final six hours when he was being negotiated with by the police. But it will not stop the press from (rightly) speculating, and quoting the various experts from criminologists, criminal psychiatrists, and weapons experts. Once the tabloids have their teeth into a good story, all talk of cover-up will prove false. For if there is one thing we can thank the forth estate for in this country, is their cynical obduracy, and there refusal to be fobbed off.

THERE ARE THREE things that disturb me about this whole episode. First of all Raoul Moat advertised his intent to prison authorities before he was released from a term in prison. Apparently the prison authorities passed this information on, but no action was taken by Northumbria Police. Why was this the case?

Secondly, and what disturbs me the most, is the way part of the general public has reacted to Moat's rampage. He has become, it seems, something of an anti-hero on Facebook, and will no doubt, at least in that part of the country, eventually enter folklore.

Moat killed a man, and if it were not for modern medicine would have killed two others with the promise of many more. The man who was killed had a family who now mourns his death. The young police officer brutally shot in the face by Moat also has a family who could have, if Moat had proved successful, been left mourning a loved one. Yet it seems to pass some people by that he produced any victims at all.

This man committed the ultimate crime in a civilised society, he cold-bloodedly took someone else's life. The fact that he had 'issues', to use the modern progressive vernacular, means little to the families of his victims, and should mean little to the justice system. For whatever his upbringing, it is no worse than many others who went on to lead good lives without feeling the need to avail themselves of revenge for the injustices they felt were meted out to them in their youth, or for any betrayal they felt by a wife or partner.

Those who find themselves in sympathy with this man's state of mind, is one thing. Any human being may feel sorry for such a history as Moats. But he crossed a line that should, if killing someone means anything today, be unforgivable unless that line was crossed as a a result of being threatened by, for instance a burglar.

But Moat was not a burglar who was killed because he posed an unknown threat to his victim. He calculatingly took human life. The arbitrary attack upon the Northumbria policeman, for instance,was was not because he believed his wife/partner was having an affair with this Northumbria policeman - no, not the policeman he shot, but some Northumbria policeman who he believed was having an affair.

As it turned out there was no such affair going on with any policeman, but whatever the outcome of the IPCC's inquiry into those sad events, there will be many conspiracy theorists ready to set up websites to keep the issue alive.

My final worry is set out by my opening short paragraph. The amount of effort in terms of recourses put into Raoul Moat's capture would have drawn envy from our troops in Afghanistan.

It seems to me that the Northumbria police only acted with real concern when one of their own was brutally injured by Moat - and then they overacted. It all goes back to their ignoring of the fatal warning issued by Moat on his release; but even after he had killed one person and seriously injured another; it was not until one of their own was attacked that they overreacted. Overreaction is an easy judgement to make when you are not involved in the decision making, but surely, upon reflection, the Northumbria police must feel embarrassed by the outcome.

They had at their disposal something amounting to a battalion of men and women brought in to hunt one man. What kind of message does this send to a group of, say, several terrorists hell bent upon killing? The vast army of police sent to this pastoral enclave of rural England shows panic rather than a measured response to what was happening. The measured response should have been to have taken heed of the warning Moat's jailers gave the Northumbrian police and arrested and jailed him for his own good until he had time to reflect upon what he intended to do.

In this one respect there should be a change in the law to retain in custody such people who threaten people they perceive has caused them to be where they are for 72 hours. I am aware of the weaknesses of such an approach but it can, I believe save lives, including that of Raoul Moat.