Tia Sharp: Daily Mail blames police failure on Muslims, working women and the white working class
TIA SHARP: The allegedly murdered 12-year-old New Addington girl is back on the front pages:
The Sun: “GRAN’S LOVER IN CUFFS”
Stuart Hazell has been charged with her murder. The headline tells us how police and prosecutors think Tia Sharp died:
“TRAGIC TIA “SMOTHERED’ – Body wrapped in bed sheet inside bin bags”
The Daily Mirror prefers to further reduce the child’s treatment, leading with:
“DUMPED IN BIN BAG”
The Daily Star’s front-page headline says Tia was “stuffed” in a bin bag; the Daily Express says “Murdered Tia” was “put” in a bin bag; and the ‘i‘ says “Tia Sharp was found wrapped in a bin liner”.
Sky News goes with the benign: “Tia Sharp: Body Was Found In Black Bag.”
The Metro states: “Tia Sharp’s body ‘covered by bin bag'”
Words matter. We do not know how Tia Sharp came to die. But the Mirror and Star suggest that after she died Tia Sharp’s body was badly treated.
In the Sun’s article, the language shifts:
The 12-year-old’s bruised body was then stuffed in bin bags and put in the loft at gran Christine’s home.
The Sun hears from Angie Niles, whose son Davis lives with Tia’s mother Natalia Sharp.
“You always think things like this happen to someone else. You see stories about Madeleine McCann or James Bulger and you think it must be awful what the family are feeling. But you switch the telly off and forget about it because it is not actually happening to you.
The BBC looks at the public tribute to Tia Sharp:
Tia Sharp’s mother and stepfather have laid a tribute at the makeshift shrine near her grandmother’s south London home where a body was found on Friday. Tia, 12, was reported missing on 3 August and was last seen at the house in New Addington, Croydon. Natalie Sharp and David Niles left a Hello Kitty doll and a white orchid.
The BBC then thinks it appropriate to read the card left for Tia by her mother:
Ms Sharp and Mr Niles also left a card to Tia which read: “We love you very much, always will. Sorry baby that this should have happened. I wish I was there to protect you. We know you are safe now and and you are at home with us everywhere we go.”
That sentiment make you wonder. But the shrine is surely a way for loved ones to deal with loss. There’s neither grave nor burial for Tia Sharp yet. A postmortem is scheduled for later this week. So. Would the BBC read the words written by loved ones on a grave and report them? Is the BBC prying?
The Evening Standard looks at another card:
Tia’s biological father Steven Carter, 30, also laid a note alongside a yellow rose for his daughter. It read: “My darling baby girl Tia. Daddy loves you dearly. I want you to stay safe in the arms of the angels. Love always. Daddy.”
In the Daily Mail, former Met Officer Iain Gordon searches for reasons as to why police took seven days to find Tia’s body in her grandmother’s loft, a place they had searched three times:
On top of all this is the police’s obsession with diversity. For some highly-politicised police chiefs, brimming with rhetoric about social exclusion and eager to please their masters at Westminster, the composition of the workforce has become more important than fighting crime.
It is true that in urban forces we need more black and Asian coppers, but I cannot understand the neurosis about a gender balance in the police. After all, the overwhelming majority of crime is perpetrated by men. Crime is not an equal opportunities activity.
The negative side of the fixation with diversity can also been seen in the fear of tackling criminal behaviour by ethnic minorities, whether it is rioting youths in London, predatory Muslim gangs in the industrial north or trespassing travellers in Essex.
In all these cases, the language of victimhood and social oppression prevented the police from vigorously upholding the law. My fear is that the same querulous spirit might have prevailed in the New Addington case, with the police anxious about appearing too judgemental towards what is obviously a highly dysfunctional family.
Working women. Gypsies. Muslims. Poor white-working class. The Mail’s man on the beat rounds up the usual suspects.
Stuart Hazell, 37, has been charged with Tia’s murder and his partner, Tia’s grandmother Christine, 46, has been bailed on suspicion of murder. A 39-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender has also been bailed to return to a south London police station. He will appear via video link at the Old Bailey on Wednesday. A further date for a preliminary hearing was recorded as 19 November.
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Posted: 14th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
