FriedGreenTomatoes2
Oh Wyllow I think you’re being disingenuous now.
Knowing ‘more’ would have helped diffuse a tinderbox reaction. Social media posts (I don’t do FB, Twitter etc) were full of agitated members of the public.
Questions were being asked, such as:
Was he Welsh??
Why not publish his name at least?
So ‘what were the police/government trying to hide’? was the narrative that WAS gaining traction.
Word got out (as it does) neighbours, friends of friends.
“Was he an asylum seeker?
Was he a newly arrived migrant on a rubber boat?
People then put two and two together and made five.
Definitely SOME of this could have been prevented.
It could have and should have been nipped in the bud to stop rampant speculation.
I well remember hearing on the news at the time that he was not an asylum seeker but was born in Cardiff. People are so ignorant about the limitations on what information can be published about the perpetrator, or suspected perpetrator, of a crime.
Nothing would have prevented the reaction we saw. The fact that he didn’t have a white face was enough for some, if not all, of them. What good could rioting, injuring innocent people and damaging or destroying their property, possibly have done? I remember watching the riots and being shocked at the extent to which some rioters were actually enjoying what they were doing.