Disabled Iranian refugee Bijan Ebrahimi was beaten, murdered and his body set on fire because someone "believed" that he had been taking indecent photographs of children… not that he had, just that someone believed he had, and that, it seems, was just enough to provoke an angry mob into action without any of them feeling the need to ask whether it was actually true or not…
They call it mindless violence for a reason, you know.
Towards the end of November, someone was jailed for life for committing this crime, and the usual statements were made about what a tragedy it was and so on until the mighty media rolling news programme moved on because a more "newsworthy" story broke as a police helicopter fell from the sky and landed on a Glasgow pub, and that kept the news agenda busy right up until Nigella admitted to having once taken cocaine...
And so it goes, and so it goes...
And, by the way, is there anyone who's ever been on TV who isn't going to turn out to be a disappointment in some way or other...? Not that those suddenly "oh-so-pious" folk in the media have got all that much to be smug about. I suspect that it would be more unusual to find someone who moves in such circles who hasn't taken the white stuff at some point, although they'd never admit it as they're chucking those stones from their glass houses.
Watching the news these days is like watching any other "celebrity-based" TV and just as irritating for those of us who try to avoid such programming. In fact, if you watch "BBC Breakfast" with the sound off (the only way you CAN, in my opinion), it is clearly visible from the body language of the surprisingly "much liked" Susanna Reid that she remains in a constant state of bewilderment that everyone else in the studio isn't talking about Susanna Reid all of the time...
After all, her attitude to the news for several years now has appeared (to this viewer at least) to always try to mention something she or her immediate family has done in relation to any news story and make it all about her...
I used to work with someone like that. No matter what anecdote anyone in the office came up with about their evening or weekend or holiday, she, or one of her many aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters or cousins had always already done something similar, or had the very same thing happen to them.
Doubtless she's been a key player in all of the allegations, revelations and convictions of the past couple of years or, if she hasn't, she's probably still telling all of her colleagues that she would have been if it wasn't for some reason or other that is far too convoluted to go into...
But that's one of the many problems of this modern world.
Just as so many of us now set ourselves such high standards for personal attainment because of our constant need to compare our own lives to the hundreds we now rub shoulders with through our daily social media contacts, so a rumour can fester and spread through the same channels without any real justification, and people can leap to very dubious conclusions about someone visibly carrying a camera around, even though the surreptitious and suspect photographer has far more discreet options at their disposal via their telephones than anyone obviously carrying a great big lump of photographic equipment about with them is likely to…
Which brings us back to the sad story of Bijan Ebrahimi.
It's exactly the kind of story that really depresses me because it reminds me of just how unpleasant my fellow human beings can be, especially when they begin to believe that they know best and they no longer feel the need to question some dubious "facts" and what someone happens to "reckon" about something or someone...
Just as so many of us now set ourselves such high standards for personal attainment because of our constant need to compare our own lives to the hundreds we now rub shoulders with through our daily social media contacts, so a rumour can fester and spread through the same channels without any real justification, and people can leap to very dubious conclusions about someone visibly carrying a camera around, even though the surreptitious and suspect photographer has far more discreet options at their disposal via their telephones than anyone obviously carrying a great big lump of photographic equipment about with them is likely to…
Which brings us back to the sad story of Bijan Ebrahimi.
It's exactly the kind of story that really depresses me because it reminds me of just how unpleasant my fellow human beings can be, especially when they begin to believe that they know best and they no longer feel the need to question some dubious "facts" and what someone happens to "reckon" about something or someone...
Because when we can allow such unfounded belief and rumour to transform into someone's misguided idea of an absolute certainty, without taking any time to question their idea of the truth, then such tragedies are almost bound to happen.
Just think for a few minutes about what that poor man had to endure whilst he was still alive, notwithstanding what happened to him at the end of his life when he was being tortured to death.
His murder was the culmination of a series of threats and abuse directed at him on that estate over several years, and between 2008 and 2011 Mr Ebrahimi complained to the police 14 times about issues ranging from verbal racial abuse to issues with his neighbours. Last July, just a few days before his death, a mob surrounded his council maisonette and chanted abuse.
This had been going on for years. In 2006 he was assaulted on several occasions in a shared house for the homeless in Bristol, including having to jump out of his window because somebody broke into his room. He broke his ankle then hot water was thrown on to his chest and on his feet. Once he was also hit by the other people sharing this house and he was hospitalised. Despite being moved to another address, Mr Ebrahimi continued to suffer violence and threats and was eventually moved again to his final home, and yet, after every incident that took place, Bijan reported it to the police.
There's a real Catch 22 involved here, by the way. Often victims are found to be a nuisance because they keep on reporting incidents and when they keep on reporting it to the police it gets considered to be a nuisance. However, if they don't report it, then the police will claim that these incidents were not reported to them.
People, eh…?
As Christmas approaches, perhaps in Bijan's memory, perhaps we should all try to be a bit more careful about what we believe and try not to jump to conclusions about the people around us. After all, sometimes a photographer is just a photographer and, as a society, we really need to stop assuming the worst of everyone and realise that the vast majority of the people around us aren't actually up to no good, but are thoroughly decent human beings who just want to be getting on with their own lives with a sense of live and let live.
Just think for a few minutes about what that poor man had to endure whilst he was still alive, notwithstanding what happened to him at the end of his life when he was being tortured to death.
His killer believed he was a paedophile simply because he had been seen taking photographs around the Bristol estate where he lived, even though the police maintain that there was no evidence for such an accusation. In fact, it is thought Mr Ebrahimi had been taking pictures in an attempt to identify whoever was responsible for abuse and threats that he was receiving.
His murder was the culmination of a series of threats and abuse directed at him on that estate over several years, and between 2008 and 2011 Mr Ebrahimi complained to the police 14 times about issues ranging from verbal racial abuse to issues with his neighbours. Last July, just a few days before his death, a mob surrounded his council maisonette and chanted abuse.
This had been going on for years. In 2006 he was assaulted on several occasions in a shared house for the homeless in Bristol, including having to jump out of his window because somebody broke into his room. He broke his ankle then hot water was thrown on to his chest and on his feet. Once he was also hit by the other people sharing this house and he was hospitalised. Despite being moved to another address, Mr Ebrahimi continued to suffer violence and threats and was eventually moved again to his final home, and yet, after every incident that took place, Bijan reported it to the police.
There's a real Catch 22 involved here, by the way. Often victims are found to be a nuisance because they keep on reporting incidents and when they keep on reporting it to the police it gets considered to be a nuisance. However, if they don't report it, then the police will claim that these incidents were not reported to them.
People, eh…?
As Christmas approaches, perhaps in Bijan's memory, perhaps we should all try to be a bit more careful about what we believe and try not to jump to conclusions about the people around us. After all, sometimes a photographer is just a photographer and, as a society, we really need to stop assuming the worst of everyone and realise that the vast majority of the people around us aren't actually up to no good, but are thoroughly decent human beings who just want to be getting on with their own lives with a sense of live and let live.
I have a friend who photographs council houses for Stockport council who are building a database of their properties for some reason. You would not believe the number of times he's had to make a run for his car.
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