Twitter Twits Need to Shut Up
Declan Harvey is amazed by the continuing anti-Knox vitriol.
4 Oct 2011, 08:38
Twitter twits
Their story has resonated with me, not because I know anyone involved nor, thankfully, has anyone I know been murdered. It resonated because I have shared a flat with other people, most of us have.
Had one of them come to the end Meredith Kercher did I'm not sure how I would be consoled. Not only because of the loss but the insecurity that it could have been me in the flat when the murderer entered.
To think then someone would accuse me of killing, find me guilty and lock me in a foreign jail cell for four years of my life is beyond imagination.
Furthermore to be vilified and have my plight mocked by a phrase like "foxy knoxy"... I'd wonder if it were me or the world who had misplaced their mind.
The evidence didn't stack up against Amanda or Rafaelle. They've now been handed their lives back. But somehow anonymous idiots online feel cheated. Instead of hanging their heads at what everyone involved (including the Kerchers) have gone through, some bright sparks get glib.
Here's a random selection of some of what was on offer about #AmandaKnox on twitter:
From @caslino1: #AmandaKnox is defo not innocent the stupid slut. Why are people feeling sorry for her. She will get millions in publishing her story.
@Christramp offered: #amandaknox very dodgy, terribly handled case, from what I've read she had something to do with it in one way or other.
@Serwaa28 said: Wow I'm in two minds I'm not sure whether she did it or not.
And @BrightNomad believes: It's as if victim doesn't matter if media friendly [person is] accused.
The heart sinks. Why does logging on sap the grace out of people? The pseudonyms afforded online protect users from the normal rules of social engagement and save them from being scorned and avoided as dickheads.
I'm a new convert and a great fan of twitter but I wonder what level of responsibility comes with it. Should the "would you say it to their face" rule apply? Or maybe it's a positive vent, a release from the normal restraints of life where we can all be gobby and rude.
Incidentally, the twits who tweet also seemed oblivious or uninterested in the fact Meredith's killer - identified by DNA - is still behind bars.
Do I think Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito did it? Well, no. Why? Because a court has found they didn't. By the same logic, at first I believed they did do it. A court told me that too. Is that naïve? Maybe, but I really don't know what else to go on. I wasn't there.
Why some feel justified in applying DIY justice is beyond me. It cheapens the issue and allows people to assume an intellectual upper ground without examination.
I find the numerous online offerings embarrassing, and would hate to think any one of the Knox family would see them.
Comments (3)
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Like you, I rely on the court to tell me what actually happened. But in addition to telling me that she did not commit murder, the court has told me that she tried to pervert the investigation (being ultimately jailed for three years for slander) and changed her story quite a bit when first questioned.
Those may be the actions of a frightened, innocent person, willing to do anything (regardless of consequences to the truth or others) to get themselves out of the nightmare in which she found herself.
However, it seems likely that the police focused on her, and wrongly convicted her, because these actions appeared very suspicious to them.
It may well be that she would never have been convicted in the first place had she been a more honest person.
04/10/2011 09:10"The evidence didn't stack up against Amanda or Rafaelle"
04/10/2011 09:52Well in fact, at 10,000 pages, stack up is exactly what it did. The odd thing is why the judges and jury decided to take so little notice of it.
I am not a Twitter troll, but there does seem to be something a little fishy going on here, in legal terms, and we will have to wait for the next appeal for a little clarification.
One cannot escape the fact, however, that the smart, pretty, middle-class American girl is released and the black African loser-drifter is left behind bars.
Isn't it ironic that the first two comments reflect exactly the kind of behaviour that your thoughtful piece berates? Pre-trial by media-fuelled gossip is already commonplace in the US and is increasingly becoming the norm here.
06/10/2011 09:23