THE shooting dead of Charlie Kirk was a cruel and violent act. It was also puzzling – or rather the reactions to it were puzzling.
We are told that the shooter was some 200 yards from Kirk when he squeezed the trigger and killed his victim with a single shot. We are then shown images of the shooter running along a flat roof and dropping to the ground. I’m bad at estimating distances but I’d say the drop was at least twenty feet. He lands on the ground and then hurries off.
In the early aftermath, there was talk of this having been the work of a professional hit man, and certainly the precision of his shot from such a distance and the athleticism of his escape seem to support that.
But then what happens? The suspect tells his father what he’s done, the father tells a friend, and the friend tells the authorities. That doesn’t sound like a professional hitman, yet his pinpoint accuracy from distance and jump from the roof of a building look like someone highly skilled in such lethal work.
Paul Bremer, the top US civilian administrator in Iraq in 2003, famously said “We got him!” when Saddam Hussein was captured. The Republican governor of Utah declared, on the arrest of the man today in custody over Kirk’s death, “Well, we got him!” Which is implying... what? That the man in custody is on the same level as Saddam Hussein? This before a trial has begun.
Predictably, Trump has called for the death penalty. This is the same Trump who called for prayers for Charlie Kirk and his family, and who is busy selling the 'God Bless the USA Bible' at $59.99 a copy. Maybe Jesus understands Trump’s brand of Christianity; the rest of us have to struggle a little. The Bible’s central message is surely to forgive our enemies, not execute them.
Most of the headlines this week have reported on Kirk’s death. But they did make room for another if less bloody event – the sacking of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s Ambassador to the US. Mandelson’s appointment seemed a smart move at the time, given the warm relationship he had established with Trump. But then, we’re told, the British government discovered (for the first time, presumably) the even warmer relationhip Mandelson had with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
This is the third time Mandelson has been sacked from a post with the British government (he lost his job of Trade and Industry Secretary in 1998 and of Northern Ireland Secretary of State in 2001). As Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell nearly said, to lose one job is a tragedy, to lose three looks like carelessness on steroids.
Is it possible that Keir Starmer and the British government were unaware of the Epstein connection when they appointed Mandelson? I’d bet the farm they did. So, please, Sir Keir – stop insulting our intelligence.
Guilty before trial; the death sentence called for before trial; paedophilia and politicians doling out porkies every time their lips move. It may seem that 2025 is a uniquely corrupt time. Oh that it were.
JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Richard Nixon, Watergate, the Vietnam War – lies and assassinations and the taking of innocent life have, like the poor, always been with us. Evil plans and bad deeds in high places exist in every period. It’s just that from time to time they peep out at us and laugh at the fact that we’re shocked.
