May 28, 2007

Robbery

It was an odd thing to see my sleepy town in the national news over the weekend. On Friday, armed robbers mugged two security guards who were resupplying the cashpoint machine at my train station. A passerby was shot.
I missed the event itself by about five minutes.
Come the evening, with news and police helicopters buzzing overhead, I returned to the railway station.
A scene familiar to all Brits took place before my eyes:
Outside the station: a news cameraman and a slightly glum looking reporter were preparing to go live.
Behind the reporter: four youths goofing around, waving at the camera. Rabbit ears. Usual thing.

Reporter: "For God's sake stop it! You should be ashamed of yourselves! A man was nearly killed here. Show some respect!"
Youth: "Yeah mate, but we're not the ones making a living out of it."
Touché.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, that's standard practice here. Reporters are used to it. Baby could’ve been killed, or murder-suicide, maybe an entire block burns down. You can count on the dancing youth of tragedy who will always find the right camera angle.

RFB said...

Love that comment from the kid. Perfect.

"Tonight on Eyewitness News: School Buses. How many of them are UNSAFE and putting our kids in peril. We'll show you some astonishing statistics about the condition of buses in our area. Is your child's school bus one of the dangerous ones? It just might be. Find out tonight at 11."