@Benito Aramando
The fact that the murder of women by their partner/ex-partner is too common (about two women a week) to be newsworthy illustrates Kate Jerrold's point perfectly.

I believe that Mr Moats brother is grieving, and he has my sympathy.
I do not believe that being unhappy and feeling unloved are excuses for murder. I also believe that Mr Moat had a long history of domestic abuse, and many of his actions are the usual pattern of power and control.
It is an insult to people with depression and mental illness and children of single parent families to suggest that these are reasons for Mr Moats behaviour. He was a bully.
My deepest sympathies to his victims and their families, including his family who are victims too.

Moat elected his own exit, it's ridiculous to blame the Police; they seemed to have done all they could to contain the situation without further harm to the public or their own force.

A lot of comment on here, and related sites, seems to suggest Moat was some kind of 'victim' because he's been in Prison and had been through a 'tough' time.

It's his treatment of his victims that put him in prison in the first place; had he stayed there, we would not be looking at the situation we are now.

I'm all for looking into the reasons why people commit offences because that helps towards identifying trends which helps to reduce crime patterns in the longer term. But let's not forget that offenders need to be punished as a deterrent, the public have a right to be protected and justice needs to be done. In this case Moat chose not to go through a trial (where he would have had an opportunity to mitigate his crimes) because he knew he was facing up to a lifetime behind bars; the brave man wasn't brave enough to accept his punishment.

The late Moat's tribute site on Facebook should be shut down forthwith.

Fortunately, when things go wrong for the majority of people they don't assault young children and indiscriminately shoot complete strangers as well as those he knew. No doubt his relatives remember better times when things were going well for mr.Moat, but a measure of a man cannot be taken when everything is peachy, only when problems arise. His problems became everybody's. How generous and warm hearted of him to share them out. No doubt there are many sympathetic souls who would have loved to have bumped into him while he was dealing with his problems.

One NS commentator declares this evidently disturbed individual "a monster", and Mehdi Hasan impersonates the Sun. Considering how it is pandering to reactionary cliches and knee-jerk excuses for rational thinking about mentally ill people who commit heinous crimes, perhaps the magazine should be renamed The New Gutter.

bongo beardy......wot the.........you nd2 wind yer neck in ya baw bag...........

Nick, do you always get your bird to do the dirty work for you ? Obviously the dopey bint is suffering from premenstrual tension, that explains the nutty aggression, take a chill pill, Luv.

my problem is with the brother of moat he sided he would have talk to him to hand himself to the police safely,where was he when he heard the whole country ransom why did he talk to him then? is a pity but he should not be among us.

@Abdul

Why don't you piss off you sad Bastard.

Can you do me a favour Nick, can you tell your girlfriend Sabrina ( common as muck, out and out trailer trash ) to learn some manners.

@Nick You have to feel sorry for Abdul, his only real friend is his wrist...
@Barny it was business studies in Leicester, he got thrown off because his lecturers thought he was too thick.

Th epolice did nothing wrong. To my mind he should have had a single chance to put down the weapon and then he should have been left in no doubt what was going to happen. Surely they could have tranquilised him though. The could have let Gazza through with some drugged chicken.

Joking aside where were the police when he was assaulting women? Where were hthey when he was dealing drugs and taking steroids?

We need to be harder on the signs of losing control and maybe we will avoid future crimes.

the sentiments of regret are focused on the Northumbrian Police force's manner in which they dealt with this situation. It's not an issue of feeling 'sorry' for Mr Moat. More anger that the police are trained in matters of life and death, and the prevention of death is their primary adjective. This being the case the Northumbrian Police have bought shame on other better Police forces in the UK and in such should be held accountable for their actions. Please remember Mr Moat called the police several times.. before any crimes took place. This was his cry for help being the disturbed person he was. A Caged animal when cornered and provoked will respond in a violent and aggressive manner.
go figure mr smarty pants.

Raoul Moat was no folk hero. He was a dangerous thug who threatened to kill more innocent people. I am sure the people of Rothbury are relieved that they can get on with their lives.

@ Kate
Look at the circumstances behind the issues before trying to rake this matter into being just a domestic violence issue, i agree with what you are saying, given that domestic violence was up 22% in Manchester alone, when England lost in the world cup, the broader issue, of which includes yours, is ..are the Police Force actually protecting us?
do they act upon information given or are they just another "gang" patrolling our streets with the incompetencies greater than that of your local hoodie?.

@Kate Jerrold:

Don't be ridiculous. If Moat had merely assaulted the man who died you can be certain we would never have heard anything about it. But he didn't; he shot him dead, and then proceeded to seriously wound two more people, before going on the run and threating to kill more. And you somehow attribute the difference in media attention between this and a typical domestic violence case to some kind of sexism?

Domestic violence is, sadly, far too common for any but the most serious individual cases to be in any way news-worthy.

I think what his brother said about his clearly being mentally ill is correct. I don't think that detracts from how appalling his actions were or the sympathy one feels for his victims and their families. But at the point at which he was making threats against his partner and others, those people needed protection and that protection should have included giving some help to Moat given the issues he clearly had. Prison evidently had done nothing whatsoever to address any of these, in fact appears to have exacerbated them. The net result was to put others at risk.

Excellent post Mehdi, the police handled the hunt excellently, its just a shame prison warnings were not followed.

Largely agree with what Mehdi says here. I say "largely" because, for me,the last four words are an unnecessary foray into tabloid histrionics. Is it not possible to agree broadly with how the police handled this challenging situation and question the dubious romanticing of Mr Moat without going down the "good riddance" path?

Medhi,

I would urge you to a little compassion. Roaul Moat's death must be seen as an aberration. Whilst I have absolute sympathy for the police officers involved in the stand off and doubt whether the incident amounts to a "public execution". I feel we must agree that, if a preventable violent death occurs in the vicinity of the police then the police have failed.

Failure though it was. There may have been little that could have done to prevent Moat's death. The rejection of Angus Moat's offer to mediate, may well have seemed the wisest course of action at the time. However, it IS important that Angus Moat's voice is heard.

In your article you used the example of China and Saudi Arabia to illustrate what a real public execution looked like. I thought this a shockingly adolescent piece of rhetoric (I expect better from you). However, if that is the ground you wish to play on… It is surely a defining feature of a corrupt and violent police force that questions are not asked about their conduct. That blame is always placed on the criminal for loss life. Happily we do not have such a police force. I feel far more secure knowing that Roaul Moat’s death will be looked into in an unbiased way. If the Police Complaints Commission exonerates all concerned then so much the better for public confidence in an open and accountable police force.

Finally, and probably most importantly, I am personally disappointed by your lack of sympathy for Angus Moat, who is after all a bereaved man. He is not thinking about what he is saying. He is just saying it. It was a very sad occurance for all concerned. It upsets me that you do not share the sentiment.

I don't really not what the fuss is all about. The Police are far from perfect, but on this occasion they did nothing wrong. But going round on a shooting spree, what did he and his brother think was going to happen? that we would do nothing. Chris Ryan has been largely forgotten about, which is the most shameful thing of this entire story.

We should be feeling sorry for Chris Ryan's family, and the other 2 people who were injured. Not Moat who brought it all on himself.

Everytime the Police are in this situation and someone dies, its not good and they have made mistakes in the past, but it seems certain people like to jump on the anti-police bandwagon. Unless of course you wished they did nothing, and watch more people become victims.

I mean Chris Brown. I appologise.

Bongo Beardy - try answering the points made, instead of coming out with a stream of meaningless babble. He wasn't cornered when he tried to kill his ex-partner, and murdered her new boyfriend. There is nothing to "look beyond" there - it is a fact.

as mehdi mentioned what happen to oscar grant in(USA),more guns with police would mean more accidents could happen.use firearms where redq but not as a norm.keep gun levels with police to a minimum.its correct to protect airports,railway stations with gun presence but not the pavements of uk

@ Merritt

yes.. the facts that 'you' are lead the read.

If you have ever lived with a bully and have been bashed about you would know how awful this is!

Guns should be banned! I feel sorry for the victims!