“…sensationalising these murders as if we were dealing with an episode of Love/Hate…”.
Gareth Hutch, a father-of-one, was shot yesterday morning outside Avondale House complex on North Cumberland Street, Dublin. Morbid footage was captured on CCTV and has since been published by various media outlets.
Dublin City Social Democrats Cllr Gary Gannon has criticised the media for allowing the victims to be “dehumanised” by publishing footage of “a man being butchered on a city street”.
He went onto compare the media’s coverage as akin to “dealing with an episode of Love/Hate rather than a real family and their loved one”.
Councillor Gannon represents and lives in Dublin’s North Inner City, therefore it’s fair to say that he knows the area and its constituents well.
Speaking with JOE, he says ;
“Whatever you may think about the so-called feud and the people involved, at the end of the day, these are human beings and to circulate footage of a man being butchered on a city street is akin to circulating a snuff movie. It is grotesque and does society a huge disservice.
If we allow these victims to be dehumanised in such a way then we, as a society, abdicate responsibility for maintaining law and order and protecting all citizens equally.
Whatever about those who released the footage I firmly believe it is incumbent on our media not to provide a platform for this type of footage which has the effect of sensationalising these murders as if we were dealing with an episode of Love/Hate rather than a real family and their loved one.”
When asked about a solution to the escalating violence in Dublin’s North Inner City, Councillor Gannon had this to say,“the short term solutions have failed. These shootings are occurring every 3-4 months and we need to be focusing on a long term solution. It’s essential to combat inequality in the area, generational poverty and breaking down any barriers that exist towards third-level education”.
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