Celebrity Value?
Rolling Stone magazine covers are meant to be bright, saucy, provocative, cleverly hip and urbane. Cosmopolitan readers, social sophisticates, celebrity-obsessed people savour the covers, evidently far more than the interior content. All such publications rely on their ability to captivate the interest of the public, and if it can be done in a titillating manner all the better, it would seem. Well, Rolling Stone has had its share of attention lately.While there may be some among its readership who would applaud it for its controversially questionable choice in assuming that everyone who looks at the cover might be lightly bemused and even somewhat amused at the sheer impudent light-heartedness that editors might feel about a plot that succeeded in taking the lives of three innocent people and horribly maiming countless others, many more find it repugnant.
There are over 260 people whose lives have been forever changed. They were psychologically traumatized, and wounded, some of them severely enough to lose limbs, eyes and their viable futures. Those responsible for the carnage were hatefully intent on wreaking as much human damage as possible in their personal vendetta against the West. Where they had lived, attended school, were advantaged by social welfare.
The consciences of the two brothers Tsarnaev did not appear to be too heavily weighted with guilt. They went about their normal business and nothing stopped the younger of the two, Dzhokhar, from quipping with friends about the misfortune they had visited upon the unaware and the innocent. Despite which, his youth and his pleasant appearance appears to have disarmed and attracted the attention of a 'fan club'.
And that sadly morals-bankrupt group will no doubt have seen the Rolling Stone cover as a thrilling validation of their fondness for one of the perpetrators of a vicious atrocity that left sane people reeling in shock and horror. It obviously affected Sergeant Sean Murphy that way. In an attempt to counteract the decision of Rolling Stone to glorify the youthful persona in an appealing photograph of a murderous Islamist, he released police photographs of the very same individual.
Those photographs can be seen to be less than wholesome in nature and character and implication. They graphically portray the aftermath of a gruesomely bloody trajectory of events, where a hunted killer was finally captured and a city and a nation was able to sigh with relief and gratitude that no one else would be harmed by his monstrous hatred.
And now they have discovered that not to be so. Harm to society continues. And harm has also been visited upon a professional in the field of police work who was unable to stomach the disgusting superficiality of morality and values in evidence through the use of that photograph by Rolling Stone, and the gratification it has given to some young women who found it so utterly appealing.
The Massachusetts police advised through a spokesman that they did not give authorization for the release of the photographs that showed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as rather less than glamorous. For his unprofessional audacity in handing copies of the photographs over to Boston Magazine as an antidote to the Rolling Stone cover, Sergeant Sean Murphy pays a price.
 |
| Photo by Massachusetts State Police |
State trooper punished for leaking Dzhokhar Tsarnaev capture photos
Marathon bombing manhunt
Marathon bombing manhunt
A state police photographer is
in hot water with his bosses and federal prosecutors after leaking
behind-the-scenes photos showing the manhunt and capture of Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev — a move the trooper said was sparked by his anger over Rolling
Stone’s cover-boy treatment of the accused teen terrorist.
The photographer, Sgt. Sean P. Murphy, was relieved of duty for one day and is “subject to internal investigation,” state police told the Herald last night.
“The release of these photos was completely unacceptable,” said a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, whose prosecutors are preparing a case against Tsarnaev on 30 federal charges, 17 of them capital offenses. “We have spoken with the Massachusetts State Police, who have assured us that the release of the photos was unauthorized and that they are taking action internally in response.”
Lawyers for Tsarnaev did not respond to calls for comment. It was
unclear last night whether the photos could damage the federal case
against the man accused of setting off pressure cooker bombs that killed
three people and injured more than 260.
Murphy did not respond to emails last night.
Andrew Collier — whose brother, MIT campus cop Sean Collier, was ambushed and shot to death as Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan fled in panic — came to Murphy’s defense last night, calling him “an amazing photographer.”
“He took a lot of pictures for us during Sean’s funeral. He helped us a lot,” Collier said. “I appreciate him keeping Sean in his thoughts and continuing to honor him.”
Murphy, in his statement to Boston Magazine earlier yesterday, said he released the photos to counter Rolling Stone’s Tsarnaev cover, which outraged marathon bombing victims. He said he also published the pictures in tribute to law enforcement, including Collier and transit cop Richard Donohue, who was hurt in the Watertown firefight.
“These were real people, with real lives, with real families. And to have this cover dropped into Boston was hurtful to their memories and their families,” Murphy’s statement said.
“I know from firsthand conversations that this Rolling Stone cover has kept many of them up — again. It’s irritated the wounds that will never heal — again. There is nothing glamorous in bringing more pain to a grieving family.”
The photographer, Sgt. Sean P. Murphy, was relieved of duty for one day and is “subject to internal investigation,” state police told the Herald last night.
“The release of these photos was completely unacceptable,” said a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, whose prosecutors are preparing a case against Tsarnaev on 30 federal charges, 17 of them capital offenses. “We have spoken with the Massachusetts State Police, who have assured us that the release of the photos was unauthorized and that they are taking action internally in response.”
Murphy did not respond to emails last night.
Andrew Collier — whose brother, MIT campus cop Sean Collier, was ambushed and shot to death as Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan fled in panic — came to Murphy’s defense last night, calling him “an amazing photographer.”
“He took a lot of pictures for us during Sean’s funeral. He helped us a lot,” Collier said. “I appreciate him keeping Sean in his thoughts and continuing to honor him.”
Murphy, in his statement to Boston Magazine earlier yesterday, said he released the photos to counter Rolling Stone’s Tsarnaev cover, which outraged marathon bombing victims. He said he also published the pictures in tribute to law enforcement, including Collier and transit cop Richard Donohue, who was hurt in the Watertown firefight.
“These were real people, with real lives, with real families. And to have this cover dropped into Boston was hurtful to their memories and their families,” Murphy’s statement said.
“I know from firsthand conversations that this Rolling Stone cover has kept many of them up — again. It’s irritated the wounds that will never heal — again. There is nothing glamorous in bringing more pain to a grieving family.”
Author(s):
Advertisement
Labels: Atrocity, Conflict, Human Relations, Islamists, United States
posted by Pieface | 8:33 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home