LOWLIFE’S OUTRAGEOUS HECKLING A WAKE-UP CALL FOR US ALL

OUTRAGE. A word so abused and overused.

Watching the TV news in the evening, it’s easy to play cliche bingo. “Lucky to be alive”, “You won’t believe what happened next”, some petty gripe labelled “an outrage”.

Hyped up stories, stripping words of their meaning.

It becomes a predictable blur, TV news, almost comforting in its banal familiarity, all “shock” and “outrage” and “stunning revelations”, the stock ingredients of our nightly news feed.

And then, last Thursday evening’s bulletin, footage that pierced the bubble, that caused real shock, and yes, for once, genuine, visceral outrage.

The widow of slain police officer Brett Forte, sobbing, shaking, overcome with grief. Barely able to hold herself up as she lay flowers at a memorial to her husband.

Silence from all around at the terrible scene.

And then. Then the most despicable moment recorded by a TV camera in many years. A passing lowlife shouts abuse.

To say this footage makes the blood boil does not come close to expressing the anger it invokes. Tired cliches, again, fail us. Outrage, in its truest sense, at once gripped every viewer.

Outrage that anyone could be so savage, so base, as to heckle another human being at a moment of such acute and crippling grief.

But outrage is a word with deeper meaning. It is not passive. It implies future action. It carries with it a demand for change.

Thursday’s footage, sickening as it was, should be a wake-up call to all of us.

There will never be a more stark demonstration of what our police officers are forced to deal with.

Every day of the week Queensland police officers, including those on the Gold Coast, are putting up with abuse from such lowlifes.

They are frequently hampered in their task by a judicial system that too often allows the dregs of our society to seep back out on to the streets.

Brett Forte’s killer has been described, lazily, as a “career” criminal, as if he was in some way pursuing a profession.

If the system functioned as it should, such a “career” would be mostly spent staring at grey prison walls.

Police are also hampered by stretched budgets and heavy workloads, an issue that should course through the upcoming state election campaign.

And they are hampered too, if we are truly honest, by a jaded public that so easily forgets the gravity of the challenge they face.

That footage last Thursday, in its sadistic cruelty, was a vicious reminder.

Brett Forte was a loving husband and father. He was also a brave and selfless servant of the people.

It is a bravery that is shared by every man and woman who pulls on the uniform of Queensland police.

This was a week of true outrage. But outrage can lead to action. Agitate for stronger laws and harsher sentencing, for better funds and greater numbers. Support our police.

keith.woods@news.com.au