Murderous intent

The recent murder of former British MP Ann Widdecombe, a high-profile social conservative, at her home in rural Britain had me shaking my head ... for several reasons.
The first? Well, the police first said they had no information to suggest a political or terror-related motivation behind the killing.
Then, in the blink of an eye, we learned that the police agency responsible for battling terrorism in the UK had been put in charge of the investigation.
Clearly, it is time to remind the men and women in blue of the first rule in any homicide investigation: Avoid rushing -- or seeming to rush -- to early conclusions.
My second thought was that I could understand why some folks might not like politicians with views that differ strongly from their own. But wanting to kill them -- and then following through on that urge -- is an entirely different matter.
It's at the extreme end of extreme. But it's not that rare, it seems, even in supposedly civilized Britain.
In 2021, an Islamic State supporter was found guilty of killing 69-year-old Conservative MP David Amess by stabbing him repeatedly at a church hall meeting with constituents.
In 2016, 41-year-old Labour MP Jo Cox, mother of two young children, was stabbed and shot by a Nazi sympathizer who shouted "Britain first" as he attacked.
My third thought was how cruel some people can be to those with whose political and/or religious views they disagree.
According to a Daily Mail news report, Heather Herbert, a transgender former Labour candidate, posted that Widdecombe's death was "good news" -- and hoped she suffered "an extremely painful death."
Columnist Piers Morgan countered by saying Herbert's comments reminded him that "the least kind people on earth" are ironically those on the woke left.
Now, I don't know whether politically-minded people on the left or the right are the unkindest. But, over the years, I've met quite a few candidates on either side of that shallow divide.
There is a saying, though, that righties are nice people with nasty views and lefties are nasty people with nice ones.
Either way, it's high time we stopped using politics -- or religion -- as an excuse for appalling behavior. Nothing reeks more of self-righteousness.