Kneecap play a blinder

There is such a thing as decency

It has been quite a week for the lads known as Kneecap. If you do not know who kneecap are then lucky you. They are the blokes who rap and go by the stage names of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí. One of them likes to wear a balaclava in tricolour design. I don’t know who kitted it for him – his mother maybe or a girlfriend or perhaps Tom Daley. It’s baffling. Indeed, I am quite convinced that these three were made in a lab somewhere just to annoy the likes of me.

Anyway, Kneecap the “rappers” (not singers as a song requires a melody) have found themselves in trouble for displaying during one of their concerts the slogan “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.”

According to CNN, “in recent days, footage has been circulating online that appears to show one of the group’s members shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” in November last year.”

Also reported by CNN video from November 2023 appeared to show one member of the group, who are from Northern Ireland, saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Counterterrorism police are now investigating, as per The Times.

This is the kind of stuff that should in a normal world get you into trouble as it has always been the case that you cannot incite violence against another person, or indeed incite their murder. Those who allege that it is hypocritical of free speech advocates to object to speech that incites violence should perhaps engage the brain.

Inciting the murder of Tory MPs has always been illegal. Free speech does not mean you can say, ok go and kill so and so or actually raping Mary down the road would be a good idea or fancy a bit of shoplifting down at Tesco. That’s called incitement and has long been illegal.

Also it’s not a very nice thing to do. There is such a thing as decency and this isn’t it. Just ask the family of Jox Cox MP and David Amess MP, two MPs who were murdered. Their families will have an empty seat at the kitchen table every day for the rest of their lives because someone did indeed go and kill their local MP.

Brendan Cox, whose wife was stabbed and shot to death in 2016 by a far-right extremist while meeting with her constituents, told Sky News that the band’s apology was “not enough.”

“What’s clear (about the video) is that it wasn’t a joke, that it wasn’t out of context, that it was incitement to violence against members of parliament,” he said. Cox added that Kneecap’s comments “overstepped the mark in a frankly grotesque way,” putting them on the “wrong side of people who might agree with them” on issues, such as Gaza and Northern Ireland.

Katie Amess, daughter of Conservative lawmaker David Amess, who was fatally stabbed in a 2021 attack while meeting with his constituents, has called Kneecap’s rhetoric “abhorrent.”

“(It) poses a direct threat to the safety and well-being of elected officials and the democratic institutions they represent,” she said in a statement provided to the PA Media news agency.

Amess commended the action taken by law enforcement and called for those who incite “violence and hatred” to be held accountable.

“As a society, we must stand united against all forms of extremism and ensure that our public spaces, including artistic and cultural venues, are not exploited to propagate messages of hate,” Amess said.

Photo by Joni Ludlow on Unsplash

Now, don’t get me wrong. Kneecap as British subjects are lucky enough to enjoy the peace, tranquillity and justice provided by His Majesty King Charles and are therefore entitled to due process and equality before the law. We should let the British justice system take its course. I say nothing either way.

But I will say that this entire Kneecap fandango does pose a bit of a problem for British police. We are told that they are looking at the videos. Is that so? Because I am left wondering if the lads are going to get The Treatment. The Treatment is where the Old Bill rock up to your door – usually on a Sunday – and question you for wrong think.

Just ask Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson who had her Sunday brunch interrupted, caught in her dressing gown she was, by the Old Bill when she merely tweeted something they didn’t like. Or the parents who had no less than six coppers – six of them - outside their door because they got involved in a heated WattsApp exchange over a dispute at school.

Will the lads be caught on the hop one Sunday because they too will get The Treatment? Will the one that wears the balaclava be found balaclava-less, which would be a great shame and probably hurt the hard man image? How come Kneecap get to wait until the videos are ‘looked at’ – while everyone else such as Allison Pearson must have their Sunday morning ruined because of a wrong Tweet? Doesn’t seem very fair to me.

I suspect Kneecap will be spared The Treatment. Arguably they have had a good week. Their manager was given a huge platform on the flagship Irish broadcast programme Prime Time, to say what he wants to say about Israel, namely it was committing genocide in Palestine. The ‘tough questions’ consisted of the presenter asking him a question and then just handing him masses of time for him to make his speech. He played an absolute blinder, a masterclass in getting your message across, perfect “cut through” worthy of Malcom Tucker himself.

Kneecap has apologized to the families of Cox and Amess. It said it has never supported Hamas or Hezbollah and that the footage circulating online has been “deliberately taken out of all context” as part of a “smear campaign” following their criticism of Israel and the United States in regards to the war in Gaza.

So we must take them at their word. Or at least their latest words. The words they spoke at a concert are still under investigation.