Jamie Bulger. petition

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

At the risk of coming across as the argumentative angry short bloke, I'm afraid I won't be signing this one. Their crimes were abhorent and barbaric and in no way can I condone what they did. But - relocation and anonymity - of course, the only alternative is mob justice. That may indeed be what they deserve but it is not what civilised society does.

I also have to hold out hope in rehabilitation. They were 10. Not an excuse but surely a factor, and if anyone can be rehabilitated then it's a 10 year old. They have the opportunity to make something of their lives for the betterment of society, something they took away from Jamie Bulger.

well said

As a public servant, working to give the low-skilled, workless and those overlooked/failed by society the opportunity to get up on their feet, do well and make a contribution, I have to disagree with this.

MiniMatt and Messie have articulated really well the reasoning behind it. But here are some more crude thoughts.

Think about it the other way around - for example, if you lost your license for speeding in a moment of madness, would you want it taken away for ever? If someone close to you, for whatever reason (and it does happen - something drug-related, perhaps), slipped off the edge of society and committed a terrible act, would you want them to be made to pay for their crime and given the chance to get back on their feet, with help to do so, or would you want them written off, even killed? There but for accident of birth, grace of Messie's non-christan God, whatever, go we all.

What's proposed gives society a get-out for it's mistakes. Serial killers are a very rare phenomenon. If anything's to blame here it's the cycle of deprivation and societal attitude that made the parents bring up children that were capable of the crime. I expect they are some of the low-skilled, workless people we're trying to help. Without support and rehab, that cycle is hard to break. I could go on about gang culture here, but that's for another time.

sorry but speeding & this
"Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes, pushed batteries up his anus and cut his fingers off with scissors. Other mutilations were inflicted but not reported in the press."

are totaly differant

Originally Posted by hovis

sorry but speeding & this
"Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes, pushed batteries up his anus and cut his fingers off with scissors. Other mutilations were inflicted but not reported in the press."

are totaly differant

Quite right, but it's the principle of served time, rehab and reintegration that I was trying to convey. The magnitude of the crimes and punishments may be different, but the process remains the same.

[fizzwheel]

Umh.... some strong opinions here...

I can relate to this a little, my friend was killed by a drunk driver last year, this lad was 3 times over the limit, off his face on drugs, had been told by 2 or 3 of his friends not to drive, but didnt listen.

He mowed my friend down when he was on the pavement IIRC the impact speed was somewhere in the region of 60mph. Poor Pete never stood a chance.

What did I think when I heard they'd found him guilty and had been sent away for 4 years. Well thats two families lives f*cked up isnt it.

I think the same about those two boys, they paid a heavy price for what they've done, that price is that they have to carry that around for the rest of their lives knowing what they've done, thats a heavy burden and one that I wouldnt want to carry, whether I was living in Austrailia or not.

Maybe to live with the consequences of what you've done is the biggest punishment of all ?

My young lad is three years old now, my daughter six. I worry like mad if either one of them disappear round a corner and are out of view for more than a few seconds. This is the society that we live in today.

I think that what those two 10 year old boys did was horrific. But they were caught, they have been punished. But most of all, they will have been rehabilitated. They were only 10 years old.

I wont be signing the petition. Not that it will make a blind bit of difference if 50 million people signed it.

[northwind]

We don't do the death sentence. We don't do lynch mobs. And we don't stand by and allow either to happen.

Seriously though, what's the point of this petition? Is it to prove that people will sign anything on the internet, without checking even the most basic facts? Like what year it is? Or whether the reported details of the crime are correct (they're not) or of the sentence (also, not)

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

At the risk of coming across as the argumentative angry short bloke, I'm afraid I won't be signing this one. Their crimes were abhorent and barbaric and in no way can I condone what they did. But - relocation and anonymity - of course, the only alternative is mob justice. That may indeed be what they deserve but it is not what civilised society does.

I also have to hold out hope in rehabilitation. They were 10. Not an excuse but surely a factor, and if anyone can be rehabilitated then it's a 10 year old. They have the opportunity to make something of their lives for the betterment of society, something they took away from Jamie Bulger.

At the risk of being shot down in flames...............I have worked in child and adolescent psychiatry now for 10 years and I can testify that as society changes along with it's beliefs and values, there are some children who are beyond the realms of rehabilitation.

MiniMatt I envy you for the hope you have in rehabilitation I however feel repulsed and disgusted that these murders are free in society and feel that yet again the british justice system has failed the victim and their family.

All a bit of a moot point really since this is four or five years out of date.

Linky

Originally Posted by WRCSixtyThree

All a bit of a moot point really since this is four or five years out of date.

Linky

yup, i as i have said, i read this on another forum, & did think they had been let out, but the thread was a new one,i also dont normally bother signing these pertitions, but felt very stongly about this.

IMO what the 2 boys did was evil & dont deserve to be rehabilated.