Why we’ve all gone a bit “Daily Mail”
Thursday, August 10th, 2006So the other day I got this email from a friend of mine…
Do you remember February 1993 when a young 3 yr old was taken from Liverpool, United Kingdom, by two 10-year-old boys.Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second and Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson.They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, Along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was
crying constantly for his mummy.
What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie’s mother was forbidden to identify his body.
They then left his beaten small body on the tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created. These two boys, even being boys, understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident.
This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss has awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities. They will also leave early this year only serving just over half of
their sentence. They are being relocated to Australia to live out the rest oftheir lives. (didn’t think we were a convict settlement anymore)
They disgustingly and violently took Jamie’s life away in return they each get a new life.Please .. If you feel as strongly as we do, that this is a grave miscarriage of justice .. Copy entire email and paste into new email .then add your name at the end, and send it to everyone you can!
If you are the 500th person to sign, please forward this e-mail to:>cust.ser.cs@gtnet.gov.uk and attention it to Lady Justice Butler-Sloss.
Then start the list over again and send to your friends and family.
The Love-Bug virus took less that 72 hours to reach the world. I hope this one does as well.We need to protect our family and friends from creatures like Robert and Jon. One day they maybe living next door to you and your small children or your grandchildren, without your knowledge.
What is your first feeling when reading this? Mine was, “oh god this was such an awful crime” and the details of the actual email were a lot more graphic than I’ve bought myself to replicate here. It was sickening what happened to poor little Jamie Bulger.
However, my second reaction was, “why the hell is my friend sending me this?” Aside from the absurdity that loads of aussies had signed it, (obviously scared to death that two English “monsters” were about to be let loose into their land) this happened in 2001!
Funnily enough it is indeed a hoax Hoax Slayer
However, all this got me thinking..
In a tone that is reminescent of that used by the Daily Mail, the writers of the email thought that 8 years in prison was a “grave miscarriage of justice”. As do others BBC News Link. Michael Howard tried to get the minimum time they spent in custody increased and was later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this is just another case of media-driven justice in the making.
Firstly 8 years might not seem that long to you, but imagine if you were 10 years old? Think about all the things that happened to you between the age of 10 and the day you drank you first legal pint. Maybe you should read the BBC audience guidelines (6 -12) to jog your memory: BBC Audience Data particularly note that “1 in 3 [children] now live in relative poverty compared to only 1 in 10 in the early 1970s”
Secondly, a young offender’s institute is far from a walk in the park. It’s a pretty lawless environment in itself, BBC News Living with rats, rapists, druggies and murderers must be great fun. No doubt the tabloids would have us believe that they watched tele all day in comfort drinking tea and eating chocolate hob nobs, oblivious to their crime - I doubt it.
In 2000 the BBC World Service compared the cases of Bulger and a Norwegian case in the city of Trondheim BBC World Service People
“On 15th October 1994 Silje Raedergard was playing with friends on a local football field. She had played with the two boys many times, but this time the game turned rough. Whilst playing snow castles, the two boys became aggressive. They stripped Raedergard, stoned her and when she fell unconscious they panicked and ran, leaving her to die in the snow..”
“The news of Raedergard’s death shocked the small town. With a population of 135,000, the city of Trondheim had only experienced two murders in the six years prior to her death. However instead of expressing anger and revenge, the local community felt grief and a level of responsibility.”
The two perpetrators of this hideous crime were children, but no doubt a portion of the British public would have happily seen them hanged at the time they were covicted, thrown rotten vedge and watched them die a slow painful death before announcing that “justice had finally been done”. We would send emails asking for them to be named and shamed so that a mob can go and pay them a visit just like in “the good old days”.
In contrast, the Norwegian community took collective responsibility for what had happened and also viewed the perpetrators as victims, ensuring that they got back to “normal” lives as quickly as possible and going through thorough psychiatric help.
In Britain we constantly believe that the justice system is failing us but we rarely stop to think that maybe we are failing our children.
In Norway they have moved on from medieval times, if only Britain could do that too.
More comment here: BBC News
NOTE: THESE ARE THE PERSONAL VIEWS OF STEPHANIE CHAMBERLAIN AND ARE NO WAY ENDORSED BY BIT10 ltd
