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June 01, 2006
Just how safe are we?
A tragedy always hits hardest when it is someone you know. When it is the result of a criminal act, it is sometimes marginally worse. In the weekend immediately past, a young man of 19, journeying home from university, attempted to intevene when a man began abusing a woman on a fast train passing through Cumbria. The man whose violent behaviour towards the woman had been causing some distress to the other passengers, promptly drew a knife and murdered the youngster on the spot and in the clear view of several dozen passengers. When he attempted to flee, the train staff sealed off the doors to the carriage and locked him - and potentially more victims into the carriage! Now that may be correct procedure according to the train company - lets face it, its probably sensible self preservation for the train staff - but, as soon as the train stopped, the violent criminal smashed his way out through a window and escaped.
Now the dead young man had merely tried to calm down a situation which was clearly causing a disturbance, and equally clearly escalating. He was acting reasonably and with good intent, but already we have heard the police saying that he should not have intervened "for his own safety". For some of us, that is not an option, we do not believe that we should stand idly by while an assault is carried out and we most certainly do not believe that violent and abusive behaviour towards someone else, anyone else, should be ignored - but clearly the majority of those sharing the carriage do think so and in my book they are as guilty of the murder as the man with the knife.
It does not help that the young man in question was the only child of a colleague of mine, a bright young man who shared his father's values and sense of duty, who was doing well in his university course and was the pride and joy of his parents. It does not help that our legal supremo has recently again published a directive to the courts saying that assaults and other "casual" crimes should be punished by "community sentences". I am sure that the b*****d responsible for this little murder will be let off with the usual smacked wrist instead of the long and hard custodial sentence he so richly deserves, because his smart civil libertarian brief will plead diminished responsibility due to stress, drugs, perceived threat and all the rest of the excuses this shower of anti-justice campaigners usually trot out in defence of the indefensible. There will be arguments about "intention", "inappropriate behaviours", "manslaughter" and the victim will be accused of having "threatened" the knife wielder. In court of course, you can say what you like about the deceased victim, turning them into the assailant and even making out that they were mentally unbalanced. Since they are not there to defend themselves - and most of those on the train who witnessed the murder will conveniently not remember the event in any detail (they will have been far to busy avoiding getting involved!) and so there will be no one to speak up for young Tom Grant, and his parents will have to endure the sight of their son's murderer being treated as the victim.
Spare a prayer for Tom and his parents as they deal with his death. He is as much a victim of the murderous lout who stabbed him as he is of the legal system that continually refuses to punish and the politicians who have fostered the culture of disrespect, condoning violence in children which turns into uncontrolled behaviour in adults. It starts with the child and it is not the child that learned that inappropriate behaviour is always punished that is todays offender, it is the one allowed to get away with everything because social workers and child "protection experts" (X is an unknown factor and a Spurt is a drip under pressure!) have for too long argued that punishment is "inappropriate". In my view they should now be hauled into court everytime there is an incident of this nature (there have been three other fatal stabbings this week so far!) and made to explain again how the criminals they have bred through this thinking would have been worse behaved if they had been punished earlier.
Tom is the victim, but as I have said, he is one of four others. Already we have the Minister for Fairyland rabbiting about further restrictions on the sale of knives or the carrying of knives and soon it will be illegal to use a knife and fork to eat, but the knives are not the root cause of the problem - that lies in the breakdown of discipline among certain sections of the community and the rememdy is not one our politicians are prepared to admit! If the 60's generation have a legacy it is this, a society that does not know who it is, where it is going or even what is right or wrong. A society that protects the guilty, villianizes the victim and promotes hooligans and yobs as heros. Welcome to 21st Century Britain - Blair's Britain.
Posted by The Gray Monk at June 1, 2006 12:44 PM
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Comments
** hugs ** and what is worse is everything you said applies in the USA as well. My prayers are with Tom's family and you.
Posted by: vw bug at June 1, 2006 03:54 PM
Of all the stories I read in the paper this week that one stood out as the saddest. He died for doing the right thing and no one else was prepared to stand with him.
I have to admit I've trained myself not to get involved, since even trying to stop someone from stepping into the road in front of a bus can earn you a stream of abuse. It's horrendous that living in London has taught me to be a proponent of Darwinism. If people want to date abusive partners, I'll let them, in the hope that they die before they give birth to another generation of abusive halfwits.
The government has made it easier for people like that to survive and reproduce than it has for law-abiding citizens (who work to support the others according to my pay cheque), so if by standing back I'll reduce the chances of my children being mugged in twenty years' time (and prevent my own immediate death), then that's what I'll do.
On the other hand, if someone else tried to do the right thing and was in danger for doing so, I would come to their aid. People like that are worth saving. The rest should be left on an island to kill eachother off - perhaps we should leave them on this island and move somewhere with decent weather?
Posted by: The Postulant at June 4, 2006 11:57 AM