"And having written those things I realise that I am talking about my emotional responses to them ('revulsion', 'anger' etc.). But, at the end of the day, reactions to crime and injustice inevitably involve emotion. Perhaps the (hypocritical) authorities, in attempting to be 'objective' and 'unemotional' can sometimes end up doing more harm than good(?)"

I too have emotional responses to crimes.

Baby P's torture and murder would be a classic example.

I looked at the photo's, and read about about what had happened and the sheer cruelty of the adults who inflicted the injuries he died from.

My first feeling was a paternal instinct to pick that little boy up and hold him safely out of reach of those monsters.

Of course that simply wasn't an option.

My second emotion was utter hatred for the adults involved.

I felt that if I ever saw these people out in public I would be unlikely to restrain myself from inflicting the worst torture imaginable on them.

I felt crimson in tooth and claw.

But in reality, I am glad that I never have seen them and that they have gone to prison for their crimes.

I believe their actions to have been those of savages.

In taking that line I make a distinction between myself and a savage.

To be consistent I must define what the differences are between savages and non-savages.

In my mind a non-savage is able to restrain themselves from indulging their lust for blood.

A non-savage considers more sophisticated alternatives.

They work out what they wish to achieve, why they wish to achieve it and how they will go about achieving it.

Baby P's killers should be seperated from society and kept away from kids for their whole lives as they are a danger.

That is something everyone agrees on, death or no death.

By not killing them, we define our society as being better than that.

We encourage our society to see that killing is never justified.


A parallel worth considering is that of whether to arm the police.

In the UK, we don't arm the police and the number of gun crimes is very low.

The flow of guns is well controlled and there are less shoot outs on our streets with the result that less innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.

Guns are not a significant part of our society when you compare us to the USA, south africa or other countries where there is an ethos of "each man may defend himself".

I believe that the same principle applies in the case of the death penalty.

If the government sanctions a view that killing is justified retribution, then citizens will hold the same view.


Besides, I want the killers of Baby P to stay alive so that they can reflect everyday for the rest of their lives just how much they are hated and reviled and so they have nightmares everynight about the crimes they have committed.


I want them to die old and heartbroken in prison, wishing they had behaved differently.