Lizzie;
With respect, and no reflection whatever on Jamie Bulger's parents - this is about a horrendous act carried out by two CHILDREN against another child, and how it should be dealt with - that is the issue here.
Unfair as it may seem to some, the judicial system in Britain is not geared to providing retribution for those affected by crimes, nor should it be - an eye-for-an-eye belongs in the dustbin that is The Old Testament.
An appaling act has been carried out by two chidren; I have no idea why they did what they did any more than you do, nor do I know what should happen to them - do you?
I do know that the 'rope-over-the nearest branch' solution is not one I'd want to contemplate (not put forward yet, but just lurking below the surface).
These threads always drag the usual stereotypes and caricatures out of the woodwork, from "it would never have happened in my day" Colonel Chinstraps, to the Matthew Hopkins school of law and justice - which one would you choose - if either?
And Keith's cut-'n-paste public displaying of the corpse in all his gory detail is yet another of his classics!
I don't know the whys and wherefores of this - do you think you do well enough to suggest a solution?
As little respect as I have for The Establishment I'm happy (and extremely grateful) to leave this one to the experts - it's what keeps that thin veneer between civilisation and barbarism in place, and long may it be there.
Richie Black is a knuckles-along-the-ground fascist with knuckles-along-the-ground solutions to the world's problems, and makes no effort to disguise the fact.
Jim Carroll