Lord Stevens calls for death penalty.
Is the life of a police officer more valuable than the life of a lesser mortal? Lord Stevens seems to think so. Writing in the News of the World yesterday the former head of the Metropolitan Police argued that 'killing a police officer is different' from killing anybody else. Justifying his view, Lord Stevens noted that officers of the law 'are people you and I have elected' to enforce the rules of our society and protect us from those who break these rules.It would be foolish to completely disregard the point, it is true that police officers sometimes take great risks in order to protect society from the evil minority. I definitely did not elect them to do this, as I haven't known any officers personally since my teenage days and anyone getting paid to enforce the law did not get helped into that position by me. But still, I realise what Lord Stevens is saying here, to a degree.
However, there are many in society who undergo no small risk to their personal safety or well being for the good of others, should they not also benefit from Lord Stevens' umbrella of privilege? That a man who has seen many a murder in his time and has always maintained an anti-death penalty stance should now reverse his opinion because a member of the police has been killed is outrageous. What about firemen, I wonder. The murder of an off-duty fireman in a street robbery would presumably only require ten years behind bars in order to be compensated for.
Even that is not the real point. When a person applies to be a police officer they do so knowing the risks. They do not become 'special' members of society who deserve any different treatment to the rest of us. Any death is of equal importance, and the police view that the murder of an officer is somehow worse is a telling one. After the Broadwater Farm Estate riot of 1985 where police constable Keith Blakelock was killed there was huge outcry. To this day, telling someone you think the death of PC Blakelock was tragic but not exceptional is guaranteed to result in horrified expressions. A resident of the estate appeared on the news some time ago asking why he should feel more grief for Blakelock's death than the death of a member of his community.
Until the police force realise that they are not some kind of ethereal enforcers of justice located somewhere between God and the rest of humanity they will continue to suffer the contempt of many and the mistrust of even more.
posted by Phu @ 12:11 pm
2 Comments:
Even Ian Blair quoted Robert Peel's famous "the police are members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen".
I don't actually wish to knock the police, I agree they do a very tough job, often very dangerous indeed, it's just these political elements with ex-chiefs like Stevens and current ones like Ian Blair and the way the police get used politically that make me quite alarmed. They had a very tough time after the MacPherson report which was way over-used and misused probably as way of creating something else.
And today, well there are so many problems in the world and this war-on-terror fetish is just one factor...
thanks for the link btw!
No problem, I really liked your blog.
Post a Comment
<< Home