Wednesday 28 February 2007

Child and Anti-Police Crime

The petition is entitled consider bringing in tougher penalties for crimes committed against children and police and the explanatory notes say
"Persons who commit crimes against children should if found guilty spend a minimum of 18 years in prison and those found guilty of murder/manslaughter of children they should be given life with no parole and no release from prison. There should also be more done to protect our police by the courts of this land by giving out longer sentences to those who insult, assualt and even murder our police, it is time the government started to listen to the people of this country of what they want, and less heed to the do-gooders."

The explanatory notes seem to fall into three sections: the bit that worries about kids, the bit that worries about the police, and the bit that starts frothing about do-gooders.

Indeed, the petition feels like two separate concerns jammed together for no particular reason. I'm not as such arguing with either half (though I find myself wondering whether there are many criminals who commit "crimes against children" who really deserve a sentence of more than 18 years in prison, and whether it can really be justified for manslaughter to ever carry such a high penalty), I just wonder why the two are being presented together.

And then - how can it possibly be that "do-gooder" is an insult, a thing to be despised, a thing not to be heeded. Someone who does, or wishes to do, good. An insult. There's something wrong there. OK, OK, it has implications of "naive" and possibly also "ineffectual". But that in itself is a shame.

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