Politics and religion.

[Miss Z]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I have a question please.

May I ask you a question about English Laws & customs . I read a column
on BBC about three people who had been sentenced for the death of a
child. The Police seemed to be saying that they need protect these criminals after
they served their sentences , and they will receive police protection. Is that normal
for England? They sure wouldn't earn any protection from society after
they were out of prison.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/8196143.stm

Ah yes, the baby 'P' case. A very sad story indeed, and one that our social services has received a lot of criticism over.

That is correct, once released from prison these people do have a right to call for police protection (although as far as I'm aware, it is for a limited period of time only. Quite how long that is, I don't know. It varies from case to case). This happens often in cases of a sensitive nature, particularly those involving children.

The 'idea' is that the criminals have served their punishment in prison, and that upon their release they are likely to be subject to further abuse and discrimination from the public, job interviewers, etc. In order for the people in question to continue with their lives without the risk of assualt, or worse, the police protection is there to ensure that.

I must say that in the majority of cases like this, those convicted are kept anonymous, thus police protection is not usually needed. However, for some reason or another, the anonymity request expired.

It's an issue that divides our nation, just as ES explained that gun laws divide America. Many people feel very, very strongly that ex-cons should pay the full penalty for the crime they committed, and should 'get what they deserve'. Others question whether that sort of attitude breaches human rights and that, if someone was wrongly convicted, which does happen occasionally, they would be subject to undeserved hatred and hardship for the rest of their lives.

It's another issue of perhaps considering compassion a little too much in politics.

Crime goes up when the means to defend yourself are taken away. The criminals dont care what weapons they cant legally have, making law abiding citizens victims.

I think in the UK it's more to do with a lack of fear of being caught and reprimanded. We have far less on-the-beat bobbies than we used to so this sort of crime is much easier to get away with. Also, we keep letting all our petty to moderate criminals out early on 'good behaviour' because we don't have enough prison space to cram them all in. I don't think it's got much to do with self defence, except in Manchester/London gang culture, which do not count for all stabbings.