I am full of praise for Channel 4 News tonight for its coverage of prisoners issues. All too often they are the forgotten members of the public hidden behind prison walls. Frances Lawrence did not come over too well, in my opinion. She was not truthful when asked why she had not forgiven Mr Chindamo. She claimed she did not know what forgiveness meant. She stated that she had been misled by those in the Criminal Justice System, to the effect, that Mr Chindamo would be deported upon completion of his custodial sentence. In my opinion, I believe that she was being truthful in this respect. Minister of Justice, Jack Straw, admitted that he had been one of those who had misled Mrs Lawrence. However, in his defence, he claimed that he in turn had been misled. When asked who had misled him, Jack Straw, pathetically, claimed that he had been misled by the system. The system is operated by people, only a person could have lied to him, if in deed this is the case. The system could not have misled him. Therefore, he had no excuse for misleading Mrs Lawrence.
Mrs Lawrence, in effect, said that she would commit suicide if Mr Chindamo was not deported. This is moral blackmail. Mrs Lawrence has become The Black Widow. She certainly sucked the likes of Iain Dale into her web of deceit. We have a history of not giving into terrorist's demands or paying out ransom money to kidnappers. When the IRA went on hunger strikes for their political demands the UK let them starve to death. By the same token, if Mrs Lawrence chooses to commit suicide then let her get on with it. She should not be allowed to get her own way by the reversing of the decision not to deport Mr Chindamo. If this did happen, he would have good grounds of appeal.
At least the former Minister on Channel 4 did admit why she could not forgive. It was because of her feelings of anger, hurt and hate. Mrs Lawrence, why don't you take a leaf out of the former Minister's book and start being truthful not only to yourself but also to others? Failing this, perhaps you would consider seeking treatment?
John, I only recently discovered your blog, but I drop in daily now. THis is incredible, it seems that the system has now become a personalised channel for pursuing individual vengeance which in turn provides cheap political points for the govt. with the emotive masses. As I said earlier on the BBCs have your say: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that a custodial sentence was to a) protect society from a possible danger, and b) to reform the perpetrator of the offence so that they can be reintegrated into society. NOT vengeance. The reason we have a criminal justice system is to avoid emotive reactions and the knee jerk philosophy. If our justice system is orientated towards appeasing this the we have lost our right to judge and ultimately the fight against crime." I stand by that. We all have personal opinions and personal axes to grind. In a rational system of justice, those emotions are irrelevant, and if we can't separate them then legislation will just be based on the fad of the day.
ReplyDeleteanonymous: Thanks for finding me and appreciating my different take on life and based upon truth rather than emotions.
ReplyDeleteThe media, gutter press, hype things up and then politicians knee-jerk in response and we get irrational legislation rushed through which does not solve the problem and only makes matters worse.
You are right. However, the irrational ones shout the loudest and reform of the offender tends to get forgotten about.
Some people accuse me of being unfeeling. I am not at all. By studying the law I was able to see how rational dispassionate decisions are better than irrational ones governed by emotions.
The IPPs legislation was based on a fad and is now coming unstuck in the courts. Prisoners cannot reform themselves if the system prevents them from doing so.
But reform is being denied by the legal system due to funding issues....
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