Letter: Capital way to stop violence (From Lancashire Telegraph)
When news happens, text LT and your photos and videos to 80360. Or contact us by email or phone.
Readers' letters RSS Feed Send your news, pictures & videos
Letter: Capital way to stop violence
12:19pm Friday 10th August 2012 in Readers' letters
READING the headlines about crimes where knives and horrific violence have been used, I would like to ask: Where is the deterrent in this country?
I would send out the strongest possible message by bringing back capital punishment, with a national database of everyone’s DNA.
I can hear do-gooders saying that it is against human rights, but murderers have been caught through DNA.
We have had a number of murders in recent years, and we have a police force which has less manpower, therefore not so much protection now for the public.
The fact is that no one is safe in today’s Britain. There are knives, guns and any other weapons you can think of which people will use. You only have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Let’s bring back hanging. This would make huge, huge savings to the taxpayer and make lots of room in our cosy prisons, and more importantly the punishment fits the crime!
Any MP or chief constable who would like to reply through the pages of the Lancashire Telegraph, please feel free to do so, because we, as members of the law-abiding club, want to know what is the strongest possible message, if any, that you are sending out?
Warren Hutchinson, Blackburn.
Comments(16)
Chris P Bacon
says...
6:38pm Fri 10 Aug 12
Firstly, we should be proud of the fact we don't live in a barbaric country that willingly kills people, unlike Iran, Iraq, China, Pakistan and the worst, most reprehensible backward countries in the world including some of the more disgusting of the United States. It will NEVER happen in the lifetimes of our great-great-great grandchildren so get off that nauseous soap-box.
But as for thinking we should regard the incompetent police (witness today's debacle over the finding of the body of the missing child in Croydon and the whereabouts of her grandmother's boyfriend!) as somehow worthy of holding our DNA! The worst thing about this is to believe there really will be 'no consequence' of your DNA being held on file. That's got to be even more stupid than the opening stupidity.
AndyW
says...
12:45am Sat 11 Aug 12
Chris P Bacon
says...
7:32am Sat 11 Aug 12
AndyW wrote:Because? Isn't it BLATANTLY obvious?
Because...?
You simply can't trust the police to hold such information. DNA information is extremely personal and valuable - whether it gets into the hands of criminals or insurance companies.
It has to be stored somewhere and 'looked after' by somebody. This is expensive and open to abuse or tempting to use for financial gain. Big Pharma and organised crime will be rubbing their hands in glee at what this could mean for them.
It's recently been seen that the undeclared cost of holding this information was colossally higher than previously declared. When a cost-benefit analysis was run, it was discovered very few crimes had been 'solved' by using DNA profiling and nowhere near being cost effective.
But lastly and most importantly, it is a gross infringement on civil liberties. While most people agree criminals convicted of serious crimes should have their DNA stored, the abuse potential of treating everyone in the country as a criminal-in-waiting is too horrific for words. I'm amazed people are gullible enough to fall for the power-crazed demands to implement this.
BritainfortheBritish
says...
10:11am Sat 11 Aug 12
Chris P Bacon
says...
10:17am Sat 11 Aug 12
BritainfortheBritish wrote:And proving even a stopped clock is right twice a day, sense is spoken by BftB above.
On the other hand if people have done nothing wrong why should they have their DNA taken ?????
Chico!
says...
12:15pm Sat 11 Aug 12
Oh hang on, wait a minute...
Rover85
says...
5:11pm Sat 11 Aug 12
Darwen Malc
says...
10:57pm Sat 11 Aug 12
Chris P Bacon
says...
8:27am Sun 12 Aug 12
Darwen Malc wrote:You do know this will NEVER happen. don't you? Brady and Hindley roamed the streets of Thameside for victims to kill in the full knowledge the rope was the end of that sentence. Brady regards himself as unlucky society saw sense and abolished it before they were caught. A kindness would be to kill him as he wants to die....but they won't let him. There's a greater punishment in keeping him alive.
How much does/did it cost us to keep the likes of Ian Brady, Myra Hindley, Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Huntley, Fred and Rosemary West etc, locked up but fed and watered and protected from other inmates over the years? Millions no doubt. Where there is definite, undisputable proof (DNA or otherwise) there should be death by lethal injection. None of this American idea of keeping them on death row for years, just put them down. After all, we do that with dogs, even if they haven't killed anyone! Sod the mamby pamby approach, we need deterrents!
Fred West outsmarted the prison authorities and despite their best efforts, he denied justice by killing himself. So too did Harold Shipman.
Your hope that capital punishment will be a deterrent and stop murders has been shown to be a wasted hope. Your optimism strikes me like junk mail addressed to the dead on that one. The countries who retain capital punishment tend to be the ones with most homicides. There's no surer way of increasing murders than bringing back the rope but you keep on in your impotent rage and see where that gets you.
Rover85
says...
9:13pm Sun 12 Aug 12
Chris P Bacon
says...
10:01pm Sun 12 Aug 12
Rover85 wrote:What he ^ said.
To many namby pamby right wing do gooders calling for murderers to be given the soft option of being let off the hook with a painless lethal injection, after which they will be spared the emotional pain that comes with the lifelong soul searching they might have to endure if kept alive and the constant memories of the terrible deeds they committed, what kind of life is that? Who would want such a life? not Huntley, not Sutcliffe - why give them a break. As for killing people for financial reasons, does that make you any better than the murderers themselves? At least they can claim they were driven by less rational and slightly more psychotic urges than being concerned about efficiency savings. Also you want to murder someone, does this not make you as bad as the murderer you want to murder? do two wrongs make a right?
Excluded again
says...
9:00am Mon 13 Aug 12
In the USA some states have the death penalty and some do not. There is no link between murder rates and whether a state has the death penalty or not.
Caspar the ghost
says...
9:50am Mon 13 Aug 12
In the IOM many years ago I have actually seen young thugs stop and think before an aggresive crime. The birch was in force and even the Glasgow young thugs were prevented by this threat alone.
midas
says...
11:43am Tue 14 Aug 12
Caspar the ghost wrote:Was there no violent crime when the birch was a threat?
Corporal Punishment would be a great start in early deterrance of aggressive crimes. Also it does not cost a lot of money and I'm sure that there would be enough volunteers to apply the birch. In the IOM many years ago I have actually seen young thugs stop and think before an aggresive crime. The birch was in force and even the Glasgow young thugs were prevented by this threat alone.
Ken Shuffles
says...
12:13pm Tue 14 Aug 12
AndyW says...
12:24pm Fri 10 Aug 12
If you are a law-abiding citizen, there will never be any consequence of the police/government having your DNA, but break the law and it will make it considerably easier for them to catch and punish you.
Only the guilty should fear this.