'Wring necks not hands' - UK MEP supports death penalty return
by Godfrey Bloom
I remember well the enormous impact the death penalty had when I was a youngster in the 1950s. Murder in the United Kingdom in those days was a rare event, while most Britons today under the age of forty have subconsciously accepted it as fact of modern life, somehow inevitable. This is simply not so.
Decadent, modern, mercantilist, pseudo-democratic states – that is, Europe and most of North America – have lost respect for the sanctity of human life. So poorly do they regard it that life imprisonment, which was promised as a substitute for the death penalty, has been left to wither on the vine as indeterminate sentences and modest minimum sentences replace it. It is far from unknown for murderers to be released in just seven or eight years and indeed kill again. Quite how the families of victims must feel as a result is beyond my comprehension.
A few years ago a colleague of mine was gunned down in his own house by a murdering, thieving swine who was already on bail for a violent offence. Obviously this low-life simply did not care. This contempt for society and human life was fatal. He and his ilk only understand one thing, and that is the enormity of just retribution by society against perpetration of these monstrous acts. Only by such an uncompromising response by the state can potential murderers be dissuaded from the ultimate crime. Such retribution successfully repressed the murder rate for generations before its shameful abandonment.
Statistics are impossible now to collate on the deterrence effect. What would have been murder forty years ago is often logged as manslaughter. For example: an old lady is bashed over the head for her purse, she temporarily recovers but dies a week later. Manslaughter. A husband goes into his front garden to protect the trashing of his car, and is kicked to death in front of his family by a gang of teenage thugs. Manslaughter. Bargaining by sharp lawyers gets charges altered in exchange for a guilty plea to a lesser charge. The statics become unworkable.
I hear all sorts of nonsense arguments advanced for the continued abolition of the death penalty. The ultimate is "it does not deter", as if that were measurable. John Stuart Mill made the point admirably in the House of Commons in 1868 that it was immeasurable but on the balance of probability it almost certainly deterred. I would urge everybody to Google it. It is unsurpassed. One might also argue that it is not healthy in a democracy to thwart the long standing massive majority in favour. This has always had a free vote in the Commons – meaning individual MPs can vote according to their own beliefs rather than stick to a party line – and political parties including my own have a loss of nerve when grasping the nettle of crime prevention.
Politicians who equivocate – that is, nearly all of them – must grow a backbone. It is necks that need wringing not hands. The state must take responsibility for its citizens' welfare before vigilantism raises its head and the respect for sentencing, already near to collapse, manifests itself in other ways. Of course it is all academic. We are bound by the Treaty of Lisbon and therefore cannot reintroduce capital punishment. We are no longer a self-governing country. But that is another story.
Godfrey Bloom is a UK Independence Party MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire
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Very impressive to read such a piece from the UK of all places. I wonder if you felt the same before your colleague's unfortunate passing? I've read about anti-death penalty activists finding themselves targets by the swine you speak of; whose views seem to take a new route afterwards. Many are raised to believe that capital punishment is unjust, and will fortunately never have a reason to change their views.
I do not believe Europe or the UK will ever reinstitute capital punishment. Even with such a disaster that occurred in Norway. I do believe that capital punishment is the best criminal deterrent that exists; simply because murder's murder for selfish reasons. I think someone that selfish would fear their lives more than others as they've already proved.
So now you have a country where murderers have more rights than honest citizens. I wonder when and how that change was made? It seems obvious that the USA is heading in the same direction. I'm fortunate to live in a place that strongly believes in the death penalty, and also believes in the right to bear arms. Well, for now I do. Our largest adversary trying to take these rights away from is 7700 kilometers away - I hate to say it - in the UK.
I can not imagine quarrelling with someone so far away. You would assume if one culture has that big of an issue with another's, while in no way affecting one another, they would just cancel them off their vacation list, but whatever. While capital punishment is nothing to be proud of; it certainly feels good to know my rights will be protect after they're violated, and my family will be able to find peace.
Clint Mear - USA
Let's take a good look at the results of the 'best-of-the-best' criminal justice system in the world, allegedly in the United States of America.
Since 1973, the 'best-of-the-best' criminal justice system in the world has so far discovered 139 mistakes that we know of - and there could be more. 139 death row prisoners - not simply one or two, but 139 - have been released from prison after evidence emerged during their appeals process of their innocence or wrongful conviction.
Most of the 139 innocent or wrongly convicted prisoners had been on death row awaiting execution for over a decade. This shameful high number of legal errors in the 'best-of-the-best' criminal justice system in the world, strongly suggests there have been other legal errors in the past that have not been discovered in time and innocent or wrongly convicted prisoners have been executed.
Nobody knows for absolute certainty how many innocent or wrongly convicted prisoners have been executed in the past. How does society pardon a corpse? There is no such thing as a 'perfect' criminal justice system.
Besides, capital cases end up costing taxpayers' much more money than life in prison without parole. This is fact, however it seems American taxpayers' are willing to pay millions of dollars each year, merely for the powerful bloodlust for revenge.
Dorina Lisson (ACADP) - Australia
I've never heard the US criminal justice system called the "best of the best" rather being facetious or not. The number of innocent people executed will vary in statistics depending on who is financing the survey, but judging from your initials I see there will be no point of arguing the pros and cons of capital punishment.
As I stated before; God Willing and the Creek don't Rise, you'll never run into a reason to change your mind Ma'am. While you continue your quest for human rights; try remembering the rights taken away from the deceased victims. I would hate to hear of you making such statements in front of a mom that lost her child to an unimaginable act of...
Clint Mear - Texas
Dear Dorina. Nowhere in this article from the UK does it mention the crimes committed. Take note if your stomach can handle it....
"Convicted in the abduction, rape and bludgeoning death of 16 year old Adria Saveda of San Antonio. Saveda was raped with a piece of lumber and her head crushed by a 35 pound piece of asphalt after being abducted from a party by Leal. Her nude body was found near a creek off Reforma Drive with a piece of lumber still protruding from her vagina."
While I know you are a good person that only wants to protect people there is no way in the world you can convince me this man did not deserve to die. Do you think his crimes were not mentioned so people would pay more attention to his rights?
Clint Mear - Texas
A remarkable piece of shoddy argument: emotive, full of loaded language and logical fallacies, based on personal opinion rather than solid evidence, and failing to consider the opposition in any but the most trivial way. Good for analysis in a secondary school critical reading class, but I am saddened that people so little skilled in argument get elected to the UK parliament. Perhaps this is all part of the rot Godfrey Bloom is talking about.
John Harbord - Budapest
Well said Godfrey telling it how it is. Capital punishment must and should be reintroduced, and it's vital that happens - but as you've pointed out, we currently have our hands tied by the chains of Europe.
Leaving Europe would be the first step in redemption for the United Kingdom. It's time the British Lion breaks loose from its dictating captor and finally reintroduced its self as a fully redeemed and respected force to be reckoned with. God Speed.
Ryan Lockwood - Scissett, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
