The Police Didn't Kill Duggan, Compassion Did

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12th January 2014

We asked for it. We repeatedly voted for politicians who promised compassion. And now we have compassion coming out of our ears. And we moan that we don’t like the result. Yet we carry on with the same plan, madly expecting it to have a different outcome.

It was ‘compassion’ that abolished the death penalty for murder, so forcing us to arm the police – who had until then been guarded from violent criminals by the real threat of the gallows.

Look how compassionate that turned out to be. The lone armed constable in the dark and dangerous street now has to act as prosecutor, defence counsel, judge, jury, executioner and appeal court, and all in a matter of seconds.

No wonder the inquest jury in the Mark Duggan case ruled that this was a lawful killing. Which of us knows how he would act in such conditions?

And yet why is this bloody system morally better, more just, more kind, more proof against error than a jury trial with the presumption of innocence and the possibility of appeal and reprieve?

But we’re all so compassionate that, when we’re not bombing and invading foreign countries for their own good, we feign horror at the idea of bringing back the hangman.

There’s no logic to it. The liberal bombing of Baghdad and Belgrade unavoidably and predictably killed innocent human creatures. Yet the people who backed the bombing claim that the much smaller risk of hanging an innocent makes capital punishment unacceptable.

Because abolishing the noose is compassionate, the feeble logic of the abolitionists still triumphs. Try defending the death penalty in any ‘civilised’ gathering in this country and see how quickly you are sent to Coventry and dismissed as a Victorian monster.


And then we make ourselves angry at the spectacle of modern Britain on TV, the claimers of benefits turned into a sort of national entertainment.

But why do these unhappy, hopeless people exist? Who corrupted them, by offering them the chance to live in this dreadful, doomed way, while at the same time giving them no moral guidance or help?

We did, repeatedly electing governments that offered compassion to the poor, in the form of a welfare state with its moral heart ripped out.

Try suggesting that there is a difference between the deserving and the undeserving poor, in any public forum, and feel the temperature drop below freezing. And yet a welfare state which refuses to recognise this is bound to corrupt people into idleness and worse.

Roughly 50 years ago, beguiled by smiley reformers, we chose the wrong future. We adopted ideas which were mistaken and have proved to be disastrous.

We called them ‘compassion’. But who were we really being compassionate to? Not, as it turns out, to the poor we claimed to be helping. They suffer most from the compassion of our criminal justice system – which in 2012 was so compassionate it refused to imprison 28,997 offenders who had committed at least 25 crimes.


It is the lives of the poor that are blighted by anarchic schools that can’t teach, and by amoral handouts. It is their streets which are full of the drugs whose use we won’t punish. It is they who have been first to experience the abolition of fathers and stable families, which leads directly to the growth of criminal gangs.

All these policies were implemented in the name of compassion. But who were we being gentle to? Why, we were being nice to ourselves, sparing ourselves the hard and unpopular decisions and choices that make civilisation possible, like indulgent parents who mingle neglect with bribes, only on a vast scale. And we still are.

To hell with compassion. Give me good honest harshness any day. It’s far kinder in the long run.

PhilDidge wrote:

sphinx wrote:I did not ask you if the death penalty deterred crime I asked you whether it being present would change the black communities perception they were treated unfairly.
Of course it would change nothing, if already seen injustices happen and more were to happen and someone was executed wrongly, it would still not change the views and perceptions that the black community have of the Police which has built up over many years  

I have not said racism does or does not play a part (and while I may not know judgement on my skin colour I do know it on my relatives skin colour, and I know it on my health basis) I have said the perception of unfairness exists.
But it is also dealing with daily unfairness which you need to try and understand because of the colour of your skin.

Yes I know there is genuine discrimination.  Do you accept that there are also perceptions of discrimination where there actually is no discrimination?
There are many perceptions but the realty is of here know history of racism towards a community and by the Police

And what the fuck has the fact that the black guy walking down the street feels judged because of the colour of his skin got to do with poor people being affected by failing schools?  Would the guy be judged any differently if there were no failing schools?  Would he stop feeling judged if there were not any failing schools?  
What has failing schools got to do with any of this fucking argument on a black community who feel discriminated against by the Police? The fact is though we have one of the best education systems and schools in the world, the fact is he would be and still is judged whether there is or not failing schools. Jesus wept, you bring in things that have no relevance, a failing school does not even mean all pupils would be failing in that school, and you tell me about basic arguments  

For some reason best known to yourself you wish to focus on the black community.  What about the white community that provided the other half of Duggans parentage?

Yes who is equally angered over this, but what affect has this had on the white community? I am so glad you brought this up, because are white people continually judged for their skin colour? No, are they constantly discriminated against because of their colur? No, this might give a you a clue now how the anger has built up and yes he was mixed race and one half of that was black. Thanks that last point really brings home the reality of the issue  

Finally. The bit I have been trying to explain.

This thread is about the presence of failing schools not the Duggan thing. Failing schools are highlighted in the article in the first post.

The Duggan thing was simply the springboard used to explore areas of society including but not limited to failing schools.

That is all I have been trying to tell you.

sphinx wrote:

PhilDidge wrote:


Yes who is equally angered over this, but what affect has this had on the white community? I am so glad you brought this up, because are white people continually judged for their skin colour? No, are they constantly discriminated against because of their colur? No, this might give a you a clue now how the anger has built up and yes he was mixed race and one half of that was black. Thanks that last point really brings home the reality of the issue  

Finally.  The bit I have been trying to explain.

This thread is about the presence of failing schools not the Duggan thing.  Failing schools are highlighted in the article in the first post.

The Duggan thing was simply the springboard used to explore areas of society including but not limited to failing schools.

That is all I have been trying to tell you.

Sorry you have been going on about more than failing schools sphinx, hey ho I am confident on the reasoning behind many of the issues as I have stated already and doubt we will ever agree on this!


Right have a good evening sphinx, until the next bout or agreements as the case maybe!