Should life be life?

Jul 7 2008 by Jim Hancock, Liverpool Daily Post

TO BE in a hall with at least ten people whose sons or partners have been viciously killed on Merseyside, is a humbling experience.

With gun and knife crime now such a serious issue, there’s hardly a journalist who isn’t writing about it or reporting it.

But writing and reporting isn’t like living with the anguish that the sudden violent loss of a loved one brings. Year after year of painful memories, rising to fury when the perpetrator is released to live the normal life denied to your own relative.

We had plenty of passion, along with many positive sentiments, in Toxteth last week at a major protest meeting to discuss how people can reclaim their streets from the gangs. At the event were people like Denise Fergus, Anita Culshaw and Gee Walker, whose lives have been irreparably scarred by the deaths of their sons.

The meeting heard from others, with similar experiences, who shared their pain with us. A recurring theme was complete disillusionment with the current sentencing system.

Politicians and the Chief Constable present were pressed to ensure that life should mean life. That courts and juries should be less willing to consider mitigating pleas. That Parliament prescribe specific penalties for offences, leaving far less discretion to judges and magistrates.

Those demands have widespread support, but they put public opinion in conflict with the practical management of the judicial and prison system.

Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle hinted at the problems prison staff would face if the population of lifers (prisoners with no hope of release) spiralled. And I’d expect judges to be in revolt if their role in applying the law, with years of learned experience behind them, was taken away.

Nevertheless, the Chief Constable did feel the Crown Prosecution Service set the bar too high when deciding whether to bring charges. "Test it in court" was Mr Hogan-Howe’s advice. He felt lawyers sometimes played games with the legal system rather than seeking justice.

Besides the pain and the calls for justice, the meeting also asked the difficult question: What can be done for the next generation of kids (and we are talking 0-7) to stop them being attracted into gangs?

Local community leaders said their voluntary work with children is now beginning to make a difference.

Wirral West Tory candidate Esther McVey stressed the central role of mothers in disintegrating families. On that point, and recognising that sometimes women walk away too, We let feckless fathers off the hook too easily. The problem of gang leaders replacing Dad is all too common.

Peter Kilfoyle was also frank enough to warn us not to rely on politicians to sort this out. As people filed out of the hall, their hope was that the arguments and ideas expressed would not just be used in a newspaper campaign, but that they could be a jumping- off point for co-ordinated community action across Merseyside.