Saturday 31 January 2009

A Police State ? Are we moving in that direction?

From the BBC and the Guardian web site:

Nail-bomber given life sentence

This story about Nicky Reilly frightens me because of its lack of understanding of a vulnerable simple minded man who has been victimised by the attitude of an uncaring police and judge.

"Nicky Reilly has Asperger's syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder, it emerged. But the judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, rejected defence applications for him to be transferred to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital for further assessment before sentencing. He declared that the defendant was aware of his actions and their consequences."

The police stated
"He acted alone, he clearly had vulnerabilities around Asperger's Syndrome but we would say he was not radicalised and acted under his own steam. "

Obsessive behaviour

Friday's hearing was briefly adjourned earlier as Reilly's mother Kim broke down in tears in the public gallery.

The court heard that Reilly's mother had taken her son to see a psychiatrist at the age of nine because of obsessive behaviour and temper tantrums. He felt rejected by his father and later by a girl. He began to self-harm, took an overdose at the age of 16 and was admitted to hospital after stabbing himself in the leg.

The court heard he struggled to make friends and had a low IQ of 83. He came across Islam on the internet and embraced extreme versions of jihad. He converted and changed his name in 2004. His doctor became so worried about his expressed desire to become a terrorist that he approached the police. A planned meeting, however, never took place.

A suicide note left in his bedroom described how he was motivated by the "disgusting" behaviour of people in Britain as well as the "war on Islam".

Reilly came from a "loving and fairly normal family unit" but was "seduced" by a cause he "wrongly and almost fatally interpreted and probably never understood", said the judge.

Does his behaviour warrant an 18 year sentence?

How will this inadequate human being cope with a prison sentence?

This is justice gone mad.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's people who think like you who have brought this once great country to it's knees.It's time for a return to discipline and respect and the quicker we return to Capital and Corporal punishment the better!!

Geoff Dellow said...

Please explain.

I would really appreciate your reasoning.

What I am in favour is discipline and respect.

The community surrounding Keilly did not appear to be helping with the discipline. Discipline needs to be in the family and the surrounding culture to support someone with problems.

You don't produce discipline by having harsh punishment. You achieve it by contact on a daily basis from the day someone is born; by encouraging responsibility.

Doesn't harsh punishment lead to distrust and fear; to polarisation of communities into black and white instead of various shades of grey?

Are you saying that the court was showing respect for a struggling mother and a person with mental problems?

Anonymous said...

Respect for the Mother doesn't come into it..some sympathy maybe..but...the Court has done it's duty in protecting the innocent from this nutter for years to come!!The cost of keeping him now is going to cost us hundreds of thousands, whereas the noose costs only the rope and the Hangman's wages, and serves as a huge deterrent to those who believe that life is worthless and can be taken cheaply. Would you still have this misplaced angst if the bomb had gone off and ripped apart the bodies and lives of so many innocents. Would the mindless thugs that murdered a young father in front of his child have done it if they knew they were going to swing?? Whereas now they would hide behind social deprivation whilst there are plenty of "bleeding hearts" like you, ready and willing to spring to their defence...it just makes me ill and angry!! Oh, and by the way "You don't produce discipline by having harsh punishment"...Look to the history of the Royal Navy for your answer to that one! The most highly disciplined fighting force in the history of the Planet alongside of the Zulu's!

Geoff Dellow said...

And as I understand it, the Navy don't operate the way you imply.

I know someone who has been involved with Navy discipline.

They have someone who enforces the rules which are very clear and someone who sympathises with the wrong doer so that they understand why they are punished.

Some excellent families work in this way one parent disciplines and the other sympathises what a hard world this is.

I believe children should be brought up with a similar discipline to training dogs - which I'm quite good at. You spell out exactly what you want and you reward for good behaviour (I never got into this mode when I brought up mine and I was always criticising which didn't work). The worse you do is ignore them until they figure out what they need to do.

So have you brought up kids and does your system of harsh punishment work?

Do we have few people in our prisons because the criminals are afraid of losing their freedom?

Do you think that the Israelli way of dealing with the Palestinians will succeed?

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have brought up 3 of them, and they're doing just fine, in fact, my Grandchildren are equally as well behaved and polite.The lessons of History seems to,conveniently, pass you by! Yes! I am with the Israelis all the way..absolutely...they are the front line of our defence against the radical Muslims!!

Geoff Dellow said...

My question was whether you believed their harsh punishment of Hamas was succeeding (I think you do)in stopping them firing rockets. . . or do the Arabs just feel even more determined. Perhaps they feel they've nothing to lose.

Some world leaders wonder whether Israeli actions will lead to even more attacks on 'soft targets' like ourselves.

Meanwhile our police and politicians get jumpy and we lose our civil liberties for 90 days and end up mistakenly on the wrong side of the law.

Monitoring all emails, has been suggested.

Proposing the return of capital punishment could be seen by some as very non-politically correct and could lead to the police knocking at our door!