innerhippy

Two Thai fishermen were sentenced to death today after confessing to the rape and murder of the Brit Katherine Horton.

Horrific crimes like this can have a serious impact upon the tourism industry of any country, and would be especially catastrophic for Thailand that relies so heavily upon this trade. In an ideal world, the police would catch, try and sentence the perpetrators as quickly as possible in order to snuff out any doubt that future visitors may have over the safety of the country. And that's precisely what we got. Katherine disappeared on 1st January, the two men arrested on the 9th, tried on the 13th and sentenced to death on the 18th.

As this type of crime carries a certain death penalty, why on earth would they admit to it? Would you trust the eager Thai police with your DNA sample? Did they actually have a defence lawyer?

The whole process seems just a little too convenient to me.

The new acronym in town (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, 2005), was given a stern test last night by a bunch of fearsome, aggressive, militant…carol singers. This savage mob of Jinglebellers was attempting to test this ludicrous law to its limits by arranging a gathering of people to sing some carols. The test was whether the Police would interpret this gathering as some kind of "protest" and so chuck everyone in jail. Unfortunately for the blood-thirsty media, the police were far too busy mugging motorists to pay much attention, or just maybe they were told what idiots they'd look had they try to intervene.

Just in case you were not aware, those free spirited parliamentarians that you voted for, decided to create a law that makes any form of protest an offence, within 1/2 mile of the houses of parliament. Oh, unless you obtain prior permission from, erm…the police. Yes, yes, this really is Britain in 2005. I was having a good whinge about it to a hairdresser yesterday during my annual pre-xmas chop, and found he was genuinely quite astonished to hear that this law even existed. I then wondered how many other people live in this world of apathetic, blissful ignorance? Probably far too many. This still doesn't excuse him for giving me possibly the worst haircut I've ever had (and I've had some bad ones, believe me).

So, I thought I'd go and check it out. I managed to infiltrate these almost-protesters by cunningly disguising myself as a bloke who'd just left the office. Clever eh. I obtained a "carol service sheet" (no doubt a coded Al Qaeda training manual) and proceeded to sing deck-the-halls and other assorted gems for the next 60 minutes. My apologies to the lady in the red hat in front of me who's ears were at the same level as my gob. I suspect it was obvious that I hadn't sung a carol for years and her trauma was apparent by her constant necking of whiskey.

Brain Haw was ranting about not being able to rant, the diminutive and gutsy Maya Evans was there looking a bit startled with her recent accent to cause celebre status, there was also a lone hoodie, some young kids (tomorrows hoodies), me (an older hoodie) and the remainder of the 100 or so singers were just…..people, utterly normal people who happen to share a belief that what is happening is wrong. 100 people doesn't sound very much, but perhaps everyone else was too busy doing important stuff, like Christmas shopping or getting hammered at the annual office toe-curling party. But we all have an MP who represents us and a 10 minute letter with a 30p stamp can be surprisingly effective. But apathy's a very debilitating condition and I've found that it does go away if ignored for long enough.

Incidentally, every Sunday there is going to be a picnic outside the houses or parliament. Obviously this won't be a protest or demonstration of any kind. Just a nice little picnic…

There is a law in this wonderful country that was passed earlier this year that makes demonstrating outside the houses of parliament an arrestable offence. This can be found under section132 of the Serious Organised and Police Act and was brought in specifically against one man, Brain Haw, who has been peacefully protesting against the Iraq invasion outside parliament for the past 4 years. Unfortunately, the government screwed up a bit, and when the act became law, they still couldn't remove him because he'd started his protest beforehand. So Brain is still there protesting legally outside the houses of Parliament – the place which is, ironically, the embodiment of democracy to many.

Today, Maya Evans was found guilty of breaching this odd little law because of her own anti-war protest. This was held at a well known London monument, called the Cenotaph, and involved reciting the names of the British soldiers killed in Iraq, accompanied by the sound of a small bell being struck between each name. You may have noticed that the Cenotaph is indeed a war memorial itself (built in 1919, and is used at a certain time of the year to remember British soldiers who died in a different war), but because she now needs permission to protest within 1/2 mile of Parliament, she was arrested, banged up in a cell for 5 hours and now has to pay court fines. Oh, and she's also now the proud owner of her very own criminal record. I'm not totally convinced that this constitutes Serious Organised crime, but I'm no lawyer so I could be wrong. I also didn't consider Walter Wolfgang too much of a terrorist threat either, but I'm no policeman so what do I know.

And all because Tony Blair can't handle criticism.

In 1933, Chancellor Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution that permitted the suspension of civil liberties which included the expression of opinion. He didn't particularly like criticism either.

And now we have the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer stating that it is ridiculously overdone to claim that free speech is being undermined. I wonder what is his definition of free speech? The fact that this law was made in the first place because of a single person's protest is jaw-dropping. The fact the it has now been used against someone else is stomach-churning. The half mile democracy-free zone is sure to go the same way as Ken Livingston's congestion charge….get bigger…and bigger….and….bigger…

On Friday, WPC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead by armed robber in Bradford. This is tragic and very sad news and I sincerely hope that the people responsible are caught and brought to justice. Those that decide take up firearms to perpetrate criminal activity should be treated as severely as possibly within the constraints of our judiciary. If/when they are found they should be taken out of society for a very, very, very long time. Not only does this act as a deterrent to others who might consider using a firearms, it also rids us of one more low life from our streets.

But the reaction to this incident has been very odd. The BBC claim that the people in Bradford are "in shock" and are in "disbelief" that such a heinous crime should take place. I really don't understand this, surely people who are in the front line of catching criminals are the ones most likely to get hurt! Why are people so socked? There have been plenty of innocent people murdered by gun crime recently, so what makes the dead of a WPC so shocking?

And now the former head of the Met police, Lord Stevens, now states that the dead penalty should be reinstated for police killers. Is that because to kill a police officer is somehow a worse crime that to kill a lowly citizen? Are the police such super human beings that they should have their own set of laws? (perhaps we should ask the family of Jean Charles de Menesez…ouch).

I would also like Lord Stevens to consider if he'd be proud for this country to sit alongside the other countries that still permit the death penalty (Afghanistan, Cameroon, China, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Rwanda, USA…to name a few)

Yes, respect for authority is important, but when it comes to human life, we are all equal.