COMMENT For months, Peter Woodhams was plagued by something that didn’t even exist ten years ago - “low-level crime.”
It is a bizarre concept. Crime is crime and the lesson of history is that petty crime, if ignored, turns into serious crime.
That is what happened in the desperately tragic death of Mr Woodhams, a “brilliant, fantastic” young father living in east London.
Despite repeated complaints, police had failed to deal with a gang of yobs. Everyone knew who they were but the taunting, bullying, shoplifting and stone-throwing went on. And because this sort of crime is deemed to be low-level, no serious action was taken.
“Low-level crime” is a creation of Blairite spin-doctoring. All it means is crime that can be ignored.
In January Mr Woodhams was pinned to the ground and stabbed in the neck. Incredibly, according to his fiancŽe, it was weeks before police even took a statement.
No wonder that this gang came to believe they were untouchable. And now they have killed. On Monday Peter Woodhams dared to confront these thugs. One of them produced a handgun and shot him through the heart.
Now, at last, the police seem interested. An arrest has been made and an appeal for witnesses issued.
Too little, too late. Another needless death has happened and another family is left desolate and grief-stricken.
How many more times must it happen? Ignoring any crime merely stores up trouble for the future. When will they ever learn?
Magazine myth on true heroes
THE magazine History Today declares that the Battle of Britain, as taught for generations, is a myth and that the Royal Navy, not the RAF, saved Britain from Nazi invasion in 1940.
The new theory is that, even if the RAF had been wiped out, our glorious navy would have saved the day.
Try telling that to the survivors of the Royal Navy ships sunk by dive-bombers at Dunkirk. Or those who witnessed the wrecking of 26 warships by German bombers at Crete. Or the pitiful handful who survived the effortless destruction by Japanese warplanes of the Prince of Wales and Repulse in 1941.
In a modern conflict warships without air cover are sitting ducks. That is why Hitler was desperate to destroy the RAF before his invasion fleet set sail for England.
RAF fighter pilots (”The Few”) saved our nation. That is what we believed in 1940 and it still holds true today.
Henry Ford famously declared that “history is bunk”. He was wrong. History is not bunk but re-writing history can produce bunkum.
This article posted on August 24, 2006 at 5:21 pm.
Too little too late over crime
COMMENT For months, Peter Woodhams was plagued by something that didn’t even exist ten years ago - “low-level crime.”
It is a bizarre concept. Crime is crime and the lesson of history is that petty crime, if ignored, turns into serious crime.
That is what happened in the desperately tragic death of Mr Woodhams, a “brilliant, fantastic” young father living in east London.
Despite repeated complaints, police had failed to deal with a gang of yobs. Everyone knew who they were but the taunting, bullying, shoplifting and stone-throwing went on. And because this sort of crime is deemed to be low-level, no serious action was taken.
“Low-level crime” is a creation of Blairite spin-doctoring. All it means is crime that can be ignored.
In January Mr Woodhams was pinned to the ground and stabbed in the neck. Incredibly, according to his fiancŽe, it was weeks before police even took a statement.
No wonder that this gang came to believe they were untouchable. And now they have killed. On Monday Peter Woodhams dared to confront these thugs. One of them produced a handgun and shot him through the heart.
Now, at last, the police seem interested. An arrest has been made and an appeal for witnesses issued.
Too little, too late. Another needless death has happened and another family is left desolate and grief-stricken.
How many more times must it happen? Ignoring any crime merely stores up trouble for the future. When will they ever learn?
Magazine myth on true heroes
THE magazine History Today declares that the Battle of Britain, as taught for generations, is a myth and that the Royal Navy, not the RAF, saved Britain from Nazi invasion in 1940.
The new theory is that, even if the RAF had been wiped out, our glorious navy would have saved the day.
Try telling that to the survivors of the Royal Navy ships sunk by dive-bombers at Dunkirk. Or those who witnessed the wrecking of 26 warships by German bombers at Crete. Or the pitiful handful who survived the effortless destruction by Japanese warplanes of the Prince of Wales and Repulse in 1941.
In a modern conflict warships without air cover are sitting ducks. That is why Hitler was desperate to destroy the RAF before his invasion fleet set sail for England.
RAF fighter pilots (”The Few”) saved our nation. That is what we believed in 1940 and it still holds true today.
Henry Ford famously declared that “history is bunk”. He was wrong. History is not bunk but re-writing history can produce bunkum.
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