Rant Number 4
I didn't have to think a great deal about todays rant.
It came to me early this morning whilst I was practicing my early morning ritual.
After rising from the bed and fetching my clothes, I like to watch the news and find out what's going on with the world, the weather and the traffic.
Rarely does the news at this time of day move me terribly. In my half awake state - it is hard to rouse me from my stupor, and the news at this time is generally by necessity quite light.
Not so this morning
Stephen Lawrence was a name that was thrown around a lot when I was a child, on the news, in newspapers and in the conversations of everyone around me.
An unlucky boy walked along the wrong street at the wrong time, met 5 deplorable pieces of human filth and was stabbed to death and left to die. This was not a unique case in a time when racial tension was rife however, the way that the police dealt with the initial investigation (badly) and the dignity with which Stephen's parents tried to salvage some good from this tragic loss - to publicise a more equal britain made this case unique.
19 years have passed by now and finally, evidence has been produced in order to punish two of these five appalling and disgusting individuals.
A time for justice then surely?
Not quite
My anger you see is not only directed today at these two scum, but at the authorities insistence on finding ways to lessen the punishments handed down to them.
You see, despite the fact that these men are 35 & 36 respectively (bear in mind my friends that this is at the very least 17 years more than poor Stephen ever got) and that 18 years have passed now since that tragic day back in 1993 - they are to be tried as minors - meaning that a cushier sentence can and 'must' be handed out. As such only a sentence of 14 & 15 years respectively has been given to these persons.
The judge's hands were of course 'tied' by legal president and red tape, as even Stephen's poor mother admitted.
Which makes it all OK doesn't it?
NO!
At the very least, surely additional charges for wasting policing time, perverting the course of justice or something could have been added, or an exception made in light of the situation?
I am disgusted that something more can not be done. 15 years is not enough after leaving that poor family without any form of closure for all this time.
The Lawrence's sentence really is for life - a loss that is like a raw wound every time this story surfaces.
More should be done, more could be done - but nothing more will be done.
The whole thing makes me livid.
Rant over.
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