Why yello there readers (as sparse as you may be). I am feeling loads better today after last nights entry which turned out rather whiney. I have just recieved a forwarded message from Kirstie on Bebo that happens to be something that I sent to a load of people about a week ago. It is a message acting as a petition to try and get Jamie Bulgers killer named and shamed. Despite being a few years too late, over 600 people have signed the petition without question. I however got a bad vibe from it. The fact that so many people would happily hate these people that they had never met (,even though they appeared to have commited a horrible crime)seemed rather worrying.

I just got the feeling that these people were victims of media manipulation and that maybe I should make them think about the message more before they moronically decideing to jump on the safe bandwagon of uncategorically condemning these people my age, without really knowing very much about the case at all. As most of the correspondants wont have been political swots like me I doubt they can remember when this was in the papers about 2 or 3 years ago, let alone when it happened 8 years previous to that.

I wrote my own little piece, banged it on the bottom and sent it to my contacts list. I am only sad I didnt make it clearer that it was me who wrote it. Anyhoo I guess the claiming of praise is not as important as the message I was trying to get across.

Here is what I was sent:

"Subject ((
Sent 1 day ago
Do you remember February 1993 when a young 3 yr. old
was taken from a Shopping mall in Liverpool england by two
10-year-old boys? Jamie Bulger walked away from his
mother for only a second and Jon Venables took his
hand and led him out of the mall with his friend
Robert Thompson. They took Jamie on a walk for over 2
and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and
again to torture the poor little boy who was crying
constantly for his mommy. Finally they stopped at a
railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw
stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes and pushed
batteries up his anus. It was actually worse than
this...
What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie's
mother was FORBIDDEN to identify his body.
They then left his beaten small body on the tracks so
a train could run him over to hide the mess they had
created. These two boys, even being boys, understood
what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look
like an accident. This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss
has awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of
their lives when they leave custody with new
identities. We cannot let this happen. They will also
leave early this year only serving just over half of
their sentence. One paper even stated that Robert may
go on to a University. They are getting away with
their crime.
They disgustingly and violently took Jamie's life away
- in return they get a new life.
Please read it carefully...
then add your name at the end... and send
it to everyone you can! Please add your name and
location to the list and send it to friends and
family. Please copy this e-mail (highlight text, right
click, copy and paste into a new email) instead of
forwarding so we do not get arrows at the beginning of
the sentences.
If you are the 1000th person to sign,
please forward email to cust.ser.cs@gtnet.gov.uk and
attention it to Lady Justice Butler-Sloss. Then start
the list over again and send to your friends and
family. The Love-Bug virus took less than 72 hours to
reach the world.
I hope this one does as well. We need to protect our
family and friends from people like Robert and Jon.
One day they may be living next to you and your small
children, without your knowledge. If Robert and Jon
could be so evil at 10 years old, imagine what they
could do as adults!

PLEASE RE-POST OR E-MAIL TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS! WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN. MONSTERS AT 10...IMAGINE AS ADULTS?! KEEP THIS GOING!

IF YOU HESITATE FOR EVEN A SECOND...THINK OF YOUR SON, OR DAUGHTER, NIECES OR NEPHEWS! IT COULD HAVE BEEN YOUR CHILD!"

[924 people put their names along with the occasional comment such as "SICK FUCKERS!!"]



I added this to the bottom:

"Of course as my Mum reads the daily mail I know this story inside out, they love nothing more than to harp on about the "failings" of the British legal system.

Rather than putting my name to this I would rather provoke a little thought amongst you all...

First of all to clarify my point I think it is necessary to emphasise that I too think that this was one of the most heinous and disturbing crimes ever committed in this country. Nobody can deny that it was a truly horrific and terrible crime that the boys in question most definantly should be aprehended for and action be taken against them in accordnce with our justice system.

But

I do not wish to put my name to this survey. Allow me to explain why.

Apart from the obvious fact that this e-mail is completely out of date and the boys were granted annonymity several years ago, there are a few things that really bother me that so many people have put there name to this.

Whether you agree or not, the British legal system is one designed to rehabilitate as opposed to punish. You may or may not like this depending on your political views, nevertheless both boys have gone through the rehabilitation process. "They dont deserve it/as if it would work!" I hear you cry. Well, highly qualified specialists have deemed them fit for re-entry to the community, something they cannot do unless behaviour inside of prison has been exemplary and it is of the opinion of several specialist psycologists that they present no serious threat to the community.

As for the punishment bit, I do not see how spending 8 years in isolation, missing all of your teenage years and growing up an outsider with the knowledge that you have done something so disgustingly deviant and wrong haunting your conscience is "getting away with their crime". Even if they manage to build themselves a life outside of prison, they will never be truly happy. In order to protect their identities, they will not be able to keep in contact with anyone they knew before the crime. Their whole lives will be one big lie in order to keep their terrible past a secret.

Doesnt sound easy to me.

Another thing you may find interesting is that almost all murderers, child abusers and rapists have been found in their childhood to have suffered terrible traumas such as abuse themsleves or being witness to domestic abuse. I am not saying that this is a legitimate reason to commit any crime let alone the crime in question here, but it does point towards what is inevitably the reasoning behind the crime.

People who are able to do this at such a young age must inevitably have something fundamentally worng with them in their heads. This does not make them an evil person. We are all born with a clean slate. We are simply results of chemical balances in the brain and experiences. If both of these things are terribly wrong then frankly I think these people need help as opposed to villifying them and condeming them to a fate worse than death.

No sane and balanced person could have done this crime. I am certain that these boys must have had psycological problems that need sorting out. It is not productive for them or us to simply throw the "bad people" in a prison and leave them their for the rest of their lives at a cost of £20 000 a year to the tax payer. Instead why not invest this money into attempting to help them become memebers of society again so that they can contribute to the society that they have damadged so much?

I am not naive enough to think that this can be done with all or indeed most serious criminals but I think that we shoud try as it is simply the right thing to do. I see prison as a last resort for keeping unreconcilably damadged people away from society for the population's and their own sake.

To round this up, do I think that these two boys should be named so that some nutter can go and kill them thinking they are doing the world a favour? No. This is damadging to both themselves and to the work that has gone in to trying to repair these broken and deficient human beings.

By sending around emails like this you are simply amplifying the wishes of the right wing press. Dont be a pawn in their little game. They want you to be outraged so they can start a moral panic and sell papers.

I guess the real question is do I think that the boys should be released and granted anonymity? Frankly I dont know. How could I possibly know without meeting them and deciding for myself whether they are refomed people? I dont belive that I or you have the right to pass judgement on this case, particularly as our information on the subject comes from the press as propanganda to their own ends.

Please, make up your own minds either way. Just dont read this e-mail go "Those evil bastards should rot in hell for ever" without thinking about it first.

Dont be a piece in the chess game...."

I doubt the message will reach any further than my contact list but then I guess you never know. Ah it is nice to have an outlet for my views sometimes! It just annoys me how closed minded some people are. How can you cast such strong judgement on something that you barely know anything about?

It worries me that out of 924 people, I was probably the first to write anything contrary to what was desired.

*Gulp*