Report to the People
15th March 2004
Keeping in Touch
Last
March, James Herd was beaten to death whilst standing at a Glasgow bus stop.
He
didn’t know his killer and the attack was completely unprovoked. Not
only was it unprovoked, it was particularly brutal.
His assailant set about him with a metal pole, then proceeded to jump on
his head like, according to reports, “a trampoline.”
The
attacker was duly caught and convicted of murder. But, although the only possible penalty was a life sentence,
the killer’s age (he was 15 at the time) meant that a background report was
required before sentencing.
Clearly,
anyone who can commit such a crime is highly dangerous and should be locked away
from the rest of us for as long as possible. Not, as social workers who drew up the background report
considered, let off with a fine.
No
one could ever accuse me of being a legal expert, but even I know that a fine is
something you get for late return of your library books, not murder.
The judge, Lord Hardie (who is a
legal expert), agreed – publicly tearing a strip off the report’s authors in
court, accusing them of wasting public money.
What
I think this case, and the public reaction to it, shows is how out of touch some
professionals can be with the feelings and values of the communities in which
they work. There is, at times, a
gulf between what we want to receive and what professionals want to give us.
And nowhere was that more apparent than in last week’s Scottish
Parliament debate on the Antisocial Behaviour Bill.
For
years, way before it became fashionable, our decent, hardworking communities
have been demanding that action be taken against the sort of selfish, antisocial
behaviour which can make your life a misery. Every
consultation and every survey shows almost complete support for hard-line
measures. But some professionals and organisations refuse to
acknowledge this. They think
we’re making mountains out of molehills and dismiss the need for tougher
powers.
What’s
worse is that some politicians are ready to accept this – even arguing in the
debate that we should listen less to those who live in our communities and more
to those who just make their living from them.
Indeed, some of the more extreme MSPs went as far as to vote against the
whole bill.
Whether
they work in the justice system, a social work department, the NHS, or wherever,
professionals must have the trust of the public they serve.
Perhaps they could take a simple first step – keeping in touch.
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