Harper’s Law – Justice or Revenge?
‘No real justice’ is the anguished cry of a police officer’s widow.
Appalled at the decision not to prosecute the youths responsible for P.C. Harper’s death for murder, she is now calling for a change in the law. This change would automatically ensure that anyone responsible for the death of emergency service staff would be charged for murder, nothing less.
Appalled at the decision not to prosecute the youths responsible for P.C. Harper’s death for murder, she is now calling for a change in the law. This change would automatically ensure that anyone responsible for the death of emergency service staff would be charged for murder, nothing less.
I am unclear what difference that would make. It’s so easy for us to muddle justice with revenge and even easier to confuse hate with hurt.
Goodness, how that loss must be hurting her & all those people close to him. But will spending 20 years in prison ease that dire agony of loss? Or 25? 30? 100?
It’s no secret that I’m an advocate for a restorative approach rather than one that has punishment and retribution at its core.
When there is conflict between people, whether directly between them or the property they own, what is it that has been damaged and what is being restored?
To me, it’s the harm done to the relationships between us, which is the very essence of the trusting connection between us. When that fundamental trust between us goes missing or gets damaged by our words, actions or both, then what? The typical response in our current criminal justice system is to punish those deemed to be guilty by imposing a fine or taking away their liberty for varying degrees of time. And, sadly, as an ex-school teacher, the same approach is common in most schools.
The consequence? For some, yes, it does deter. For most, what I believe it does is to ensure not that a person will not re-offend but they will not get caught re-offending. Teaching and learning deceit.
What’s the alternative? How to restore trust, repair damage, make amends?
Not by separating those harmed from those who have harmed but bringing them together, with their consent, to hear the pain, the anguish or whatever needs to expressed by the harmed to those who have harmed. To allow for regret, apology, remorse, perhaps even forgiveness. If not at the time then perhaps further down the road. Repair can be thought of like this: re-pair.
It’s more likely to be a salve to the wounds of loss, if never a certain one, than the punitive methods we continue to employ.
What I love is showing you how to move from conflict to connection, from argument to agreement in ways that mean everyone gets what they truly desire.