On August 6, Ronnie Biggs was released from jail.  Biggs was the last of the Great Train Robbers to face justice having spent 30 years on the run after being jailed for his part in a £2.3 million robbery in which a man was seriously injured and later died.

Biggs, who has never shown a flicker of remorse for his crime, only returned to ‘justice’ in 2001 when he became old, sick and needed to avail himself of the UK’s unlimited free healthcare (Sarah Palin just sat up in her chair).

On his release, Biggs showed his contempt for the system that had showed him compassion by issuing a sneering statement.

Later this week, the only person to be convicted of the mass murder of 230 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, was also released on ‘compassionate grounds’ to receive a hero’s welcome in Libya.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, had served around two weeks in jail for each person he killed.

The Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has justified his decision against a backdrop  of vigorous handwashing by Gordon Brown, and in essence has said that the Scottish Parliament was right to show compassion.

Salmond, then sneered at the US justice system for not having a ‘compassionate release’ policy, making all too clear the motivation of all of those involved in this decision: the strong desire to appear to be more moral than others.

By being compassionate to the likes of Al Megrahi and Biggs,  Salmond and Justice Secretary Jack Straw feel they have shown  themselves to be better than them.  They also show that they believe themselves to be better people than those that grieve for the victims of  their crimes, and cannot ‘forgive and forget’.

This insidious desire to wear the good guy badge, to show compassion for those that commit crimes and to wag the finger at victims who seek to have their aggressors  punished, is not only repugnant in it sanctimoniousness, it has a deeply corrosive effect on civic life.

There has been an ugly rash of vigilante crimes recently, where alleged  sex offenders have been killed in mob attacks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1725630.stm

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Paedophile-Named-By-The-Sun-As-Andrew-Cunningham-Stabbed-To-Death-In-Caravan-In-South-London/Article/200812215177959

These kinds of incidents happen because the general public no longer trust the police and courts to deliver real justice, and know that sexual offenders often receive light sentences.  The temptation to claim natural justice when people are told  with a straight face that the justice system is ‘not about punishment’ becomes overwhelming.

Justice,  in the real sense of the term, means getting what you deserve, and is supposed to create a system of controlled societal  revenge.  By knowing that criminals are punished, we put faith in the system to punish those that wrong us, instead of picking up a pickaxe handle and settling matters on our own.

When ‘justice’ becomes about ‘compassion’ and ‘rehabilitation’ instead of making criminals make amends for their wrongs, or when criminals are just an  opportunity for politicians to show how progressive and liberal they are,  then the public will lose faith.

Neither can the effect of deterrent be ignored. Violent robbery is rocketing in the UK. Ronnie Biggs was an unrepentant and violent robber, and there was a great deal of public good to be done by showing the young wannabe thugs who idolise Biggs as a hero, that the penalty for a life of crime is dying  in a lonely prison hospital bed.

If  those who pardoned the foul Ronnie Biggs or the mass-murderer Al Megrahi really want to show how strong and unassailable their sense of right and wrong is… a test will be coming soon.  The Moors Murderer Ian Brady is an elderly and sick man… will they deny a child murderer  the same compassion they have so readily given a man convicted of the murder of 270 men, women and children?