Sir, A thug who booted a police officer in the face, spat on two others and threw chairs, a suitcase, crockery and other objects down at them from a loft and who had previous convictions for assaulting police officers was recently jailed for seven months (Courier, May 2).
Seven months for all that and he had previous form for police assault that is far too lenient. He will be out in three months under the present soft system of punishment.
Our courts are much too easy on offenders who abuse and assault police officers. The very least the latter suffer from the public is a stream of abuse and foul language. Mostly, the officers just walk away and do nothing about the abuse.
I do not blame them, since taking abusers to court would give the police more hassle than the offenders who would more than likely be admonished.
Our courts must support and protect the police. They are the law-abiding public’s first and last line of defence against criminals.
If abuse and assaults on police incurred salutary punishment, including automatic jail sentences for assault, thugs would show more respect for the police and subsequently for the general public.
A driver who had neither driving licence nor insurance and who took a car without permission crashed into a Kinross shop front doing £25,000 worth of damage.
He was certainly banned from driving for 21 months and ordered to carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work and to sit the extended driving test, but what about the £25,000 damage? (Courier, May 3).
He should have been made to pay for at least some of the damage. It might have made him a little warier before offending again!
Zero tolerance of criminal behaviour is long overdue.
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
An unintended consequence for Reprieve UK
Sir, I have no sympathy for the American murderer Clayton Lockett whose execution was botched by the state of Oklahoma and resulted in his agonising death. After all, he had tortured, shot and buried alive teenager Stephanie Neiman.
Executions are normally carried out using three drugs one after the other, but they are now no longer available because Reprieve UK, which campaigns worldwide for the abolition of capital punishment, has been lobbying the EU, governments and pharmaceutical companies to stop supplying US Departments of Correction with these drugs. The result is that tried and tested drugs used since 1980 are no longer available to the US resulting in this botched lethal injection execution.
Far from abandoning the death penalty as Reprieve want, some US states are now considering resorting to the use of the electric chair and firing squads.
It is ironic that Reprieve UK were unintentionally instrumental in the agonising death of Clayton Lockett.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
No sympathy for evil man
Sir, Clayton Lockett died of a heart attack after his execution for murder was botched in the State of Oklohama. This was the cue for the bleeding hearts to call for the abolition of the death penalty.
Lockett was convicted of the brutal raping and shooting of 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman in 1999 and watching as two accomplices buried her alive. She suffered horrendously. Can I be excused for having no sympathy whatsoever for the nature of this evil man’s demise?
Daniel Arnott. St Brycedale Court, Kirkcaldy.
Shedding some lightning on it
Sir, Lightning could hold the source of life according to scientists atSt Andrews University(Courier, May 1).
Do I hear the crackle of high-voltage electricity as old Frankenstein rises to meet his creator?
Life, as we understand it to be, may not be the only form of this singular phenomenon, life may be likened to “time” with the present being our conscious condition; memory as a connection to past events; as regards the future, perhaps an afterlife!
It would seem that science alone cannot provide all the answers.
Kenneth Miln. 22 Fothringham Drive, Monifieth.
Call that led to a change of heart
Sir, I was interested to read in Mr Prentice’s letter (May 3) that the Yes campaign were providing information on the referendum.
I recently met a lady in the East Neuk who told me she had been minded to vote “yes” for separation and was therefore pleased to be contacted by a telephone canvasser from that campaign.
However when this potential supporter of independence asked a few questions about the whys and wherefores, the caller only repeated that thesematters “would be decided after independence”.
Not at all satisfied with these replies, and contrasting them with the assurances that everything would be lovely after a “yes” vote, the lady has now decided to vote “no”.
Jane Ann Liston. 5 Whitehill Terrace, Largo Road, St Andrews.