The level of our support for our brave servicemen is daily news whether it be the defence review and spending decisions, enshrining the military covenant in law or caring for the injured.
War memorials do not normally feature in the news cycle except on days of remembrance. However following the shameful desecration of a memorial in my local park 2 years ago I found out that across the country local media reports the equivalent of one desecration a week.
When desecrations do reach national prominence, such as the defecations in Sheffield and Blackpool and more recently Charlie Gilmour’s abuse of the Cenotaph during December’s tuition fee protests, the clamour grows for the law to match public concern.
Unless the ancient law of outraging public decency is dusted off and applied, offenders who desecrate memorials can get away with a slap on the wrist for committing a supposed minor act of vandalism.
However these memorials are special and not like other public property. They are a constant reminder of the debt we owe to the fallen and provide continuity for remembrance passed down from generation to generation. Desecration shows a disregard and disrespect for those lives lost and the community’s history. It is why I have been leading a campaign calling for the law to give greater protection for war memorials.
The Justice Minister, Crispin Blunt MP, has now provided good news for the campaign with his announcement that he accepts the need to specifically recognise the gravity of desecration to war memorials. He is recommending to the Sentencing Council that war memorial desecration should be a specified aggravating factor when sentencing takes place.
This decision is significant beyond ensuring justice is done with sentences to fit the crime. It makes the fundamental point that when we make that solemn vow in front of a memorial at Remembrance Day it matters. As we approach the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War the recommended sentencing guidance renews a covenant with the fallen that we will remember them in the Courts as well.
( 4 comments ) Tags: Armed Forces, Blackpool, Cenotaph, Crispin Blunt, First World War, Remembrance Day, Sentencing Council, Sheffield
Comment by Carl on March 13, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Something needs to be done to stop the disrespect of some people, those who get pleasure in dancing on the graves of the fallen servicemen/women.
Comment by Tom I Balmain on March 16, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Those yobs should be given a strong sentence. In days of old the Police would have able to give them a clip round the ear and 100 years ago they would been put in stocks. It is a great pity these measures could not be re-introduced.
Comment by Dominic Kirkwood on March 18, 2011 at 2:01 pm
It is good to see that more and more of these vile desecrations are being brougt to the government’s attention. Our fallen servicemen and women have given their lives to make Britain the country it is today, and to disrespect them the way some of those student protesters did is absolutely foul.
Comment by Less tortured Englishman on March 23, 2011 at 4:05 pm
People who desecrate war memorials and war graves threaten the meaning of our memories of war; we memorialise wars so that people realise the nature and extent of suffering – some 55 million in the last one – and thus desecration is an even greater crime than the personal insult and tragedy of doing this to one private grave, because attempts to minimise, overturn or otherwise threaten our deliberate attempts at memorial place us in danger.
Tough punishments are thus appropriate. Very tough punishments