From: Phil Payne 

> Keith Hellawell, a former chief constable for West Yorkshire Police,
> told BBC News the death penalty should be reintroduced for people who
> kill police officers.

> He said: "We ought to make it clear to people that if you shoot a police
> officer you are going to hang if you are convicted."

> Welcome to the real world.

Not going to happen in the current environment.  There has been a continual
background of stories about police abuses over the past few years -
confiscated drugs going missing, regular speeding in non-emergency cases,
parking on double yellow lines to fetch fish and chips, etc.

And then there are the speed cameras shooting out of the ground like weeds.

General sympathy for the police is at a pretty low ebb - requests for yet
more special treatment are likely to meet with a cynical response.

A more general introduction of the death penalty is a more interesting
issue.  Obviously it would be a problem with the EU - I don't think any of
the major EU powers now have the death penalty.  And there'd be a serious
issue with the appeals system:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1760754.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/14/newsid_2543000/254361
3.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/19/newsid_2490000/2490
039.stm

With the death penalty, we'd have murdered them all.

--
  Phil Payne
  http://www.isham-research.com
  +44 7785 302 803
  +49 173 6242039

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