Bruce Anderson

New laws are not going to make us safer

New laws are not going to make us safer

There is a contrast between John Monckton and almost everyone who has written about his murder. He was better prepared for his death than they were. He believed in divine grace and in eternal life. He was certain that the victories of evil are transient and that good will ultimately prevail; that death shall have no dominion. He knew that his Redeemer liveth. John Monckton had lived in charity. He died in hope and in faith.

Those of us in the valley of the shadow of the death of faith have no such comfort. This is part of the reason for the intensity of the response to Mr Monckton’s death. To those who believe that life is not a dress rehearsal but the first and final performance, such a premature death is hideous. Though it is not a thought which we care to dwell on, we know that le dernier act est sanglant — but not, surely, as early as 49.

Yet the emotions unleashed by John Monckton’s murder cannot solely be explained by the collapse of teleology into longevity. His stab wounds heightened fear and dramatised vulnerability. Send not to know for whom the sirens screech. Next time, it could be for thee. The crime laid bare the failure of the authorities in Britain today.

In the hierarchy of rights, the right to order yields precedence only to the right to life. No right, including the right to life, can be taken for granted in the absence of order. In a modern context, this means safe streets and secure homes. But that is a right which hardly anyone in Britain now enjoys. In some areas, the criminal has dominion.

This is not inevitable. If we can send space probes to Mars and penetrate the mystery of the subatomic particle, why should the crime problem in London be so much worse than it was a century ago? There is a simple answer.

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