Two items of news made me want to right this blog today and unfortunately both are focused on death.
The first was the rather shocking news of the tragic loss of at least nineteen people dying in the Berlin Love Parade. I’ve been to the parade several times since 2000 and have enjoyed it immensely. It is one of the best free festivals in Europe and unlike many others the music is always of a high quality.
Yet as each year passed more and more people attended and it was that reason alone that I no longer took part. My last year was, I think, 2006 and it was like you were being pushed along a wave, you were powerless to stop moving and I lost count the times I became detached from my friends.
So I read with sadness today the tragic loss of at least nineteen people who were trampled to death in a tunnel. The mayor of Berlin estimated 250,000 people would attend where in reality it was more along 1.4 million. Now this is not an oversight, this is a gross miscalculation of security and safety.
Somewhere, somehow something went tragically wrong and though it is purely a tragedy someone must be held accountable for this. It’s not the way the parade should be remembered, the parade was a celebration of music, love, good times and I have many good memories of this wonderful event. What makes it even sadder is that this is the last time the event will be held. But in reality it is the right decision. I will miss the parade a great deal.
Secondly was the appalling death of a man in London earlier this year. In these times we are witnessing more and more CCTV footage of people being murdered in London. This footage however was simply horrific. Two teenage boys “happy slapped” (where someone slaps someone hard and then films it on a phone) a grandfather who hit the floor and suffered fatal head injuries and died a week later.
What made this attack more sickening is that it happened right in front of the mans three year old granddaughter. The footage of her crying over her stricken grandfather’s body is something I never want to see again and I am certainly not going to show it here. But it is the rather lame and light sentences handed out to the two that were found guilty.
After both pleaded guilty to manslaughter in June one youth was detained for four years and the other for three and a half. With good behaviour they could serve less. I’m sorry but that is just outrageous. They coldly killed a man in front of a three year old girl and laughed about it.
Give the bastards life. Sorry if that sounds harsh but it’s one of the reasons that I am leaving the UK. I’m sick to the back teeth of criminals doing the most serious of crimes and getting away with lenient sentences.
Crime in the UK is out of control and unless the new coalition government, the judicial system and police forces have a radical shake up then, I’m afraid to say, we could be living in a lawless society.
