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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Pc Andrews law - automatically give the killers of hero's 20 years with no early release

167 replies

pctmmn · 06/08/2020 15:29

Seems like a good idea to me, I hope his mum and wife manage to get it pushed through parlement.

Anyone that kills a police/nurse/army worker should get a guaranteed long term as these people put their lives on the risk for society and some of the sentences are a joke

OP posts:
YesINameChangeEveryDay · 06/08/2020 15:31

Surely that's saying that these people's lives are worth more though?

GnusSitOnCanoes · 06/08/2020 15:31

Completely disagree. Cases should be tried on their individual merits.

SignOnTheWindow · 06/08/2020 15:32

Better to pay them more while alive, surely?

Original poster
pctmmn · 06/08/2020 15:33

No it's recognising that these people risk their lives every day for the public good.

The petition is nearly at 400k sigs

OP posts:
PersonaNonGarter · 06/08/2020 15:34

Sorry - there shouldn’t be a grading of the value of life with police rated highest.

confusedfeelingss · 06/08/2020 15:34

I'm sorry but I disagree. This should be the case for anyone that gets killed, regardless of their job.

By doing this, it's saying the lives of police, military and nurses are worth more than others who contribute just as much to society. After all, would we have those people in those jobs if it wasn't for teachers? What about farmers that provide food? Supermarket staff that work to sell food? Delivery drivers? The list goes on.

It should be a basic rule for someone who takes anyone's life that they get a mandatory sentence like that

sadpapercourtesan · 06/08/2020 15:34

No, it's a preposterous suggestion. Not thought through at all.

There are no "heroes".

HJ372 · 06/08/2020 15:35

Nah. I'd prefer 20 years for all pedos and rapists.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr · 06/08/2020 15:35

Why fetishise a particular career choice ? Pay people fairly and apply justice equally.

Haenow · 06/08/2020 15:35

YABU. A life is a life.

pinkbalconyrailing · 06/08/2020 15:35

yabu

what's a hero anyway?

TheAquaticDuchess · 06/08/2020 15:35

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to justice that could be workable. Judges have the skills and experience to appropriately sentence criminals. I’m happy to leave it in their hands.

AltogetherAndrews · 06/08/2020 15:36

Mandatory sentences are always a bad idea. Things must be judged on a case by case basis.

Northernsoullover · 06/08/2020 15:36

I don't agree either. Terrible as it may seem.

blurpityblurp · 06/08/2020 15:36

What happened to P.C. Andrews was a horrendous tragedy but I don’t agree with such an arbitrary law. Working a particular job goes not automatically make you a hero. I’m worried for example, if a battered wife kills her policeman husband in self-defence (police have much higher than average rates of committing DV), would she automatically get this 20 year sentence? If someone who happened to do one of those jobs was killed but the killing had nothing to do with their job (drug deal gone wrong for example), would this law still apply?

We’ve seen so much overt racist abuse, violence, and outright cold blooded murder lately from American police - and the British police are hardly immune to racism - I’m very concerned about the long term ramifications of putting them on a pedestal.

blacktop · 06/08/2020 15:37

Anyone that kills a police/nurse/army worker should get a guaranteed long term as these people put their lives on the risk for society and some of the sentences are a joke

Anyone that kills anyone should be guaranteed a longer term than we currently see.

They are having the wrong fight, and they won't win. We need tougher sentencing, yes, but we need it based on the crime, not who the crime is against. What an awful way to devalue people's lives

katmarie · 06/08/2020 15:38

Plenty of people risk their lives daily for the public good in their professional roles. Are we including oil rig workers, deep sea fishing crew, motorway construction crews? All very dangerous jobs. I don't think you can place more value on one person's life than another when it comes to criminal sentencing rules. Or we just run the risk of creating a tiered society.

Pinkflipflop85 · 06/08/2020 15:38

Yabu.

GladAllOver · 06/08/2020 15:39

I think there is a valid argument that those who deliberately face danger for the public good should be protected by a greater deterrent to deliberate harm. That is not the same as saying their lives are worth more.

GinWithASplashOfTonic · 06/08/2020 15:40

Yabu

Who's job will it be to decide who gets to be a hero and who isn't?

Blue565 · 06/08/2020 15:40

Wow, this is very poorly thought out.

How do you define a hero? So if just a normal random person was brutally murdered the perp should just get 10 years?

ftm202020 · 06/08/2020 15:40

No! A police officer's life isn't more valuable than mine or my families! Sick of this heroes bullshit that coronavirus seems to have generated. People should be punished for murder appropriately, not given a lesser sentence depending on the victim's occupation.

Original poster
pctmmn · 06/08/2020 15:41

@GladAllOver

I think there is a valid argument that those who deliberately face danger for the public good should be protected by a greater deterrent to deliberate harm. That is not the same as saying their lives are worth more.
Thank you. I think you get it 👍
OP posts:
NoWordForFluffy · 06/08/2020 15:41

@GnusSitOnCanoes

Completely disagree. Cases should be tried on their individual merits.
This. Totally.
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr · 06/08/2020 15:41

it’s the sort of bobbins that performative poppy wingnuts would endorse, the mythologising of career choices by conflating them with some weird notion of patriotic heroism