Who can fail but to be deeply moved, if not humbled, by the magnanimous words of compassion spoken by the mother of sixteen year old Jimmy Mizen, London’s latest teenage murder victim?
They were directed at the family of her son’s suspected killer, another local teenager for whom the police are searching and whose family the victim’s own are believed to know.
Speaking outside the school of her deceased son, after a special mass for those leaving it that he would otherwise have attended, Mrs Margaret Mizen said:
"You can imagine, that’s their child, they held that boy in their own arms as a baby. They must be in pain. It’s so painful that their child has been so cruel and so wicked.
"There’s so much anger in the world… It was anger that killed my son… If I am angry, then I am going to be doing exactly the same thing as this young man."
Out of respect for the mother of the deceased, all those, like the present writer, who might otherwise have been sorely tempted to feel anger on her behalf, and on behalf of all the victims of murder and their families to have occurred in London since the start of the year, should for once instead pause and consider just why it is happening.
Yesterday’s BBC's Newsnight programme explored this question, as did in more depth a parliamentary debate held as recently as the end of last month. They make for sobering viewing and reading.
But there is one point which, at the risk of raising the hackles of some, I should like to make in the spirit of Mrs Mizen’s saintly example. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
We have heard how the new mayor of London plans to make a reduction in knife-crime a priority, and so he should. Yet, in his youth, like David Cameron, another man who had had every advantage in life, Boris Johnson was not unknown to have got on the wrong side of the law and to have indulged in a little gratuitous violence himself.
It was not in the mean inner city streets of London that Mayor Johnson and the right honourable Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition let off the steam that put them on the wrong side of the law. It was rather among Oxford's dreaming spires as members of the notorious Bullingdon dining club, much given over to trashing restaurants after drunken dinners booked under false names.
Despite having expressed gratitude for "the blissful sponge of amnesia [that] has wiped clean the slate of memory", Mayor Johnson has managed to recall one such incident from that era when a fellow club member, now a top city lawyer, had thrown a plant pot through a restaurant window and the police had been summoned:
“The party ended up with a number of us crawling on all fours through the hedges of the botanical gardens, and trying to escape the police dogs.”
Mayor Johnson did not escape arrest and, along with several other club members also arrested, was obliged to spend the night in police custody. “Once we were in the cells we became pathetic namby-pambies”, said the Mayor.
Of course, the scale of their misdemeanours does not begin to match that of Jimmy Mizen’s killer. But, then, unlike him, David Cameron and Boris Johnson had had every advantage in life, including an Eton-Oxford education.
If theirs is the behaviour of the very most privileged, that of those far less privileged than they becomes, if not exactly less reprehensible, something over which we should be slightly less hasty simply to vent our fury.
All manner of explanations can be given for the epidemic of knife crime currently afflicting the nation’s capital. They range from family breakdown and the absence of male role models for young boys, poor housing which forces them onto the streets, lack of adequate youth services, exclusion from school, inadequate law enforcement … the list is endless.
In the spirit of Mrs Mizen’s words, I should like to end by quoting some words which offer a deeper and simpler analysis of the cause of the problem than any spoken on last night’s Newsnight or in Parliament last month. They were addressed to the children of Israel by Moses on the very last occasion he spoke to then before his death. That, you may recall, he was condemned to suffer without reaching the Promised Land because as punishment for having been led to disobey God’s command through anger.
In words that still resonate to me across the centuries, he said to them:
‘This commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven …. Neither is it beyond the sea.... But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
‘See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God ... by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply. And the Lord your God will bless you.… But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, … I declare to you this day, that you shall perish… I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him.’ (Deuteronomy 30)
I don’t say it’s always easy to do as Moses bid his people that day. But if all were at least to try, I’m sure that the world would be a far better and safer place than it is.
Why is his teaching and the rest of the teachings of the Good Book no longer adequately taught in all our schools today from the very earliest age, as it was and still is at Jimmy Mizen’s. That’s where I’d be beginning my examination of the causes of where, as a society, we are going wrong today.
Comments (6)
Personally, if he was my son I'd hunt the murderer down like a dog and hang him from the nearest lamp post. Mrs Mitzen should leave the forgiveness to the courts of our fair land, because they'll be bucket loads of it when the offender is eventually brought to justice and the whole damage limitation apparatus that is the British criminal justice system cranks into play.
Posted by Andy Carter | May 17, 2008 11:55 PM
Posted on May 17, 2008 23:55
I’m wary of calls for religious moralising, especially where the Abrahamic faiths are concerned. It’s not that I have an anti-theistic agenda, or that I fail to recognise the source of moral rectitude and comfort it can bring to some people, it’s just that there is plenty of violence in the bible, especially the Old Testament which provides various justifications for crimes such as rape and murder.
It’s better to teach people to be mutually respectful of each other, which doesn’t mean bending over backwards to accommodate every type of loony belief or behaviour, but rather about moderating our behaviour so as to be tolerant of each other.
Posted by MJW | May 15, 2008 2:28 PM
Posted on May 15, 2008 14:28
Whether or not it is in the name of religion, there is a crying need for moral re-armament. We are, indeed, an increasingly secular country (as is most of the western world) but there is a need for education to include the most simple of imperatives known to us - the Ten Commandments. I see it as the duty of government to ensure that our educational processes include exhortations to follow these simple rules (perhaps excluding any reference to God) and to follow these rules themselves IN ALL THAT THEY DO.
It is unfortunate that whilst excessive wrongdoing is limited to a few, there is probably a majority who are ready to condone anything short of murder and therefore make little or no contribution to the moral climate that is necessary to control the vicious attitudes of the minority.
Posted by Henry Kaye | May 14, 2008 12:56 PM
Posted on May 14, 2008 12:56
Mr. Conway, your article wonderfully describes cause of so many ills. Indeed the simple, not-rocket-science message gets to the root cause of so many problems (something sadly missing by most analysts), with the aim of preventing disharmony in the first place, rather than threatening punishment after an evil action has taken place. Because only good things get to become old things , this message must be good as is almost as old as the Good Book itself.
Teaching children from the Good Book, the Bible - let’s be clear about what we’re referring to, is not just matter for schools. Let’s remember that a child’s formative years are up to the age of 7 or 8, so it is the parents who have primary responsibility to teach their children about the right and wrong sort of behaviour.
Regarding the question posed at the end of the article, concerning why the Good Book it is not taught these days. Surely one major explanation must be 'political correctness' - as confirmed by the words of Alastair Campbell when he was once speaking on behalf of Tony Blair: We don't “do” God. The social (not to say spiritual) consequences is what we see today of the Government's regulating and diluting it out of school teaching over at least a couple of decades.
Posted by John Evans | May 13, 2008 8:45 PM
Posted on May 13, 2008 20:45
Can I disagree? Is it not clearly the case that it is an absence of appropriate anger that has caused these problems? Not the anger of the street savage, but the anger of the ordinary man, whose voice ought be represented in the courtrooms and communities across the country.
I disagree this is do with the lack of Church: Down the ages, the church has been a vehicle for various forms of sentiment: vengeance, sorrow, piety and love. It is open to pure interpretation, so acts in its name have tended to reflect only the hearts of the interpreter.
Indeed, Mrs Mizen showed immense dignity.
However, for us all, we have the choice of a different posture towards these acts: the words that spring more readily to mind for myself are that, for evil to succeed, it only takes the good man to do nothing.
On rare occasions, it is entirely appropriate to direct anger at those who have eroded the social binds between us all: Those whose follies have granted liberties to the feral and rode roughshod over the rights to life of another and the values and freedoms of everyman. Like Jimmy, his family and his friends.
Posted by Anthony | May 13, 2008 7:07 PM
Posted on May 13, 2008 19:07
I'm not sure we need to start dipping into the Good Book for solutions. There are two answers to violence and they are simple - more police and less bureaucracy.
As for comparing this revolting attack to the farcical scrapes of an Oxford undergraduate - it is, frankly, sanctimonious. Mr Johnson was not responsible for a death. Nor did he wish to be. There was and is no malice in the man. The comparison is off-colour and offensive.
The issue of the Bible, however, is more important and more problematic. First, the morality it preaches is subject to infinite interpretation. Unlike the Koran, it is not continuously and clearly prescriptive. It offers no blue print for society. Second, many of the commands it does have are out of date. Anyone familiar with the views of Paul on the role of women will know this. Third, the sort of moral rearmament you appear to recommend is a short term, irrational and unattractive solution. When the Bible was effective in holding society together was when it formed a part of the total national culture. Stanley Baldwin could reduce the Commons to tears, Labour, Liberal and Tory, by raising his eyes skyward and intoning,"Give peace in our time, oh Lord." It simply doesn't work, today; not after the prolonged hooting and whistling of so many influential iconoclasts, from A.J.Ayer to Monty Python. The cultural echo chamber which gave resonance to these words has been demolished. For it is culture, not religion which keeps control of behaviour. The USA is fanatically religious in places, but it is still a violent society. What of other religious societies, such as Iran? Violent. Increasingly Orthodox Russia? Violent. Moreover, when religion begins to take the lead, in a spirit of panic, there are unattractive side effects, to say the least - yankee museums, for example, which show us Adam and Eve cavorting among dinosaurs. Yes, let them spout this rubbish, but don't let us encourage them.
None of this is to oppose religion per se. It is an attempt to head off foolish notions which distort religion into a blunt instrument of social control. That, as I said at the start, is a matter for the police. Unshackle them from socialist red tape and you will be amazed by what they can achieve.
Posted by Simon Denis | May 13, 2008 6:58 PM
Posted on May 13, 2008 18:58