The brutal killing of two unarmed police officers near Manchester earlier this week was as sickening a crime as could be imagined. The fact that the two officers were young women somehow seems to make it worse. There will now be calls for two things, one for the death penalty to be brought back and two for police officers to be armed.

It’s difficult not to want retribution for this kind of crime and yes, like most of us, I would like cold blooded murderers to be put out of their misery. The reality however is that capital punishment is flawed since mistakes can be made and to execute just one innocent person, in my view, invalidates the whole system. What we need is a proper deterrent since clearly the present system isn’t working.

 A convicted murderer should usually, depending on the circumstances of each case, be sentenced to life imprisonment. That should mean life, without pardon, without parole and until the convicted criminal breathes his or her last breath. Further, prison, whilst not being a place of torture should not be a pleasant experience either and many of the luxuries that prisoners receive in these liberal times – colour television, use of telephones etc should be denied them. Criminals should be terrified of going to prison and if they were then maybe they would, in some cases at least, reconsider their evil ways.

We should also look at the reasons for crime and clearly the commission of many crimes is motivated by or linked to drug use. The use of drugs is a worldwide epidemic. In some countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia for example, a  conviction for dealing in drugs carries a death sentence. Convicted drug dealers in this country should face, and be given, life sentences as though they were convicted murderers, which actually is what most of them are when you consider the number of people dying from drug abuse.

As far as arming the police is concerned, it’s difficult in this modern age not to argue in favour of it. It will be a sad day when armed police are seen walking down the local high street  but the days of the friendly old red-faced Bobby walking the beat, chatting with the locals have gone. Times have changed and we must change with those times. Arming the police is inevitable and with exhaustive and comprehensive screening and training plus solid leadership from government and the higher echelons of the police hierarchy it has to be a move for the better. If we don’t do anything then the slaying of police officers will sadly become a routine occurrence.