Never trust the man with the clean carpet

I hate boxing.

There – I said it. Cards on the table. This isn’t a PCJ formal declaration; it really is just my own opinion

But that does not negate my respect for boxers as athletes. They work hard; they have remarkable fitness and discipline; and the vast majority of them train in clubs, in communities, and do a lot to support and inspire the young in the right direction.

Now this cruel 2016, which has taken so many of our greatest artistic heavyweights, has taken another icon and true legend from us. So, my personal sporting opinions aside, we pay our respects to the great Muhammad Ali.

His fight for civil rights, for social justice, and his unbreakable humour made him into a role model for us all, and more than just an athlete. He got the world to hear him by shaking the hand of the oppressed and challenged the very idea of being “the underdog.” He famously entered into the fight against George Foreman (yeh, the grill-guy) telling the world that he would simply not accept being called the “underdog” – that he was the greatest, and he’d prove it. And he did. Even if you don’t like boxing he still made you want to get up and punch the air like you thought you were a pro. He made you believe you could “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” even if all you could really do is “flap like a flamingo and itch like flea.”

So why should this matter for us?

Because we are part of the fight for justice because we believe that justice is not just a right, it is a responsibility. In society we are constantly bombarded by claims for equal rights, human rights, employment rights – rights, rights, rights. It is too easy to forget that in order for an individual to claim their rights they need to remember they have a duty – morally, ethically, legally - to uphold their responsibility in society to respect, allow, and actively facilitate the rights of others. This is especially true when considering how we raise our children and prepare them for the world filled with people who hurt, cheat, and lie: those who lack a conscience.

So we too will fight. We are going to shout loud where children and their families struggle to be heard. Whether we win each small fight or not doesn’t matter because when it comes to the battle we would rather be heard losing the odd fight for what is right, than to silently slither beneath a grubby, dishonest win. After all, sometimes it might even take 27 years, but the truth will come out in the end. We’re going to show the trampled, dirty carpet because in order to fight the dirt of injustice it first has to be seen.

And that’s why you should never trust a man with totally clean carpet: it probably means he’s hidden all the dirt underneath.

Given the responsibility we all have for justice we should be able to rely upon our law, the law makers, and those who uphold our laws to be at the forefront of justice. But in reality – and very sadly – it is all too often true that this is not the case. There are simply too many cases where the Police have failed to do this because of individual officers and detectives. There are too many who fall short of the standards we should be able to expect by actively choosing not to pursue all lines of inquiry in order to secure a prosecution and score some political points, irrespective of whether their “prime suspect” is guilty or not.

The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 states very clearly that investigators should be looking into all potential evidence in pursuance of the facts of the case. When they fail to do this the results can be devastating. Innocent men, women and children find themselves being charged, going to trial, and sometimes even being convicted simply because the job has not been done properly. Sometimes there is an unnerving after-taste of malice that can’t be explained. When that happens to children…well…

Innocence is too precious and delicate to be subjected to such abhorrent treatment. In serious sexual assault cases the consequences are profound and long-lasting. The innocent defendant who is branded guilty from the outset may never be able to return to their life before. Bridges burnt; reputations scarred; jobs lost; mental health damaged. When this happens to a child it also robs them of their education and teaches them a dangerous lesson that truth does not matter.

In cases of false allegations no-one ever says “sorry, we were wrong” at the end of it. This can leave the innocent-accused in danger of all the risky self-blame, shame, and all the baggage child protection experts and “victim support” proponents speak so vehemently about. And yet they never mention it in the context of supporting the accused. Indeed, if we should believe children when they say they have been harmed, why does that not count when that harm is “someone has told a terrible lie about me”?

The death of Muhammad Ali will send ripples around the world, and those ripples have rocked our boat because he fought for far more than just the ring and the title. He didn’t just fight for glory and the story – he fought for the journey. He left his footprints on the carpet knowing that they can never be brushed away.

When it comes to injustice, the political quango CPS, the corrupt Police Officers and, above all, the amoral liars, we say: you’ve got a fight on your hands, and we are going to deliver every sting we have.

R.I.P Muhammad Ali 1942 - 2016

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