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Features

How did Britain ever have unarmed criminals?

It wasn’t lack of firearms that kept them from shooting. It was something else

8 November 2014

9:00 AM

8 November 2014

9:00 AM

The release of Harry Roberts, the man responsible for shooting dead three policemen in 1966, has sparked a vigorous debate about whether he should have stayed in prison until he died. The idea that ‘life should mean life’ for anyone who kills a policeman is a police-pleasing policy that the Home Secretary promised she would implement in a speech to the Police Federation last year.

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