Ched Evans, mob rule and 60,000 self-righteous saints

I have nothing against the individuals who make up mobs.

Usually they are wonderful people, kind to children and animals and donate money to Children in Need. It is the mob with its collective wrath and mindless rage that I both fear and despise.

Ched Evans is about to be released from prison into the hands of a mob who want to punish him further and no one dares face the mob. 

The basic tenant of civilised behaviour is to use the police and legal system to catch and punish an offender. Without the law we would be like animals or Millwall fans. 

Mankind can only function in one of two ways in reacting to criminal actions:

1. A person is accused of a crime, the police create a case, a jury of ordinary folk listen to professionals present both sides before offering a decision of guilt or innocence. A judge will use his experience to determine a punishment. The offender serves the sentence, is rehabilitated, before being released to make something of the remaining years of his life as a functioning part of society.

Or …

2. You have mobs armed with pitch forks and torches storming the castle in a scream of self-righteous piety, ready to condemn anyone they believe have offended their view of the world. The accused is punished in a manner that is satisfactory to the mob. The mob tell themselves they are right and anyone who challenges their nasty outlook is wrong. Always wrong.

Now call me a namby pamby wet Guardian reading liberal (which I am not) but I kinda trust the first method. Don’t tell me about its flaws and inadequacies because, despite them, it remains the best means a civilised society can have to protect its values - and protect you and your loved ones.

Obviously the second method could create employment for noose makers and Funeral parlours. But you know what? I reckon I am happy with a few more on the unemployed lists and few less buried in shallow graves.

The law is particularly harsh to self-appointed vigilantes, and so it should be. Vigilantes are the most fearsome side of humanity.

So Ched Evans is released from prison and powerful lobbying groups have him in their sights. They need to punish him further. Is this true of anyone who commits any offence? Or just a footballer who commits rape? 

Are their groups standing outside prisons as a murderer is released squealing that he shouldn’t be allowed to have a job? Where does this end? A forger? A shop lifter? A drug user? A parking offender? 

Should we forget about rehabilitation all together? Why bother with courts when we can use petitions to decide the punishment of a miscreant?

Once a mob is roused it is impossible to quell. 

60,000 self-righteous saints, who have never done anything wrong in their lives, have signed a petition to say Ched Evans ought not be rehabilitated, ie allowed to function in society. Rather he should be left to gather berries on the roadside and use a Guardian Supplement to keep him and his family dry in winter. 

It will be impossible to put this cork back in the bottle. The mob is out and they smell blood because no one dares stand in their path lest they be trampled too.