Jimmy questions why veterans are significantly over represented for crimes of violence in the Criminal Justice System

 

Question:           ‘Why is there no group of people in the Criminal Justice System other than combat veterans who are significantly over represented for crimes of extreme violence, even though the vast majority are not suffering from combat related PTSD?’

 

This article is focusing on the embarrassingly high numbers of combat veterans in the prison population who in return for their loyalty and commitment serving in conflicts, have been abandoned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and buried inside the Criminal Justice System for simply doing their duty as professional soldiers.

Basically, when someone thinks about war, they naturally think about ‘soldiers and violence’. So, when Britain’s politicians decide to commit the country’s Armed Forces into military conflicts, this gives the MoD permission to light the touch paper and open a door into a psychological world of violence by training combat troops for battle conditions.

This violence is instilled in combat troops minds by repetitive training day and night, to condition them to react instantly with pure raw violence at any threats directed at them. It should be noted that the intensity and savagery of this training can also be an important safeguard against the mental or psychosis effects of engaging in the annihilation of the enemy in conflict conditions.

However, for some unknown reason combat veterans are not de-programmed from this implanted violence after their ‘tours of duty’ is ended. Thus, they are being left with a legacy of extreme violence still embedded in their subconscious on their return to peacetime surroundings. This ultimately results in high numbers of these combat veterans getting into serious trouble with the law for criminal acts of violence and depravity, and probably creates more unseen domestic violence.

Appallingly, over the past six decades countless numbers of combat veterans have attacked, murdered and raped hundreds of innocent people wherever they have been stationed around the world. As an example, one of the most notorious tragic cases occurred in Cyprus in 1994, when three soldiers from the Royal Green Jackets abducted a Danish tour guide, Louise Jensen. They acted like savages, sexually assaulting her and then beating her to death with an Army issue spade. These soldiers had fought in the Falklands and had just completed a tour of duty in Northern Ireland, and unquestionably they had all been put through the ‘upped’ training and indoctrinated in extreme violence and never de-programmed.

West Germany also took the brunt of remorseless extreme violence from British soldiers. In fact, a German civilian was killed in a bar fight in Osnabruck in 1972, by a soldier from my own Regiment (Royal Tank Regiment). This happened only weeks after we had completed our ‘upped’ training programme prior to serving in Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, even though violence occurs while troops are still serving in the army, most of this violence happens when combat veterans return home and become civilians.

Catastrophically, by not de-programming combat troops from this implanted violence after their ‘tours of duty’ in conflicts, it has become the main fault in the whole system of training and preparing combat troops for fighting in hostilities. In addition, by their one-sidedness of indoctrinating this violence in combat troops minds and not de-programming them, the MOD also creates a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde syndrome, in that this implanted extreme violence will remain dormant in combat veterans’ minds for the rest of their lives and can emotionally and menacingly re-activate during arguments or fits of rage and anger. Over the years this denies innumerable numbers of them any chance of leading normal productive lives, because unless properly de-programmed from this violence it can re-emerge at any point of their lifetimes when under stress.

Therefore, when does the implanting of this extreme violence in combat troops minds, and not being deprogrammed, become miscarriages of Justice? Is it at the point when they are triggered, and subconsciously cannot differentiate between conflict or peacetime situations, as their minds have been programmed to react according to their training?

 

Answer:              ‘Scandalously, not one of the combat veterans I met or had contact with in the 45 years I spent inside the criminal justice system, was ever de-programmed from this indoctrinated extreme violence. Is it not the case that these high numbers of combat veterans, serving prison sentences for extreme violent behaviour, bear the hallmarks and consequences of being left alone to cope with the aftermath of this implanted violence?’