"Virtual Mates"

He was my friend
Long before Facebook was invented:
Harry Roberts was my friend
Was my friend
He killed coppers!
Now they've let him out
To kill some more..
Our friend Harry.
There are some who would say
He should rot in his cell
Others who rant
He should have swung
And gone to hell.
I'm not going to deny
His henious crime
But an old man of seventy eight
Has surely done his time?
He will never be free
Just out of parole
Are you really telling me
There's no compassion in your soul?
Make no mistake what  he did
Was evil and wrong
Even though we wind up the Old Bill
With that immortal football song.
He only been banged up so long
Out of revenge and spite
no matter what he's done
That can't be right.
They say his shootings killed off
The image of Dixon of Dock Green
But that was make believe
On your television screen.
Old time coppers
Meant a clump or more
Beaten up at the local nick
And thrown to the floor.
Backhanders and bribes
To go scot free
Greasing their palm
To cop a lesser plea.
Your friendly bobby on the beat
In my parts of London he'd never exist
So one less copper
He wouldn't be missed.
Harry was made an example of
Because he avoided being swung
He was 'saved' by a law change
When he should have hung.
Generations of politicians
Would never let him forget
Locked up because he dodged the rope
and escaped their net.
Incarcerated forever
For not wearing that noose
If they couldn't get an eye for an eye
Then he'd never be loose.
Whatever happens now Harry
I wish you well in your last few beers
Sitting in the corner of a pub
Nursing a few beers.
If you begrudge him that
You're a vindictive fool
And every bit as nasty
As that cop killing old fool.

Dulwich Poet 27th October 2014

(I wrote this after it was announced that the notorious police killer Harry Roberts was finally going to be let out of prison, after almost half a century inside)