GURMAIL Singh’s family is helping to launch a campaign calling for tougher sentences for violent criminals.
A petition will be started tomorrow asking the Government to ensure people who are guilty of violent crimes receive punishments that fit the offences.
It also demands better protection and support for retailers.
The petition launch, at Cowcliffe Convenience Stores, comes two weeks to the day since Mr Singh, 63, was bludgeoned to death in the Cowcliffe Hill Road shop.
Three 17-year-olds and 20-year-old Muawaz Khalid, of Blackmoorfoot Road in Crosland Moor, have been charged with his murder.
Balbir Singh Uppal, who runs the Sikh Leisure Centre on Prospect Street in Springwood and is close to the family, is co-ordinating the campaign.
He said: “There have been lots of letters of sympathy coming in from all parts of the community and what people are generally concerned with is the level of sentences imposed on people who commit serious crime.
“But it’s not just about tougher sentences, it’s about stopping people committing crime when they are young and getting nurtured into crime.
“Petty crime is given a very low priority. We want to say it shouldn’t be that way, because someone who steals a chocolate bar today might be the person who carries out a serious crime later. There needs to be more of a deterrent.”
Mr Uppal said the family was keen for the law to allow shopkeepers to defend themselves when under attack.
“There has been a lot of discussion among the family that shopkeepers in general have limited rights, when it seems that the perpetrators of crimes have more protection,” he said.
Kirklees Council leader Mehboob Khan, whose family owned a convenience shop on Bradford Road in Fartown for 20 years, is supporting the campaign.
He said: “From my personal background, having grown up in a shop and knowing what it’s like, I fully support a campaign like this.
“Violence is something that many retailers up and down the country have faced and unfortunately it’s too often accepted as an occupational hazard. That shouldn’t be the case.”
Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman has tabled a series of questions in parliament to find out the extent of attacks on shopkeepers nationally.
He said: “I’ve been to meet the family and members of the Sikh community and have been touched by how much this has affected the community.
“We discussed a strategy for doing something locally and nationally to raise the level of concern about shopkeepers who are vulnerable and I want to find out how many have been affected and if there’s more we can be doing to help them.”
The Association of Convenience Stores, which campaigns on behalf of independent shopkeepers, backed the campaign.
Chief executive James Lowman said: “We absolutely support tougher sentencing for violent criminals and we are campaigning to have assault on shopkeepers brought in line with attacks on paramedics and police officers, because we believe they provide services to the community on the same level.”
