Despite Jim Gray's murder being less than 24 hours ago, police have managed to arrest 6 people in connection with the murder. I don't agree with so-called 'community justice' but it's very difficult to condemn the murder of a man so dispicable as the UDA's former chief in east Belfast Jim Gray.

For those not familiar with Gray, he was (allegedly), a drug-dealing, power-mad, nutter who lined his own pockets through exploiting sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland (he wouldn't be the first, admittedly, but that's not the point) and thought himself invincible, setting his heavies on anyone who he didn't like the look of. Such unfortunate souls included the father of the bride at a wedding Gray and some loyalist goons were disrupting. When the man in question told them to be quiet, Gray directed the goons to take him outside and give him a good kicking. I can't lie - I'm glad he's dead

Follow up:

I can't help but ponder though, at the swift action over this compared with the length of time taken to charge anyone over the murder of Robert McCartney or the Northern Bank Robbery. Are Loyalist paramilitaries, compared with their republican counterparts, just so unsophisticated that they practically advertise their actions on some metaphorical sandwich board reading "I'm a killer" or did the police simply get lucky this time?

While I think Gray should have faced the full weight of the British justice system (despite its flaws), I can't help but think about other people.

• The McCartney killers
• The Northern Bank robbers
• The scum who raped that schoolgirl in west Belfast then phoned her mum
• The scumbags rioting loyalists and rioting republians this summer
• The other scumbags trying to kill paramedics and fire fighters while they were going about the business of saving lives
• So-called 'loyalists' attacking Catholic homes in Ballymena or so-called 'republicans' attacking protestants in Londonderry.

Considering all those people and the men who murdered Jim Gray, if I were the police, I'm not sure that Gray's killers would be high on my priority list, yet they get arrested in 24 hours while some of the others, AFAIK, are still at large! I know it's not as straightforward and simplistic as that but you have to wonder.