The report
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066140/Bethany-Ogley-11-told-You-visit-sister's-grave-school-uniform.html#ixzz1exI001TS
of a certain PC Alan Dickens stopping a schoolgirl from visiting her sister's grave while in school uniform, and threantening her with detention if she did so, begs the question as to whether there is any real crime in Barnsley to concern the police.
Has this over-officious copper got nothing else better to do?
Once the report hit the press cue some frantic back-tracking from both the school and the South Yorkshire Police “Any suggestion that visiting the cemetery would lead to a detention for the student is untrue”
Hope somebody tells the copper!
Monday 28 November 2011
Youth Crime and Punishment
If anyone had any doubts about the effectiveness or otherwise of ‘community punishments’, especially for young criminals, then the widely publicised report of the 16 year old thief who, as part of his ‘Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Program’, was ordered to write a letter to his victim supposedly in apology for his actions, should clarify matters.
His letter as it turned out was anything but, you can read the text here.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8910227/Burglar-calls-victims-dumb-in-letter.html
Now according to the Ministry of Justice the program this habitual criminal was on is “the most rigorous non-custodial intervention available for young offenders”.
Well clearly it doesn’t work – it hasn’t rehabilitated him, made him sorry for his criminality or deterred him from offending in the future.
Youth crime, such as that reported in the media concerning a 14 year old boy involved in a street robbery which resulted in the death of a 79 year old woman, will not be curbed by ‘programs’ which young criminals have neither fear nor respect for.
It’s a sad truth however that we will not see any change in what has become an article of faith, that young criminals are victims of society, needing help not punishment, and that the concept of teaching children, from an early age, the difference between right and wrong, and enforcing that concept, is out-dated.
We have, as my grandmother would have said, made a rod for our own backs
His letter as it turned out was anything but, you can read the text here.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8910227/Burglar-calls-victims-dumb-in-letter.html
Now according to the Ministry of Justice the program this habitual criminal was on is “the most rigorous non-custodial intervention available for young offenders”.
Well clearly it doesn’t work – it hasn’t rehabilitated him, made him sorry for his criminality or deterred him from offending in the future.
Youth crime, such as that reported in the media concerning a 14 year old boy involved in a street robbery which resulted in the death of a 79 year old woman, will not be curbed by ‘programs’ which young criminals have neither fear nor respect for.
It’s a sad truth however that we will not see any change in what has become an article of faith, that young criminals are victims of society, needing help not punishment, and that the concept of teaching children, from an early age, the difference between right and wrong, and enforcing that concept, is out-dated.
We have, as my grandmother would have said, made a rod for our own backs
Litter Dropping
I have little sympathy for Tracy John, fined a total of £465 for dropping a cigarette end outside her own home.
She was offered a £75 fixed penalty notice and when she didn’t pay was summoned to court. The fact is she didn’t attend court and was therefore unable to give her side of the story and the court, without details of her circumstances, had no alternative but to set the fine at a level commensurate with assumed national average earnings.
Had she attended court, and argued a case she seemingly feels strongly about, I suspect she would have been acquitted – the Council would have been unable to offer evidence of the actual ‘litter’ or show intent to litter as she took the offending article indoors with her.
She says she'd rather go to jail than pay, if so she should make sure she's sentenced on a Friday, that way she'll get a free trip to jail and her bus fare back home on the same day!
Puzzled?
A 7 day sentence means release half way through, ie 3 days actual jail time but...... From Friday, which counts as the first day, 3 days would mean release on Sunday and as prisons don't release on either Saturday or Sunday she would have to be released on Friday, the day of sentence (can't keep her until Monday, that would be 4 days and more than the specified half sentence).
And you thought British Justice was fair?
She was offered a £75 fixed penalty notice and when she didn’t pay was summoned to court. The fact is she didn’t attend court and was therefore unable to give her side of the story and the court, without details of her circumstances, had no alternative but to set the fine at a level commensurate with assumed national average earnings.
Had she attended court, and argued a case she seemingly feels strongly about, I suspect she would have been acquitted – the Council would have been unable to offer evidence of the actual ‘litter’ or show intent to litter as she took the offending article indoors with her.
She says she'd rather go to jail than pay, if so she should make sure she's sentenced on a Friday, that way she'll get a free trip to jail and her bus fare back home on the same day!
Puzzled?
A 7 day sentence means release half way through, ie 3 days actual jail time but...... From Friday, which counts as the first day, 3 days would mean release on Sunday and as prisons don't release on either Saturday or Sunday she would have to be released on Friday, the day of sentence (can't keep her until Monday, that would be 4 days and more than the specified half sentence).
And you thought British Justice was fair?
Friday 11 November 2011
Lest We Forget
Today is Armistice Day, and 93 years since the guns on the Western Front fell silent.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
by John McCrae, May 1915
Thursday 10 November 2011
Crime and its causes
I read an interesting letter in this month's magazine of the Magistrates' Association regarding the erosion of those taboos which once ordered society.
The letter, with which I wholly agree, makes the case that it is a lack of discipline and proper punishment that is to blame for much of our present day ills and it cannot be denied that since the end of the last war there as been a fundamental shift in our entire concept of discipline.
Corporal punishment has been abolished in schools, Capital Punishment has gone, parental punishment is bounded by guidelines that if not followed will result in either prosecution for assault or the removal of children from their parents, or both!
Child criminals are viewed as victims and Youth Courts hand out 'last chances' time and time again.
Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that 'punishment' has become a dirty word.
All aspects of our society are required to be 'child friendly' and children grow up without being able to discern right from wrong or to understand how to conduct themselves as responsible citizens, rather they are imbued from an early age with the view that they are entitled, as of right, to do as they will.
Two stark illustrations of this malaise were reported in a local newspaper.
25 year old Adam Smith, in a drunken frenzy, kicked a man almost to death leaving him severely brain damaged, unable to walk or talk.
This violent thug has a history of drunken violence dating back to his school years, including an assault last year when he knocked another man unconscious, for which he was only cautioned. He has never received the punishment he deserved in the past and this is the result.
In similar vain, 39 year old Wayne Moffitt kicked to death a 71 year old man and at the time of the attack Moffitt was subject to a Community Punishment Order for a previous assault, clearly insufficient to deter him from further violent action.
One can only speculate that if their upbringing had taught them right from wrong, upheld and reinforced by their teachers, and if the punishment for their earlier misdeeds had been more onerous, might they have learned how better to behave?
The letter, with which I wholly agree, makes the case that it is a lack of discipline and proper punishment that is to blame for much of our present day ills and it cannot be denied that since the end of the last war there as been a fundamental shift in our entire concept of discipline.
Corporal punishment has been abolished in schools, Capital Punishment has gone, parental punishment is bounded by guidelines that if not followed will result in either prosecution for assault or the removal of children from their parents, or both!
Child criminals are viewed as victims and Youth Courts hand out 'last chances' time and time again.
Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that 'punishment' has become a dirty word.
All aspects of our society are required to be 'child friendly' and children grow up without being able to discern right from wrong or to understand how to conduct themselves as responsible citizens, rather they are imbued from an early age with the view that they are entitled, as of right, to do as they will.
Two stark illustrations of this malaise were reported in a local newspaper.
25 year old Adam Smith, in a drunken frenzy, kicked a man almost to death leaving him severely brain damaged, unable to walk or talk.
This violent thug has a history of drunken violence dating back to his school years, including an assault last year when he knocked another man unconscious, for which he was only cautioned. He has never received the punishment he deserved in the past and this is the result.
In similar vain, 39 year old Wayne Moffitt kicked to death a 71 year old man and at the time of the attack Moffitt was subject to a Community Punishment Order for a previous assault, clearly insufficient to deter him from further violent action.
One can only speculate that if their upbringing had taught them right from wrong, upheld and reinforced by their teachers, and if the punishment for their earlier misdeeds had been more onerous, might they have learned how better to behave?
An Inept Lot
With staggering ineptitude, just days before Remembrance Sunday, the Organising Committee for the London Olympics issues thousands of posters showing the river Thames with the Second World War cruiser, Belfast, see left, ‘air-brushed’ out.
One can only wonder at the mindset of these people, their disregard of history and the sacrifice made by such as served on Belfast so that London would be free to hold an Olympics.
Of course it was all a ‘terrible mistake’ says an unidentified spokesman – no it wasn’t! It takes time, skill and effort to digitally alter a photograph; it’s not something that can be done by accident.
Shame on the lot of them!
Saturday 5 November 2011
Remember Remember the 5th of November
Today is Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night if you prefer, not that poor Guy was actually consigned to a Bonfire, he was hung drawn and quartered and the original effigy burnt was that of the Pope!
But never mind that small historical inaccuracy, let's celebrate this great English tradition while we can, before the 'elfs get their hands on it as they've done with conkers and much else besides.
While I'm on the subject I can't help recalling the old adage that Guy Fawkes was
"the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions".
However you view him and his actions, have a happy and safe Bonfire Night.
But never mind that small historical inaccuracy, let's celebrate this great English tradition while we can, before the 'elfs get their hands on it as they've done with conkers and much else besides.
While I'm on the subject I can't help recalling the old adage that Guy Fawkes was
"the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions".
However you view him and his actions, have a happy and safe Bonfire Night.
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