Shoplifters, vandals and burglars are being told by police to say sorry with a bunch of flowers to avoid prosecution.Another undermining of the justice system to ‘save money’...
Offences including common assault, theft, burglary, criminal damage and vandalism which would ordinarily mean a jail sentence, fine or caution are instead being resolved by a gift to the victim such as bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates to make amends.So, the police still get their DNA for the database (because they are presumably arrested?), and the courts don’t need to bother with all that sentencing stuff.
What’s not to like?
Police say the 'common-sense community resolution' to anti-social behaviour and low-level crime saves police time and could save forces and the criminal courts millions of pounds.Except…we have a system of criminal justice in this country. It’s worked well for many, many years.
Why subvert it now, for the sake of money?
But critics have accused police of undermining the criminal justice system, saying crimes should be dealt with by magistrates rather than ad-hoc penalties devised by individual officers.Quite…
There are also concerns that an offender can escape having a criminal record if they agree to apologise and repair any damage or refund what was stolen.So, this throws the DNA database question into doubt, then, doesn’t it?
If they get their DNA taken on arrest, then they will be on a database despite having no conviction.
No-one will be surprised that this is the WMP again:
The officer leading the experiment, Chris Sims, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said yesterday his officers were administering 'a moral clip round the ear' to offenders.Err, no. That’s precisely not what you are doing...
What you are doing is driving a coach and horses through the British Justice system.
I suspect that florists are going to experience a sudden rise in shop lifting very soon.
ReplyDeletewhat about a real clip round the ear?
ReplyDelete'common-sense community resolution'
ReplyDeleteLook at that phrase.
Think how it might be understood in the context of this idiotic country with its idiotic senior police officers.
Every way you reorder those words in the UK of 2009 you come up with something utterly daft.
If you want a vision of the future, it's a trainer stamping on a human face forever and a pair of police boots taking victim statements, DNA samples 'for elimination purposes,' and checking the victims' houses for signs of unsuitable parenting methods.
Oh, and does anyone else remember when 'resolution' meant the grit to stand to the end and to carry out whatever duty was needed, in the service of country or justice, rather than 'a whitewash' or 'boxes ticked' and 'lessons learned'?
If someone burgled my house then turned up with a bunch o posies from the service station then we would have an incident for which the cops wouldn't know who to turn to - a florist or a proctologist.
ReplyDeleteI of course would go to jail.
"I suspect that florists are going to experience a sudden rise in shop lifting very soon."
ReplyDeleteHeh!
"what about a real clip round the ear?"
That would really be going back to old-fashioned policing!
"Look at that phrase.
Think how it might be understood in the context of this idiotic country with its idiotic senior police officers."
Frightening, isn't it? The words themselves are English, but the meaning that'll be taken from them is anyone's guess..
"...we would have an incident for which the cops wouldn't know who to turn to - a florist or a proctologist."
Better not make them roses, then.. ;)