A mother who tackled a teenage vandal by driving him to his parents' home has been fined for breaching the peace.Yes, this is Scotland. Want to claim it wouldn’t happen here?
Fiscal depute Rebecca Kynaston said Donnelly told his parents what their son had done, but ended up shouting at them because she was frustrated by their response.I can just imagine what it was…
Donnelly admitted breaching the peace and was fined £600. Her partner Maxwell Brown, 31, admitted assaulting the boy and was fined £200.The ‘assault’ seems to be pulling the little oxygen-thief by his jacket. Not by his neck, as he deserved….
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Donnelly he could understand her frustration, but said she had "totally lost the plot".No, she hadn’t. She was just at the end of her tether, as nothing was done by those who claim to act on our behalf to restore law and order.
Speaking outside court, Donnelly said: "It is ridiculous that I am in court at all. I was sick to death of my door getting smashed. These kids just keep on coming in.Indeed. Dealing with them is too hard, too difficult. So the court took the easy option; it dealt with you instead.
She added: "I was totally shocked when the police turned up and even they said they were surprised and couldn't believe it.
"The whole justice system is a joke. They smashed my window but nothing happens to them."
That famous icon of blindfolded justice should be replaced. What would best indicate the new state of affairs, I wonder?
Update: Scotland needs more Judge Bowers...
After reading those two tales it is very hard to believe that all the "authority" figures, bar Judge Bowers are anything other than evil or insane.
ReplyDeleteTwo separate cases where responsible adults took what any sensible person would consider perfectly reasonable actions end up facing the fall weight of the law landing on them. The threat of life in prison for stopping an assault on a child? Utterly nuts!
How did we end up in this situation and more importantly how do we get out of it?
Stick Ronald McDonald on top of the Old Bailey. It will be symbolistic of the undiluted bollocks spouted by the clowns running the system.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is why the defendants admit to this rubbish.
ReplyDeleteWhy dont they plead not guilty and make the police prove it?
A guilty plea, even for the flimsiest of rubbish must obviously result in a conviction.
A not guilty plea might stand a chance of having the case thrown out.
Quite right Bucko, I've said it before a million times, never ever plead guilty. With a Jury and a cases like these, you stand a very good chance of being found not guilty. Jurors live in the real world and know the frustration of dealing with scrotes on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteI suggest a kelvo clad plod armed with a tazer and a sniper rifle, and the caption...
Searching for an easy target.
Bugger! I was getting distracted by the phone there, the comment above is not anon, it is me.
ReplyDeletePeople take the guilty plea because they get told that the sentence will be lighter. If they plead not guilty and make the system actually prove its case, they are punished by a harsher sentence.
ReplyDeleteBy the time it comes to a plea, you've already lost all faith in the 'system'. You've been arrested for standing up for yourself when the people who were supposed to protect you didn't. You're abused, your DNA is taken and you know you're never getting the record purged. Depending on your career, you've probably already lost your job and maybe even your career if its sensitive to criminal convictions.
Now with all of this having already happened, when the representative from the system tells you to plead guilty or they'll screw you harder, what frame of mind do you think most people are in ?
A larger than life statue of George Galloway giving us the finger seems an apropriate image of modern day 'justice'.
ReplyDeleteAnon has it as right as can be said in a few lines. Scum get Legal Paid and it's more or less impossible to get heard at all without a brief.
ReplyDeleteThe loonies are in charge and no change of government can change that unless we move to lot - even then we'd have to shift the civil servants on the same lines.
The loonies are in charge right enough and I don't see how we can reverse the situation. It's only going to get worse.
ReplyDeleteScum get Legal Paid
ReplyDeleteYup, but so does everybody else.
I worked in the Crown Court through the 70s to the 80s, and nobody was ever refused Legal Aid, however wealthy they were, for a criminal offence.
Different for a civil matter of course.
Yes the deal was in those days, put to the defendant's Barrister, look we've got your client bang to rights, plead guilty and save court time and we'll give him/her a lighter sentence.
But that was before they invented the CPS, which has politicised our Law. Before it was down to the police to prosecute or not, now the CPS will pursue the alleged crime to the ends of the earth, on the flimsiest of evidence, if it ticks certain boxes like "race" "rape" "hate" "Speech" crimes etc.
So I repeat, never ever plead guilty. You will NOT get a heavier sentence if found guilty. You only have to check what the vilest of murderers get and how long they stay inside. Ten years max.
The Legal system is being used as a cosh. It's the hassle factor, not the Justice or right and wrong of the case that matters, they merely want to fuck you around without proving anything against you. They want and expect you to capitulate and be cowed.
Well push the fuckers right back against the wire. make them prove every goddam lie they tell or make up against you.
Until they get rid of the Jury system (I'm informed that the EU are already working on it, European harmonsation innit!) you have a 60 to 40 per cent chance of walking free.
Dont let the bastards grind you down!
"How did we end up in this situation and more importantly how do we get out of it?"
ReplyDeleteI think we all know. But it seems we lack the will to do what's necessary.
We've become the 'It's Too Hard!' generation...
"Stick Ronald McDonald on top of the Old Bailey."
LIKE!
"What I don't understand is why the defendants admit to this rubbish."
I think it's as Anonymouslemming points out: there are far too many consequences for the law-abiding of getting a criminal record. The law-evading don't care about those things, so are free to do as they please...
Plus, as RAB points out, the iniquitous CPS, which has done far more to poison the concept of justice than any other institution.
I agree RAB - except on the Legal Paid. I can't remember anyone being turned down in a criminal case in my time, but it's rife now. What they do is allow on principle, but then means test - the cut off is about £15K. The bureaucracy will also estimate earnings and make it difficult to appeal. 95% of us will not now get legal aid, leaving people will fears of massive bills in trying to defend themselves where punishment will be a few quid.
ReplyDeleteSurprised they weren’t done for kidnap as well.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to ‘the police are the public and the public are the police’?
(7th Peelian principle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_Principles)
RAB’s faith in our justice system may soon be dealt a further blow courtesy of our new ConDemolition™ government trying to save a few bob (about 16 hours’ worth of taxes sucked up by the EU) by banning trial by jury for 'minor' offences.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20101103/tuk-scrapping-jury-trials-will-save-mill-45dbed5.html
The core provisions of a minimalist government include defence and justice. Why are these areas being cut most?
Blind Justice updated: CCTV cameras for eyes and scales heavily weighted in favour of the criminal.
6079SmithW
Totally agree RAB.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't stick for your principles, then you have nobody else to blame but yourself.