Whether or not the politicians and analysts accept it the truth is that to the ordinary person in the street crime is an issue that continues to rankle. In my local area there has been a spate of random attacks , seemingly increasing armed robberies of petrol station and bottle shops , people attacked in their own homes and general criminal behaviour . Whether it is property crime , crimes against the person or hooning behaviour it is accepted that there is a small minority of people intimidating the general populace .
The police , generally speaking , do their job but as for the courts - well that is another issues all together.
How can someone be caught , charged , prosecuted and found guilty yet have no offence recorded ? Where is the deterrent there? How can we have people charged with serious offences bailed ? And to illustrate this in my locality alone in the past few months we had a man charged with shooting another person in a suburban street at 10pm at night released on bail ! Another example was a prominent local business man allegedly found to have drugs weapons and other incriminating evidence allowed bail to 'continue to manage his business'. Presumably it didn't occur to the judge that this business was most likely funded by drug money and a front for laundering drug money. Not only that this same person was then allowed to leave the area over christmas in order to have a family holiday!
Then we hear of juvenile criminals being repeat offenders out on bail committing more offences and still being bailed! Stealing cars and going driving cross country at high speed putting other road users at risk. Personally I am never sorry to hear of hoons killing themselves on the roads - it's one less idiot we have to worry about but it really pisses me off when other people end up injured or killed by idiots who are then given derisory sentences . Oh and why does anybody think that banning aperson from driving when they are already suspended or don't even have a licence is going to make any difference at all to them ?
Another thing that iritates me is that all criminals when caught express their remorse for the c rime and their victim. Funny that hey ! Only sorry when they are caught and facing a judge !
It's time for a shake up in the system.
The public need to be able to elect judges. They would stand for a term and be judged themselves by the community whether they are delivering what the community demand. Yes , I can hear the do-gooders up in arms already about how their poor little misunderstood darlings need understanding not punishment. We've had 20 years of social workers understanding these crims anbd we are no better off. It's time we got back to what the law is meant to do - provide a deterrent for criminal behaviour.
No more concurrent sentencing . If a crim is convicted of six offences then he should serve a sentence for each consecutively. No more time off for good behaviour - the sentence is what you will serve - and time added for bad behaviour.
"But locking people up doesn't change them " say the do-gooders. Maybe not but when they are locked up we know they aren't out committing more crimes. That is good enough for me! I'd rather my tax dollar went on more prisons to hold these scum than to all the 'support' they get in the community.
After the riots in the uk last summer local councils started evicting people - and their families - from council housing if convicted . The rationale being that they have committed an offence against the community why should the community subsidise them. Wouldn't that be a way to get parents of these 12-14 year olds taking a bit more concern about where little Tyson and Chantelle are in the small hours ? David Cameron also stated that if they are old enough to commit the crime then they are old enough to face the consequences.
Too true! It's time that the right of anonymity for teenage criminals is removed . Name and shame them .
And for those on community service have them wear a shirt that says exactly why they are doing it so we can all see . As things stand there is no deterrent and without a deterrent nothing will change.
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