Category Archives: Crime

Pen Mightier than the Sword?

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The slaughter of ten journalists in Paris earlier this week, for the “crime” of insulting Islam, was truly horrifying but hardly unexpected. As we know only too well, terrorism, particularly radical Islamic terrorism is the scourge of the modern age. What happened in Paris will undoubtedly keep happening in the West until the threat is removed. But how can we remove or at least neutralise that threat?

The big problem with terrorism is that it is virtually impossible to identify a terrorist. What does he look like? Where does he live? The old military adage about needing to know your enemy before you can defeat him is undoubtedly true but we do not know this enemy. We know that he will be a Muslim but that is all. So what do we do, do we outlaw Islam and close down the mosques? Hardly.

Action has to be taken however and the West, as a whole, has to get an awful lot tougher. We’ve tried reason and we’ve tried tolerance but it hasn’t worked. I have no idea what the solution is but I only hope for all our sakes that somebody in a position of power has the answer.

Meanwhile, somewhat predictably, the reaction of Western media is to proclaim solidarity, make noble statements of our right to freedom of speech and display symbols of defiance on social networks. The terrorists will laugh at our naivety and any journalist who continues to poke fun at Islam whether by written word or cartoon is literally dicing with death.

It may be very noble and brave to defend freedom of speech and to continue to lampoon Islam but there is a thin line between bravery and recklessness. Why risk your life when neither you nor, more importantly, the State are able to protect that life? The pen may well be mightier than the sword but not against the sword of Islam as the events of this week have tragically proved.

Drunken Assault

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There has been considerable publicity recently about whether or not a stronger stance should be taken against drink and drug fuelled violence, which sadly seems to be on the increase. Frankly, it’s surprising that the question even needs to be asked.

Newspaper reports are full of stories of innocent people abused and attacked by aggressive drunks and drug-filled crazies. We hear of policemen and other emergency responders being attacked as they try to assist victims and even hospital doctors and nurses assaulted as they administer medical treatment.

Enough is enough. This epidemic (and that is not too strong a word) has to be addressed immediately because, left alone, it certainly isn’t going to get any better. Prior to Christmas a leading doctor suggested that drunks receiving hospital treatment as a result of their excesses should pay for that treatment. He is right, they should. Anybody disagreeing with that should ask themselves how they would feel if they or their loved ones required urgent medical aid but couldn’t  receive it because ambulances and hospital wards were already committed to treating drunks and druggies.

There is nothing wrong with people enjoying themselves and having a good time and most of us have at some time drunk one too many. The point however, is why should innocent people suffer from other’s lack of control and responsibility? The message needs to be sent out, drink and take drugs to excess if you wish but be prepared to pay the price for your irresponsible and excessive behaviour in the criminal courts.

Misguided and Dangerous

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Two horrible acts of terrorism took place this week, firstly the killing of two innocent hostages in an Australian cafe and secondly, the slaughter of 132 children in their Pakistan classrooms. All were victims of Muslim extremism.

Sadly, as has been clearly demonstrated in recent years, there is nothing the West can usefully do about the atrocities committed by the Taliban in their own countries. They are beyond our control and the only hope is that the oppressed citizens of Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries ruled by Muslim fanatics will somehow rise up and overthrow their tyrannical rulers.

We can, however, do something about the threat within our own countries. The Sydney terrorist was evidently known to Australian police and was in fact on bail when the hostage-taking and subsequent murders took place.

I have no idea why he was allowed out on bail but I do know that in the UK certain criminals from ethnic minorities remain at large because our police are too frightened to arrest them and the courts are reluctant to apply due process of law for fear of accusations of racial or religious prejudice. Such misguided policies are a recipe for disaster as the killing of the soldier, Lee Rigby, on a London street last year clearly demonstrated.

The task of the police and judiciary in any democracy is to act fairly and impartially irrespective of colour, nationality or religious belief. To act in accordance with the rules of political correctness rather than common sense is both dangerous and foolish in the extreme.

Abuse of the Innocents

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The dark side of political correctness reared its ugly head this week with the release of the report into the sexual abuse, over a 16 year period, of at least 1,400 children, in Rotherham (a town of some 250,000 people) and the failure of officialdom to protect them due to the colour and racial origins of their tormentors.

Social workers, local politicians and the Police, in an appalling breach of trust, all turned a blind eye to the brutal beatings, torture, rape and gang rape of children (all said to be white or of mixed race and some as young as 11 years old) for fear of accusations of racism.

It was clearly felt preferable to allow the abuse to continue rather than bring the perpetrators to justice. The report confirmed that those perpetrators were gangs composed mainly of thugs and paedophiles of Pakistani origin. Similar gangs, incidentally, to those convicted of organised sexual abuse in other UK towns and cities such as Rochdale, Derby, Birmingham and Oxford – and those are just the places we actually know about.

What kind of country have we become where even the protection and welfare of our children is subjugated to the paranoia of political correctness? God help us. God help our children too, since it would appear that we are no longer capable.

Punishment?

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Earlier this week the European Court of Human Rights turned down a compensation claim by 80,000 UK prisoners for the loss of their “right” to vote in the 2009 European elections.

Voting rights, colour television sets and access to mobile phones. And there I was thinking that prison was meant to be a punishment. How foolish of me.

Tolerating Equality

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Last week a woman in Pakistan was stoned to death for marrying against the wishes of her family. This act of barbarism took place outside the courtroom where the woman, who was three months pregnant, was being tried for the crime of marrying the man she loved rather than the one chosen by her father. What made it even worse is that the murder took place in front of the local police, who made no attempt to intervene and prevent the crime.

Also last week, in neighbouring India, two young girls were gang raped and then hanged with two policeman arrested as prime suspects. In Sudan, last month, a young woman was sentenced to death by a Muslim court for refusing to renounce her Christian beliefs. The sentence was suspended for two years so that she can spend time with her newly born daughter and husband.

And it was only a few weeks ago that nearly three hundred schoolgirls were kidnapped by Muslim thugs in Nigeria because the education of women is against their religious beliefs. They still haven’t been released.

So what can we do about it? Probably very little other than make official protests to the governments of these countries and threaten economic sanctions or the withdrawal of financial aid. Some may wonder why we provide aid in the first place.

What we can do and what we must do is continue to lead by example and show, that in the United Kingdom our laws provide complete equality for all citizens irrespective of sex or religious belief. We should continue to welcome all peoples of the world to our country and give them the full protection of our laws but only on the express condition that they accept and obey those laws.

In spite of what some of our more liberal politicians and church leaders have said to the contrary we must never tolerate any religion that does not share our fundamental belief that all men and women are equal. We are a civilised country and must remain so.

 

Money Talks

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Earlier this week a senior police officer admitted that the public’s perception of the use of mobile speeding cameras on our motorways is that the exercise is more about raising money than saving lives. He went on to say that many motorway convictions are in areas with no history of traffic accidents but so large is the volume of traffic that the use of speed cameras is akin to “shooting fish in a barrel”.

Well, tell us something we didn’t know. Most motorists are sick and tired of being an easy target for police forces keen to boost their crime detection figures but it is refreshing to hear the police come clean for a change.

Speeding can rarely be condoned but the use of speed cameras has surely to be proportionate and relevant. For example, if speed cameras are about saving lives wouldn’t it be better to place more of them outside schools, shopping centres and busy residential areas where there is more chance of a serious accident taking place?

Unfortunately, that’s not the point; the policeman on the motorway bridge is going to generate far more money than the one outside the local primary school and as with most things in life, money talks.

Mothers and Alcohol

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One of the  unique features of the English legal system is the fact that our laws are made not just by  act of Parliament but also by precedent established in the higher courts – case law. Occasionally a precedent is set that captures not only the attention of lawyers but the country as a whole and one such case will shortly be heard by the Court of Appeal.

A local authority is taking a woman to court to try to prove that she committed a criminal act by drinking alcohol during pregnancy, thus causing brain damage to her daughter, now aged six and in foster care. The authority alleges that the woman, repeatedly warned of the risks to her unborn child, chose to drink alcohol excessively throughout her pregnancy.

If the local authority are successful then it will be a crime for any woman to knowingly damage an unborn child through the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. This will no doubt generate a storm of controversy (what if the woman is an alcoholic, for example?) and women’s rights campaigners have already voiced their objections. However, experts say that as many as 7,000 babies a year are born mentally or physically damaged through their mothers drinking alcohol during pregnancy so, irrespective of the moral arguments and the difficulties in policing such a law, something clearly needs to be done.

Doctors have been warning for years about the (surely obvious) downsides of women drinking alcohol excessively or smoking whilst pregnant and nobody of sound mind could possibly claim to be unaware of the risks of such irresponsible and dangerous behaviour. Perhaps if that behaviour is deemed criminal it may well go some way to alleviating the problem.

Torture

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Irrespective of whether or not you believe in the right of a country to execute its citizens the story of the execution of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, last week, is truly disturbing.

 McGuire, convicted of rape and murder way back in 1989, was executed by means of lethal injection which in itself is no big deal, if you believe in the death sentence. However, this was no quick methodical execution since from the moment of injection it evidently took between 15 and 26 minutes for the man to die, depending upon which account you read.

There are those who will no doubt shrug their shoulders and say, “So what? He committed dreadful crimes and what mercy did he show his victim?” An eye for an eye and all that. Whilst that point of view is understandable it is surely wrong.

Any civilized state, using all lawful means at its disposal has a duty, a moral duty if nothing else, to ensure that it doesn’t sink to the level of the criminal. If a state insists on executing its convicted felons it should at the very least ensure that such executions are both humane and speedy. Anything less is torture, plain and simple.

Police Informers

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Derbyshire police announced last week that they will pay a reward of £1000 to anybody reporting another member of the public who they suspect of driving under the influence of alcohol, payable presumably only following conviction. The announcement went on to suggest that people should even report their own friends. Now, not for one moment would I seek to condone drink driving but isn’t this taking matters too far?

Why stop there, why not pay people to report drivers for speeding, for using their mobile telephones when driving, for passing through a red light or any other transgression? Now you may think that any responsible citizen should and maybe would report law-breakers as a matter of course, particularly if other people’s lives are put at risk, and you may well be right.

So why would a responsible citizen have to be bribed to do something which he or she would feel duty-bound to do as a matter of course? The problem with this kind of initiative is that the police are in effect encouraging the public to act as paid informers or snitches against their fellow citizens. Maybe I’m out of touch here but I wonder is this really the kind of society – or country –  we wish to live in?