The English Government takes no responsibility for the riots.
Yet when crime figures fall that want to take all the credit.
They cannot have it both ways, they are either responsible in some way or they are not.
The UK government has for many years acknowledged there are problems with youth criminalty and anti social behabiour, the ASBO being a prime example of this. But much like the Israeli government trying to deal with problem issues, the UK government has decided to punish the people they allege are causing problems instead of having an open discussion as to why these people act the way they do.
The comedy “Trading Places” with Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd showed if there was any doubt, that people are a product of their environment. And given that the UK government has taken on the resposnibility of funding people’s local environment then they really have to be looked at as the culprits to the mass riots.
But as usual, the government accepts zero resposnibility for any of the problems we are seeing with regards to the riots and places the blame solely at the feet of the people perptrating the violence.
(And yet when crime figures decrease the government takes full recognition)
Much like the Israeli government place 100% of the blame at the Palestinians for launching missiles in to Israel, the UK government is saying the same thing to the rioters. I believe there was widespread feeling that the way the Israeli government was treating the Gazan people was unfair when they were bombing the Gaza Strip the same can now be said about the UK government’s treatment of the rioters and protesters.
The Guardian has an excellent article today detailing how the people arrested at the riots are being treated.
Again and again, the judges repeated the refrain “jurisdiction is declined”. They considered the maximum powers of sentencing available to magistrates – six months in prison, or a £5,000 fine – to be insufficient, and so referred the case to the crown courts, where the cases will be heard before a jury. Very few of the accused were granted bail. At least one solicitor outside court six expressed concern at some of the courts’ decisions, on a day when David Cameron had vowed that anyone charged with rioting should be remanded in custody and anyone convicted should expect to go to jail.
Rajinder Claire, who was representing several alleged rioters, said defendants who would normally be released on bail were being routinely remanded in custody. “The decisions seem to be being taken in a routine manner without enough consideration for the distinct factors of each case,” he told reporters, “It certainly seems to me that it is being motivated by political pressure.”
In Manchester, Eoin Flanagan, 18, pleaded guilty to theft after he was arrested in Oxford Road with two jumpers and two pieces of musical equipment; he was jailed for eight months.
At Camberwell Green magistrates, Nicholas Robinson, 23, an electrical engineering student with no previous convictions, was jailed for the maximum permitted six months after pleading guilty to stealing bottles of water worth £3.50 from Lidl in Brixton. He had been walking back from his girlfriend’s house in the early hours of Monday morning when he saw the store being looted, his lawyer said, and had taken the opportunity to go in and help himself to a case of water because he was thirsty. He was caught up in the moment, and was ashamed of his actions, his defence said.
But the prosecution told judge Alan Baldwin: “This defendant has contributed through his action to criminal activities to the atmosphere of chaos and sheer lawlessness.” There were gasps from the public gallery as his sentence was delivered.
The mother of one convicted looter told the Guardian her son – who got 16 weeks for using “threatening or abusive language or behaviour” – had got a much harsher sentence because of the political climate. “If this wasn’t the riot he wouldn’t even have got a caution,” she said. “It’s all because of the riots.”
The Guardian has also put together stats about the riots here which covers the cases they have investigated so far to give a snap shot of the situation
David Cameron echoes the theme I am putting forward From Cameron, and in many variants, came an emphasis on responsibility. “Young people smashing windows and stealing televisions is not about inequality,” he said. “When you have a deep moral failure you don’t hit it with a wall of money.”
So as usual, the government is accepting no responsibility whatsoever for creating an environment where people feel it is acceptable or where people have been forced to carry out these actions. Much like Israels response to the missiles coming out of Gaza.
What is worrying. although not a new thing in the UK is for the government to be coming out publicy stating what the punishments should be for people particiapting in the riots.
He made it clear that anyone convicted of violent disorder would be sent to prison. And given the number of people being sentenced for minor offences that would not normally receive a prison sentence, his words seemed to have been heeded.
I will say I am not an expert by any stretch on the way in which the UK govenrment operates but Facism by definition is the collusion of the government with business and the collusion of government with the judiciary.
the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life.
When the UK government is openly manipulated by the international banking cartel and now the government is manipulating the judicial system in the UK, can we now say that ultimately the banks now control the government and the judicary and therefore the people?
I am not saying I condone the actions of the rioters but as with any criminal action, it has to be looked at in context. From the examples given in the Guardian mitigiating circumstances do not appear to being taking into account. There can only be one motiviation to this as this is political from my point of view.
It is irrelevant whether a million people are being convicted of rioting or one person. The duty of the courts as I understand is for each case to be dealt with on it’s own merits. For the courts to take into consideration the political and popular context of the alleged crimes is not appropriate or correct.
The courts should not be tools of the government unless of course a totaliterian regime is the ulitmate goal.
To quote wikipedia Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.[1] Totalitarian regimes stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda – I think this is more than an accurate description of what we are seeing in the UK.
One other worrying trend in this is the fact the the UK government is now awarding private contractors huge sums to open and operate private prisons in the UK. I am all for the private sector to run things but I do not believe the private sector should be paid by the taxpayer. This in my view is the absolute worst case scenario.
You have government still in control of the cash, which is their biggest problem. They have been proven to be completely incompetent when it comes to getting value for money. The government in effect admits the same when it employs the private sector to take on projects that it would normally do.
But instead of the solution being to take the government out of the loop the government remians in the loop but instead of the country getting some of the benefits of this spending, all the money is given to private companies.
Personally I cannot think of any other arrangement that could lead to so much corruption and waste. The only way to go would be for the government to be taken out of the loop given that it is the cause of the problems and the private sector should be charged with finding all of the funding and if this is not possible the govenrment should continue to control the industry.
Anything less and we are looking at a blatant case of socailism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. ie the state employed companies get the benefits of being funded by the taxpayer ie socialism whereas the public deal with the private company instead of the government, capitalism.
This creates a massive, massive disconnect in the companies funding as the private company is no longer answerable to the people that pay it, in other words it is a private company which gets the same benefits as if it was a state owned monopoly.
And this is ignoiring the obvious conflict in interests between companies that operate prisons for example and the desire to reduce prison populations as much as possible.
It has to be the goal of every society not to have a single one of it’s citizens incarcerated yet the state is employing companies whose very survival and growth depends on an increasing prison population. To me, this is a very worrying situation to be in.
Looking at the riots, over 1,000 people have been arrested and probably charged, the vast majority of which are male. And the rhetoric coming for the politicians and the judgements and actions of the courts seem to be hell bent of jaling the majority of these poeple. What exactly do they hope to do with this 1000+ new prison population?
The entire male prison population in the UK is over 80,000 and the politicans want to increase this by over 1% over night. The UK’s prisons are famous for being overcrowded already this is only going to add to the problem.
Not to mention the fact that prisons act as a university for the criminal world “Prisons are a university of crime,” she said. “People go in knowing how to do one crime and come out knowing how to do four others.”
In summary
1. I find it extremley worrying that the politicial establishment is manipluating the criminal system and influencing senteincing – especially given that the UK government is so much in bed with the banks
2. It is typical that the government accepts no responsibility for the rioting yet they are more than happy to take responisbility if crime figures fall
3. It is worrying that the government does not appear to be looking at the environment in which these riots are taking place and they do not seem to accept that people are a product of their environment or are at least in part a product of their environment.
4. It is worrying that private companies operate in the UK prison system and that private companies gain by increased prison populations yet the social aim should be to reduce prison populations.
5. The obvious motives that these private prison companies would have in inciting violence like the riots we are currently seeing is worrying for now and for the future.
6. The black and white rhetoric that is being spouted by politicians is immoral and unjustifed. To paint all the rioters with the same brush is not fair, they do not all have the same reason to do what they are doing and they do not all live in the same circumstances. Every criminal act should be treated on an individual basis and for politicians to be claiming to or actually influencing courts decisions is immoral
7. The police and the courts should not be tools of the political establishment
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