Our Criminal Justice System - It's Criminal! Part 6

Think The Law Is A Joke! With regard to apprehending criminals and reducing crime, we know things are much better now with modern forensics and CCTV, etc. However, it is no good if the consequences for crime don’t have the desired effect. One policeman on TV, with regard to young car thieves, said that they will catch them and take them in and they will come straight out and do it again and again and again. Such car thieving and the resultant chases put the public in danger and usually result in thousands of pounds worth of damage. Cars get written off by being crashed or burnt out and police cars often get damaged in the chase, sometimes deliberately having to ram runaway vehicles to stop them. Innocent motorists also get caught up in the proceedings too and their cars are also badly damaged. As well as a number of police cars and resources, such activity often means involving the police helicopter, also at considerable cost to the public. Add it all up and it amounts to a lot of money, a waste of resources and considerable inconvenience. At present the public pay through the nose and the car thieves are having a laugh. And please tell me someone, what is the point of giving them a ban on their licence when they haven't got a licence to begin with? Or if they have, they've already lost it! It beats me. Young people that go and commit these sorts of crimes find it amusing and think that the law is a joke. Currently, I would have to concur, all too often it seems that it is! When a moped mugger who’s just stolen a handbag knows he can force a pursuing police car to abandon the chase by deliberately throwing off his crash helmet we can all see that the law has definitely lost its marbles. God, if he falls off and hurts himself, or worse, tough! He shouldn’t be doing it. Deliberately letting him get away means that the law is on his side, protecting him. But he’s the criminal! No wonder people think the law is a joke! It is! He’ll just go out and do it again. Never mind protecting the criminal! Who is protecting the victims? The innocent members of society who get robbed by this criminal and who have their lives badly affected by him and others like him on a daily basis!

Crime Causes Pain! Everybody knows the difference between right and wrong. Even at a young age, when as children we may be inclined to pinch sweets or similar, we still know it is wrong. If we didn't, we would be far more blatant and overt in the act. But we are not. We are underhanded and try to do it without being caught. That is because we know we shouldn't be doing it. The lesson, of course, that we have to learn, is not the difference between right and wrong, but that doing wrong is inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour. It causes pain to others. Some people reach adulthood without learning this lesson and go through life being a perpetual nuisance and inconvenience to others when at liberty. Are we failing people at an age when we should be paying more attention to them? We can always try appealing to a wrongdoer’s better nature. However, if they simply don't have a better nature, or choose not to exercise it, we must find alternative means. A tough enough short sharp shock may do the trick, but if it doesn't, the only alternative is to take them out of the equation. That is, remove them from society, or tag them. Anything less exposes innocent and vulnerable people and lowers our quality of being. For the victims of crime, the consequences are devastating and very uncomfortable. If we are ever to adequately address this problem, the consequences should be equally devastating and uncomfortable for those who commit crime. A limp and lethargic criminal justice system that fails to respond adequately only encourages more crime, and giving an easy ride in prison, even though they’d rather not be there, is often no memorable deterrent. If the consequences for the criminals are going to deter and diminish crime, they have to be taken seriously. Deterrents only deter if they are painful or uncomfortable enough. At the moment much of what goes down is laughable and ineffective in achieving that. It is an unfortunate fact that a very small percentage of people in society usually take the bulk of the attention of our police resources. This small percentage are usually consistent repeat offenders. It seems that all too often, right from an early age, they are not getting the message. We could do society a massive favour and save considerable money by putting that right!