Re: UK Riots
Posted: Aug 18, 2011, 14:30:09
So with the courts working overtime to sentence all those arrested over the riots, there are some, er, interesting sentences being handing out.
One guy got 2 days for stealing 2 t-shirts, another got 6 months for stealing 3 bottles of water (worst looter ever), a woman got 5 months for accepting a stolen pair of shorts and two people got 4 years for making what appeared to be a moderately serious attempt to organise a riot via Facebook. Another person tried to organise a riot via Facebook and he got a 3 month suspended sentence and banned from social websites for a year, though he was 16 and as such was tried in a youth court.
Obviously sentences were going to be a bit harsher than normal but they seem inconsistent, all that does is give a lot of people valid grounds to appeal and there is going to be a significant cost involved. The courts are independent of government and have their own sentencing guidelines, but there is intense pressure on courts to hand out out stiff sentences from the media and our PM who has said he expects all those involved to go to jail.
I was interested by the pair of Facebook idiots sentence. It was kind of amusing when people tried to use Facebook to organsie a riot, they would quickly find that their local police force had said they would be attending. I'm not sure if that happened in this case but they did not take part in any rioting, yet they ended up with the longest sentences out of anyone so far sentenced for riot related stuff. Their friends have said it was a joke, but it didn't really sound like one and it did cause concern in their town which caused some businesses to close early.
Inciting violence is a crime that comes with a maximum sentence of 5 years, but at what point can you be charged with it? There was a guy who walked past a news camera and said "let's have a riot!", is he going to get 4 years? If I say "let's all meet up at wherever, it'll be a riot", do I get 4 years?
It's also led to some on the right to call for social media sites to be shut down if there is some civil disorder, yeah let's follow the example of dictatorships. This is clearly stupid as countless people in the riot effected areas have pointed out. If you want to know where the riots are and how to get home without finding yourself in the middle of it then twitter is invaluable. Plus it makes it very easy for the police to know where to be if people are announcing their plans.
Another interesting development is that councils are now allowed to evict people who live in council owned property if they were involved in the riots. That sounds pretty reasonable, but there are a few issues with it. Let's take the example of the millionaire's daughter who took part in the rioting, she should get the same punishment as someone else who did the same things. But with this eviction thing it means that those in council houses find themselves with an extra punishment simply because they or their families don't own their own home. It can also mean that people who have done nothing wrong get evicted if someone in their family did. And what happens after you evict them?
There's a lot happening fast and I think we need to slow down a little and make sure we make the right decisions.
The "hanging's too good them" brigade are out in full force. I sarcastically suggested on a yahoo news story that we should use Pavlovian aversion therapy on all children, basically give them painful electric shocks while playing an unpleasant sound while they grow up, then when they are older all the police need do is play that sound and they will all cower and stop doing what you didn't like. Sadly it got more thumbs up than thumbs down, although someone did reply "you must be out of your ****** head". It wasn't the most extreme suggestion either. Most comments seemed to amount to "this didn't happen when I was young so it must be because parents or police aren't allowed to beat children", yeah there were no riots or violence in the past and those are the only things that have changed.
