Please support this campaign. It’s attempt to provide a positive solution to the tragic results of alcohol related violence.
There are some interesting statistics about the number of injuries and the cost of treating them. It will come as no surprise to learn that the offender was sentenced to two years and served only seven months.
Thanks to Girl Next Door for caring enough to publicise the Golding’s story. These are honest and decent people who need our support.
When I see pictures of a decent lad injured like this after a violent attack I feel sorry that police couldn’t be there to prevent the incident.
Where were local officers at the time?
Local officers from the C5 unit were sat in the station completing paperwork, whilst the batteries were recharging?
Another sad statistic of ‘modern’ Britain!
Up here, our clubs do in the main now use plastic tumblers etc, however we also have a city byelaw passed by our council which makes it an offence to drink from an open container of alcohol in a public street except for certain occasions. Before the band wagonners jump on this is Policed with common sense!!!! But its a brilliant tool for keeping the glass bottles off the streets. The locals all know now that they aren’t allowed them and even those that try to sneak one out usually hand it over as soon as we approach them or just looking at them has them putting it in the bin. Doesn’t stop everything but it all helps!
Interestingly, in Scotland just before the last election, our pathetic Labour politicians tried to bribe the public by making a pot of cash available to Police for ring fenced initiatives, ie high profile policing! Our Force applied and got the money, as such we had on average an additional 6 to 10 officers working at weekends from around 9pm till the clubs closed in addition to normal strength (or lack of it!). Would you adam and eve it…………. serious assaults etc all down sginificantly, people commenting on how much safer its been, great to see Police etc etc. Funnily enough minor scraps, brawls etc went up slightly but that was because we had cops at the doors stepping in and sorting it out before it got out of hand and someone ended up like the poor lad above.
Of course now the pot has been spent and so its back to what you had and hey who cares says the Politicians, elections over and its not my son………….
2 years for a section 18! This appears to have been premeditated from the minute attacked the female colleague. It was a sustained attack continuing after the victim was down, therefore should have received the longest sentence available. I think a starting point of 8 years is not unjust in circumstances.
and yet if the offender had tried to commit white collar fraud (for example) and had succeeded in slightly denting the governments purse then you can be certain he would have served more than 7 months. The sentencing guidlines, especially for violent offences, in this country are a complete and utter joke. No one should be able to serve as a judge unless they have been violently attacked/burgled or lost someone through a criminal act, that way the complete and utter bias towards the suspect will be wieghed back in the favour ofthe victim and as long as the evidence is there to convict before a jury then so be it.
The campaign’s demand for polycarbonate glasses and bottles is so obvious… how many injuries would it prevent… there is no reasonable defence for glass bottles and glasses. The danger has been around for years… it’s nothing new. Manufacturers, pubs and clubs have been slow to respond.
Already, in the USA, Budweiser have an aluminum (or aluminium) “bottle” shaped can… it’s more pleasant than a traditional can to drink straight from.
Why has nobody tried to sue the drinks manufacturers, or the pubs and clubs… it’s their bottles and glasses that are used to cause the injuries…
Just one case would have the licencees rushing to buy polycarbonate…..
By the way… broken polycarbonate can still have sharp edges… would polypropylene be better still?
The sentence that the offender actually served for this crime is disgraceful. But it comes as no surprise to me. Where I work, drug dealers who are convicted of dealing class a drugs are now getting fines. I had two people whom I put to court recently, the dealer got a smaller fine for dealing class a drugs than the lad who I caught doing a handbrake turn in the road. The country on a whole is getting softer on crime in general and it is the poor public like the man in your blog who pay the penalty.
I did like your entry about the Monday morning hindsight police, the ones who actively avoid real policing. They know who they are - are they not ashamed ??
We can take steps like making safe bottles and glasses but at the end of the day it’s someones hand that does the damage.
What we need are realistic punishments for offenders, if people are dealt with appropriately they may think twice.
I agree with the approach taken in the USA where they have local jails. It may appear over the top but we should lock people away for drunken assaults or violent behaviour.
That is very close to home right now. Some of you will have seen my own blog entry and images from last Saturday. Fortunately my son looks a little more normal tonight. Thanks to pcsouthwest for your comments. I agree with you.
I am referring to the attack on my lad last Friday evening:
http://whispersandrants.blogspot.com/2007/06/very-very-annoyed.html
BC
I’ve just signed up and emailed my MP.
At a guess i’d say that a pint glass is cheaper than a pint polycarbonate. That reason will probably be why pubs continue to use glass.
Also i’d imagine that glass won’t scratch as easily as polycarbonate and lasts longer, again it’s directly linked to money.
If one pub in every town changed to polycarbonate and everyone wanted to drink there, don’t you think that the other pubs would follow suit?
So long as we go to the same places regardless of issues such as this (myself included), there’s no incentive for the pubs to change.
It should have been forced through as a condition, when all pubs had to apply for a new licence after 24hour drinking was introduced. Local councils all have the ability to be quite strict with conditions, on new licence applications.
Recently where I work, the council (after being advised by our licencing officer) said they’d withdraw a pubs licence, unless they employed more door staff, stopped letting more people in after a certain time, moved the DJ box to the other end of the pub and were more vigilant and stopped serving drunk customers, after a high number of disturbances there. The changes were carried out, the licence wasnt withdrawn and now we are rarely called there - RESULT!
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T, you can only be ashamed if you have a conscience as the hindsight club have no conscience they are not ashamed.
Even if the police are at full force and not doing paperwork they can’t be there all the time and the bad guys would just wait until they moved on.
That is where the justice system comes in. To punish the offenders. not stop them before they do anything.
This is just another example of where the government fails us. Doesn’t let us defend ourselves yet doesn’t do anything either.
‘A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.’ - From a US blog.
As a special, I see this most weekends, especially on foot patrol in the town centre. It’s a duty I particularly hate, but it does make me feel I have helped “make a difference” on the odd occasion there are a lot of us out- like when the estates are quiet and the shift is at full compliment.
Small scuffles on the main street are quickly stopped by a couple of us yellow-jacketed Bobbies pulling and pushing people apart. We usually listen to those involved for a brief moment, and then march them in separate directions with strong words of advice…
“No complaint?, no crime mate”, “your drunk, right? So report it tomorrow!”, “get in that taxi and go home….now!”.
….end of story, and the next morning everyone involved wakes up with an awful hangover but without an injury or interview with a solicitor sat next to them.
But if a couple of us have arrested someone and everyone else is still tied up with the domestics, estate-pub fights and RTC’s-thats when the wheel falls off.
The scuffles quickly develop into extreme violence, as drunken friends start to “help out”. Big pushes and grabs become flailing strikes and then it’s a full-on “big fight”, glass smashing, arms and legs swinging, women screaming, men grunting and the inevitable blood. By the time a nearby pair of Bobbies have heard the radio shout and sprinted down the street in their big hats, high-vis coats, boots and body armour, they are too late. Someone is motionless on the ground bleeding heavily, others are floating around shouting about their bloody nose/mouth and torn shirt, and at least one person is still arguing with whoever speaks to them. The ambulance is called, and then its the mess of everyone shouting at once, accusing, complaining and drunkenly explaining, people moving away, people coming over, and others still arguing in the background, while CCTV gives descriptions and nearby door-staff wander over to give their version of events.
It’s usually at this exact moment, on the other side of the town centre, that a scuffle starts between two different groups of people……
Agree with Dave Petterson’s comment. The Government tie the hands of the police by putting the weight in favour of the criminal but tie the public’s hands by not allowing them to fight back, just be expected to stand & take it, I’m not going to start on a rant but the crux of the matter is, the government need to give the police back the powers to do something about this kind of thing & all crime for that matter. not weigh them down with yet more red tape & “don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do the other”
Ah well, suppose we can all dream….
IG, Lily Allen’s ‘Cheryl Tweedy’ song, I read the lyrics & I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing it reminds you of me & my blog!!! Lol
I agree that alcohol related violence is a huge problem. I’m not sure there is an answer, short of banning booze entirely. Don’t get me wrong, I love a few drinks myself. But I know my limits, and have never become violent- i just talk even more when i have had a drink!
There are normal decent people who enjoy unwinding over a few drinks, then there are the those who choose to abuse it and then become violent. Alcohol loosens inhibitions. So maybe those who are prone to violence when they have a few drinks already have it in them. Maybe those who do commit such offences feel that “I was drunk” somehow is a defence. But they have to have it in them to do such a thing anyway.
I hope that glasses are changed to at least make sure that attacks such as this do cause less harm to the victim. I just think it’s terrible that our society needs it.
Jock the Cop, I know the initiative you are talking about. I raised it the possibility of my force (a neighbouring force to yours) running a similar initiative, and got back an utter load of bull**** stating that it was a short term initiative, and wait for it, welfare concerns regarding officers who would have to work overtime. Funnily enough I can’t recall it being disputed that an extra police present deters and tackles crime!
The fact is that Brits (particularly the English) have a problem with drinks. There are no other nation I know which behaves that way, and gets violent.
Now, lets not blame the glasses or the pubs. I for one prefer to drink in a glass, and I resent having to modify my ways which hurt no one, because of the lowest common denominator. All you are doing is removing responsibility from the one wielding the weapon.
As a poster commented, when there was more police in the streets, it worked.
Funny that.
In the 3 months after the bombings in London crime dropped massively (over a third I believe) all accross the board but in particular with drunken assualt offences. The number of people arrested for D&D/Public Order went through the roof.
The main reason for this was stated by the Met Police Authority as the result of a ’significant increase’ of uniformed Police officers and not just PCSO’s. The only problem was it blew apart the budget for the next 3-5 years because every man and his dog left the office for a few days a month to work a night shift as over time. I agree with what Pascal said, there is no subsitute for a full PSU outside a pub to give a second thought to those who whould try it on normally.