Strider,

I believe the Mags have to take the PROSECUTION case at its highest. The difficulty is that often the CPS argue the fear of commission of further offences and/or failing to surrender. Often, the record of previous convictions does not show a history of offences committed whilst on bail and the fact that the defendant has appeared in court as well as having no fail to surrender on record makes a remand into custody almost impossible. The court can only work from the evidence provided - it doesn’t know this person inside out like the police do - and it doesn’t have the luxury of a crystal ball. Of course, what it could do is remand everyone in custody just to be on the safe side and then sit back and watch defendant after defendant win on appeal.

But do we really believe that we can live in a society completely devoid of any form of morality,and expect certain others to behave themselves?

To the intelligent person such influences as, the multitude of ridiculus soap operas; the sensationalist newspapers; the political lies;the lionizing of idiots; and the lax criminal justice system, are merely sources of amusement or debate.
But all these negative influences , to the more gullible, near sighted individuals register unconsciously as a society out of control,and they act accordingly.
Can anybody name a positive role model that the masses can look up to? There’s nobody who trips off the tongue,is there? Nobody in the popular media who stands out as a beacon.
Though I’ll wager we could all name a few negative unfluences. So what did we really expect would happen when a generation was exposed to such influences without any guidence?

Basically, if you Keep walking around a dung pile, you’ll eventually smell of dung.

So where’s the answer? Well, personally I would say a stronger presence of religion. ( Yes,I know what some people will be thinking!) I do believe that religion could act as a distraction at very least; an alternative viewpoint to let the masses know there is another set of beliefs other than the accumulation of material goods.

I’m actually an athiest, by the way;but I can see the positive points a stronger religious presence could bring to a society such as ours.

We can keep building prisons until this little island of ours sinks into the waves,and we can birch every offender until they become so thick skinned it no longer makes a difference. But it won’t change anything in the long term because they’ll just keep coming; and they’ll keep coming more frequently because we’re breeding them.
We must find a way to address the real source of our troubles.

On one side a clued up and persuasive defence brief, paid for out of my pocket, who is allowed to put forward the grossest lies on behalf of his client - since he is required to believe everything his client says and present it in the most compelling way.

On the other side an overworked and under-qualified CPS mouthpiece who only read the case papers ten minutes ago and presents to the Court a simplified precis of the offence and offender without knowing either in depth.

The Magistrates - bless their simple hearts - are required to accept the defence argument at its strongest and only remand if there is no other option. If a person presents with a good address a promise not to contact and a willingness to be curfewed then few would argue that there is no other option; especially if the CPS argument is simply that ‘he might commit further offences’.

On that basis what would the ‘reasonable man in the street’, whom the Mags are supposed to represent, do?

As a local councillor, I regularly see problems linked to under resourcing, in detection and reporting, I can see issues with the CPS and their understanding and capability, crazy sentencing guidelines for magistrates and the judiciary quirky decisions and the lack of commitment to keep members of our society safe from dangerous people.

In my part of the world we are regularly told that crime is reducing, that the public has an incorrect perception about how things are and the need to help people see the error of their ways. I have commented on my reaction to that previously.

I am often updated on the statistics to support these claims. Reading a number of the comments on this post I can see that the numbers are only as reliable as the management flavour of the month. I can also see that some posters resist or refuse to get involved in this fogging process. GOOD ON YER!

Looking back over your own posts I can see a number of examples or themes where numbers are being massaged, including drives for Section 5 or not, vehicle crime or not, now burglaries or not. Violent assault against the police during arrests seems not to have any downside for culprits.

The Norfolk Police document that talks about reclassifying broken windows on cars, initiatives for ethical reporting and others.

Governments latest agenda seem to revolve around a partnerships approach that is designed to keep us so busy having circular discussions and meetings that things do not move and there are loads of opportunity for “plausible deniability” and reams of foggy statistics.

Four questions:

At what level/rank in an individual force do we find people with the responsibility for stopping this stupid situation and why do they not act (probably career, backbone or other self interest)?
Do members of a police authority have any say?
How do you folk stay sane through this?
What can we do as MOPS?

http://www.norfolk.police.uk/article.cfm?artID=11086&catID=638&bctrail=-1

“The constabulary has one of the best-resourced teams of crime recording auditors in the country - a team of three people dedicated solely to monitoring the ethical recording of crime in the county.

“This demonstrates our commitment to accurate and ethical crime recording processes and it is these processes that lead to accurate data.”

I bet Norfolk folk would prefer resources devoted to Crime Prevention rather than Crime Counting

“All the fellatious talk” I thought it was rude to talk with your mouth full?

Perhaps that would let Magistrates impose more suitable custodial sentences on the multiple violent wrongdoers?