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The Soft-on-Crime Roots of British Disorder In a civilized society
people would be allowed to defend themselves with guns, The Wall Street Journal, August 16 2011 As wild gangs of youths burned homes, shops and cars and severely beat anyone who tried to stop them last week, English people tried to defend themselves. Their desperation triggered a 5,000% increase in purchases of baseball bats from Amazon.This is a sad symbol of the failure of the British approach to crime—with its sympathy for offenders, intolerance of self-defense, and unwillingness to pay for adequate crime control. A people once proud of their peaceful country and unarmed policemen had to resort to clubs to protect life and limb. Great Britain's leniency began in the
1950s, with a policy that only under extraordinary
circumstances would anyone under 17 be sent to prison.
This was meant to rehabilitate young offenders (…)
There has been justifiable concern about causes of crime
such as poverty and unemployment, but little admission
that some individuals prefer theft to work and that
deterrence must be taken seriously. Meanwhile, the cost of criminal justice has convinced British governments to shorten the sentences of adult criminals, even those guilty of violent crimes, and to release them when they have served half of their sentence. Police have been instructed by the British Home Office to let burglars and first-time offenders who confess to any of some 60 crimes—ranging from assault and arson to sex with an underage girl—off with a caution. That means no jail time, no fine, no community service, no court appearance. In 2009, 70% of apprehended burglars avoided prison, according to British Ministry of Justice figures. The same year, 20,000 young offenders were electronically tagged and sent home, a 40% increase in the number of people tagged over three years. All sorts of weapons useful for self-defense have been severely restricted or banned. A 1953 law, the "Prevention of Crime Act," made any item someone carried for possible protection an "offensive weapon" and therefore illegal. Today there is also a list of devices the mere possession of which carries a 10-year sentence. Along with rocket launchers and machine guns, the list includes chemical sprays and any knife with a blade more than three inches long. Handguns? Parliament banned their
possession in 1997. Knives? It's illegal for anyone under age 18 to buy one, and using a knife for self-defense is unlawful. In 1991, American tourist Dina Letarte of Tempe, Ariz., used a penknife to protect herself from a violent attack by three men in a London subway. She was convicted of carrying an offensive weapon, fined, and given a two-year suspended sentence. The result of policies that punish the innocent but fail to deter crime has been stark, even before the latest urban violence. The last decade has seen a doubling of gun crime. According to the latest annual report of the Home Office (2009), there was a 25% increase in crimes involving contact, such as assault and battery, over the previous year. The Conservative government came to
power pledging to end the police "caution
culture" and permit more scope for self-defense. But
old habits die hard. The Conservative recommendation in
December 2009 to permit householders to use any force
"not grossly disproportionate" against an
intruder was described in the Guardian newspaper as
"backward and barbaric."And despite the
uselessness of police during the recent urban
violence—standing in line while thugs hurled bricks
and bottles at them and looted and burned—Home
Secretary Theresa May initially ruled out the use of
water cannons or asking for army help, insisting on Sky
News that "the way we police in Britain is not
through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain
is through consent of communities." But the people of London have taken matters into their own hands. In a Turkish neighborhood, shopkeepers and their families protected their street standing guard all night."They come to our shops," one man told the London Daily Mail last week, "and we fight them with sticks." When a gang invaded an upscale restaurant, threatening customers and demanding their valuables, the staff attacked them brandishing knives and drove them out. The lesson from many years of failed criminal justice policies is that deterrence matters, police cannot always protect the public from violence and criminality, and ordinary people must be allowed to protect themselves. Reducing them to baseball bats is unconscionable. (1050 words) |