Law And Disorder

The UK’s courts often fail to protect the lawful and but are usually even worse at protecting the emergency services ....

Thugs Assault Two UK Police Officers In London.

..... and only 13 per cent of those who are charged with assaults on police and the emergency services actually receive jail sentences. The two above were both jailed, but its a comparatively rare event.

There were 11,964 cases sent to courts between November 2018, and September 2019, according to Ministry of Justice figures with 80 per cent (9,629) convictions, but just 13 per cent of these (1,518) got a custodial sentence, and 18 per cent received only a fine. The police federation called it 'an insult' to front line services, and the truth is we as a society often seem to accept the police being treated as punch-bags by our scumbags.

Another Ambush Of Police Officers - 10th of June 2020.

After an attack in Hackney, the Police Federation said: "We are not society's punch bags." Four of the attackers were arrested later. Three were 'men', aged 20, 32 and 34, while the fourth was a 13-year-old. I hope that they faced lengthy sentences, but I somehow doubt it.

However the killing of police constable Andrew Harper, and the low sentences handed down in court to his killers (15 and 13 years respectively ... so with time off just 7 and 6 years in reality but even so they immediately appealed them), caused such public disquiet that half a million people signed a petition to lengthen the sentences to life for police killers. This has resulted in the case of PC Harper being referred for consideration of higher sentences, and produced calls for a fixed life sentence for anyone who kills emergency service workers.

We shall see whether this gets watered down by liberal politicians in parliament or liberal judges in the courts .....


Murder Rates Are Not Always Useful

Looking at these figures, one would suppose that the USA is a very dangerous place to live .....

Western Murder Rates

..... but when you see the world picture .....

There Really Are Some Dreadful Places To Live (and often Die)

.....its actually a comparatively safe place. But .... Not if you don't want to be killed by law officers.

In just March 2015 alone, 111 people were killed by police in the US, but by contrast, police in the UK have killed just 69 people between the year 1900 and March 2015.

It does makes you wonder about guns and societal violence, as even with the US population difference of a nearly 5 times larger population (328.2 million USA v 66.65 million UK), it alone wouldn't account for the disparity in police killings .... but guns and their availability would.