One Justice or No Justice

Regional News 23rd July:

A five-year-old boy has been left with a broken leg after a hit-and-run in Blackburn.
Lancashire Police said the boy was hit in Whitwell Place at 20:00 BST on Wednesday. He was kept in the Royal Blackburn Hospital overnight. The driver is described as an "Asian woman wearing a burkha", who was in a silver car. Police from the road policing unit, appealed for witnesses and the driver to come forward.

OK where do I start with this story ....

• What could a new witness describe ... an "Asian woman wearing a burkha"? They already got that, so only a number plate would help.
• How could an identification parade work? All women in a burkha look identical ... not even their children know by sight. (Its one of the spurious reasons that some Saudi's put forward against women driving in that country ... can't ID the driver. )
• For less serious offences - no one would ever be able to identify the driver of a car from police cameras etc, even if the number plates were seen. You can only detain on reasonable suspicion, but not prosecute.

As an example of this last point, I recently saw a UK police 'reality' show from the Midlands, where 3 Asian youths had been caught speeding around an estate in a car with no documents etc, but all denied being the driver. One of them had the car keys in his pocket which the police confiscated ... he said he had been looking after them 'for the driver' who had 'run off' when the police caught the car.

The police were made to look stupid by three 17 yr olds, who even got cocky without being arrested ... one of them telling the police officer that 'you look like your educated, yeah?', because despite the obvious lying, the Crown Prosecution Service are too inept to be able to prosecute this sort of case (the solution is to prosecute them all, like they do in gang murders). Insult was added to injury, when as the police impounded the car to be crushed (there being 'no owner' ... and it wasn't insured or taxed), the man who had been 'looking after the keys' demanded that they give him back his house keys, which had somehow attached themselves to the 'drivers' car keys, in the few seconds that the police took to stop them (and in which Einsteinian time, the driver had also managed to 'run off' unseen be anyone).

One Justice or No Justice?

While we continue to pussyfoot around Asians and other groups like this (because they may be offended by anything we do, or even by our laws), and don't apply laws equally to them, as well as the rest of us, then the anger amongst those of us who are not allowed to get away with this nonsense, just grows.

We either have the same laws for all, applied equally for all, or no laws, and let us sort out issues by the mob - something many immigrant groups would find to be 'just like justice back home'.            

Crawling Out From Under A Rock

There is a term in the English language about what 'crawls out from under a rock' when you turn it over.

The police investigation into the sex crimes alleged to have been committed by the late, and not so great Sir James Saville  OBE, KCSG, was the turning over of a very large rock, and some very big insects have been crawling from under it .....

The Police operation has three strands.

• One is looking specifically at the actions of Jimmy Savile, and 
• The second strand concerns allegations against "Savile and others". 
• The separate third strand relates to alleged complaints against other people unconnected to the Jimmy Savile investigations.

So far, as a direct result of the investigation, and its related enquiries, five people have been arrested:  Max Clifford (publicist), Freddie Starr (comedian), Gary Glitter (ex pop star and convicted child sex offender), Wilfred De'Ath (a retired BBC producer), and Dave Lee Travis (ex DJ and radio broadcaster). Police have also questioned under caution a man in his 80's (who we can't name, but whom its speculated is a very well known TV presenter).

Arrested or 'Interviewed under caution' - More expected.

The publicity has also rattled old skeletons up and down the country ..... with the well known TV presenter Stuart Hall OBE arrested for unrelated sexual allegations ..... it should be pointed out that not all of the arrests (details on their web links), relate to the sexual abuse of children, some of those arrested have been charged with sexual offences related to adults. Not that this excuses them of any crime, if they are firstly ever brought to trials, and then secondly found guilty of the crimes which they are accused of.

What we can comment on is the general age of those so far arrested or interviewed under caution .... all of them are well over fifty years of age, with the youngest being the 59 year old Clifford. This suggests a 'culture' of some kind existed in the 'celebrity circuit' of a generation or so ago .... its very strange.

Justice Is Blind - For Rich and Poor

However they have not been found guilty of anything to-date and therefore are all presumed innocent until proven guilty, despite all the speculation on some sites. Its possible that the claims are entirely fictitious in some cases - sadly we live in a society where some people would try to make money out of falsely accusing an individual of the most hideous of crimes. Justice in these high profile cases must not only be carried out blindly, but it Must Be Seen to Be Done, or it isn't justice.

NB: Please don't speculate about identities of people not named by the police .... its illegal, often wrong, and brings down the wrath of lawyers ..... and I will delete the comments.    

Justice For All?

Sharia Law is being increasingly used by Muslim communities in the UK and other countries, often by those immigrants who have little in common, either linguistically or culturally with Britain. It is a system of law derived from a combination of sources including the Quran, the Hadith (which are a collection of stories based on the life of the prophet Muhammad), and Fatwas, which are rulings of Islamic 'scholars'.

However there are a number of issues with this as the basis of fair laws:

1. Women are not considered the equal of men in both the Koran and Sharia Law (Quran 4:34 – ‘Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient’).
2. The Hadith were only collated long after his death (around 200 years later) and were maintained in just oral tradition, and many seem to have been created decades or centuries after the events. Turkish scholars have acknowledged that these have been  much added to over the centuries, and many stories were added to suit local leaders (religious or otherwise) needs at the time of their creation, so are not a safe source. Interestingly the Sunni and Shia have many different stories in their Hadith which makes them even more problematic.
3. The Hadith includes such things as the basis for men taking child brides (Muhammad married Aisha when she was aged 9 or 10 and he was a man in late middle age).
4. Fatwas have not prominence over each other and therefore can be and often are contradictory - anyone who is deemed a religious leader locally can pass them as long as they have been 'trained' in Islamic law (which can mean many things) and  unlike for example the Catholic Pope, there is no overarching authority on the rulings. Fatwas are not universally binding; which makes Sharia law non universal or consistent. An example of a fatwa was the Sudanese Teddy Bear name Muhammad story, when a Fatwa by a local cleric decided to punish a foreign teacher for the fact that her kindergarten kids named a Teddy bear 'Mohammed'.

Men Demonstrating For Sharia Law - they cover their faces.

Just today, three Muslim men (Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed) have been found guilty of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation when they handed out leaflets entitled "Death Penalty?", "Gay - an acronym for God Abhors You" or "Turn Or Burn" at a mosque and through local letterboxes in Derby, calling for homosexual people to be given the death sentence. In the leaflets they quoted the same Islamic texts which would also be used in Sharia laws and jurisprudence. They said this themselves in their defence .... they claimed they were simply following and quoting what their religion taught them about homosexuality and did not intend to threaten anyone.

And in case you think that these Sharia laws are never applied, and don't 'threaten anyone' ... on December the 12th in 2011 (a month ago) the Saudi Courts executed a woman for practising "witchcraft and sorcery" and in October 2011 a Sudanese man was publicly beheaded in a car park in the city of Medina for "witchcraft and sorcery".

Sharia Executions are public

These are not isolated cases, and this is not a theoretical discussion. An ICM opinion poll in 2006 showed that 40% of Muslims in the UK wanted Sharia Law in parts of Britain. In Pakistan in 2009, a poll showed the following levels of support for aspects of Sharia .... 

Pakistani Opinion Supports Sharia Punishments

 ... and whats opinion in Pakistan today, arrives in Britain tomorrow. 

Finally, the Muslims in the UK actively benefit by the UK having 'secular' laws that protect them, while they reject the idea of the host society having any jurisprudence over them. Sadly this just another example of the vast majority being asked to bow to the demands of a 'special' minority, who just refuse to try to fit in with the host society. "Justice for all" should be same for both men and women, and for all religions or the non religious ... not one law for us, and another set of laws for a religious group.

Justice or Vengeance?

I know I shouldn't be, but I can't help feeling sorry for ex Panama Strongman (and then friend of the US) General Manuel Noriega.

 

General Manuel Noriega US Prison

 

I mean, as Dictators go he was small fry, which doesn't of course lessen his crimes (drug running, murder, corruption and embezzlement are some of the charges), but in the scheme of these things he was more Presidenti Mustachio rather than Saddam Hussein.

Dumbass Comments

What can you say when a public servant, who's primary aim should be the protection of the public from dangerous convicted criminals, makes the complaint that 'society is too "risk-averse" to allow 'life term' prisoners to be released early from jail'.

What sort of idiot, apparently believes that the public should be prepared to take risks and let so called 'lifers' i.e. murderers, serial rapists, ever dangerous paedophiles etc out on the street early?

Well the UK Parole Board chairman Sir David Latham, is named in the story as stating that the drop in the proportion of 'life-term' inmates who were freed was an "over-reaction" According to the story, over the past five years, the proportion of life sentence prisoners who have successfully applied for release has dropped from about 35% to 15%. Sir David said this was an "over-reaction" when re-offending rates had remained stable at between 1% and 2%.

He raised the prospect that his interview would be "distorted" by the press but said an open debate on the issue was needed ..... it almost beggars belief that someone in his position wants 'life-term' prisoners released faster. I would have thought that 35% was far too high, and that something between 5 -10% would be more in line with what we as a public want let out,

What's worse, is the irony that these released prisoners are described as 'life-term' inmates, when they patently are not .... its part of the great liberal con played on the rest of us, that we continue to describe fixed term sentences as 'life', when they are patently not, else I wouldn't have a story to blog on.

Justice For All?

I was much struck by one aspect of the biker murder trial, that is the sentencing ....

Bikers Challenge The Police

.... all the participants (whether the gunman or not) were given 'Life' (well what passes for a Life sentence in the UK i.e. you will be released at some time) sentences. One look at their supporters, gives you a clue that apart from a 'leather fetish', threatening behaviour is another big factor in their lives!