Another great day for British “justice”

Take a look at this picture

This is Joe Paxton - he was driving a train in the Kidderminster area, minding his own business, when some morons dropped a slab off an overhead bridge.

The slab bounced off one train and went through the windscreen of the cab that Mr Paxton was in. He was knocked unconscious and received serious injuries.

The two oxygen thieves who performed this act of gross stupidity were caught and convicted. One of them was sent down for seven and a half years.

The defence team for this waste of good skin promptly launched an appeal against the sentence. No doubt paid for by Legal Aid funded by the honest tax-payers of this country - you know, the likes of you, me and Mr Paxton.

As a result of this appeal, Daniel Ratcliffe had his sentence reduced to six years, meaning he will be out in three. Free to “laugh and joke” about how he and his mate nearly killed a man.

If I were Mr Paxton and his family, I don’t think words could describe how I would be feeling right now.

Thank you to the Court of Appeal for once again capitulating to the whims of the criminal and ignoring the victims of crime.

You can read the story here.

(First posted on Police Oracle forum 1013 20/02/0

Diana inquest cost now over £6 million….

…. and you know what?

She’s still dead (allegedly)

Ashes to Ashes

Fire up the Quattro!

DCI Gene Hunt has transferred to the Met. No doubt he has had his Diversity training and is as politically correct as ever.

The follow-up to Life on Mars starts tonight on BBC1 at 2100.

Policing as it used to be done!

Paul Routledge and the truth - never the twain shall meet

Either Mr Routledge is extremely ill-informed, or he is being deliberately provocative? Either way, it’s a classic example of a journalist who won’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I’ve had enough of police whining

Paul Routledge 25/01/2008

Wednesday was Burglars’ Holiday, courtesy of the massed ranks of police officers who took the day off to invade Westminster.

More than 20,000 coppers wearing silly white baseball caps deserted the thick blue line to protest about being given a pay rise.

I wonder who was protecting us while they exercised their unlawful right to hold a one-day strike in the capital. Their law-abiding mates, I suppose.

This work stoppage must have been illegal because it can’t be true that every one of the 25,000 protesters took a legitimate day off.

And they are forbidden by statute to strike. The Manchester force alone sent 950 officers to London. Yet police chiefs are always moaning they are undermanned.

The opposite is plainly true. I suppose the protesters will make up any lost dosh in overtime. The average copper makes £2,900 a year that way, at an annual cost to the nation of £440million.

That’s on top of their salaries, which go up by around a thousand quid every year, on top of the 2.5 per cent rise that upset them so much. There comes a point when we have to say “enough is enough”, and they should calm down and accept they cannot have everything they want.

That point has now been reached. Most workers would envy the policeman’s salary, his fat, index-linked pension, his early retirement and his generous sick pay and his immunity from prosecution when he shoots dead a mildly inebriated Scotsman for the crime of carrying a chair leg in a public place.

The same police who demand the right to lock up people for 42 days without charge, and possibly without even saying what they are supposed to have done. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the politician who says cops can’t have their cash, is still willing to believe police chiefs need SIX WEEKS to interview suspects.

This business of unelected police bosses telling the elected government what its policies should be has to stop. And the place to stop it is the House of Commons, where MPs are being asked - no, told - to back new detention laws.

Aside from the merits of the case, it’s good for governments to be defeated occasionally. Taking ministers down a peg or two does wonders for their egos. But this time it would be sound policy too.

Tony Blair tried to keep suspects detained for 90 days, and had to settle for 28. MPs should keep it at that - if only to put the impertinent police in their place.

Those who live by the sword…

Perhaps the people on trial went a little bit too far with their summary justice, but how much would crime reduce if more burglars ended up like this?

Burglar died after beating

A burglar was stabbed and beaten to death by a gang of neighbours after they caught him raiding one of their flats in a Wolverhampton tower block, a court heard this afternoon.Drug addict Alan Harris, pictured, was attacked by five men after he was caught “red handed” stealing a TV, DVD player and DVDs, it was alleged.

Mr Christopher Hotten QC, prosecuting, said: “It was a low and despicable crime to burgle a neighbour in such a way. He was to pay the ultimate price.”

Lee Gannon, Wayne Buchanan, Michael Joyce, Patrick Summers and Dale Francis all deny murdering Mr Harris, aged 37, in Wodensfield Tower, Wednesfield, early on March 11.

The court heard his killers beat Mr Harris up and dragged him to the 15th floor where he was dumped in a lift and had bleach poured over him in an attempt to clean the scene.

He died later in New Cross Hospital from multiple injuries including skull fractures and a stab wound. The victim lived alone in Flat 17 on the third floor of the flats in Plym Close. Cocaine, amphetamines and Ecstasy were found in his body.

The jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told that on the night he died Mr Harris broke into Flat 85 at Wodensfield Tower, the home of Gannon, 25.

He took the electronic equipment along with a Burberry cap and even the bed to exchange for drugs and returned to Flat 85.

Mr Hotten said Gannon returned home with Buchanan, 27, of Rushall Road, Northwood Park, and Summers, 23, of Dudley Road, Wolverhampton.

Meanwhile a party was taking place at the nearby flat of Joyce, a friend of Gannon. Joyce and Francis, who was at the party and lived in Wodensfield Tower, both aged 19, joined in the attack, it was alleged.

The trial continues.

(First posted on Police Oracle forum 1746 21/01/08 )

Metal detectors in schools

The latest plan from the funny farm!

The Home Secretary, in an attempt to divert attention away from all the other stupid decisions she has made, has publicised plans to install metal detectors in hundreds of schools to combat knife crime.

So Mrs Smith, how will this be managed?

Will there be several hundred police officers on duty every morning at schools, staffing the detectors, to seize any weapons found and to deal with the carriers? I don’t think so.

Will private security guards, with no powers of search, be used? Possibly - more money that will have to be found out of school budgets?

How about using the teachers, who do have delegated powers to search? Hang on - isn’t their job to teach kids, not to frisk them before they get into lessons?

What a complete and utter waste of time and money this will be. It is a complete non-starter. Kids have been smuggling fags, booze and porn into school for years and will find a way to get knives past the detector. In fact, they don’t need to, as there will be plenty of knives and other sharp objects in the Design department, so why bother bringing their own?

Somebody somewhere will make a fortune out of supplying these detectors and somebody else will get shafted with the responsibility of staffing the doors. It’s a recipe for disaster!

(First posted on Police Oracle forum 1048 20/01/0

Thug given ASBO and quad bike lessons

A story in today’s Shropshire Star.

Why is he being “offered treats”?

Why can’t he earn them like the rest of us?

With a bit of luck, he’ll go too fast and break his neck, thus taking himself out of the gene pool.

(First posted on Police Oracle forum 1407 19/01/0

Paying for sex should be outlawed

At last - a Government policy proposal I can agree with.

This must mean that they are going to scrap the CSA!

I’ve been paying for sex since my divorce - I dread to think how much those two legovers have cost me!

Call to account

 Olympics costs ‘could rise again’

A government report is warning there is a 20% chance the cost of staging the 2012 Olympic Games in London could rise again, the BBC has learned.

It comes after ministers announced a budget for the event of £9.3bn in March - a figure four times higher than that foreseen in the original Olympics bid.

They are now set to publish their most detailed breakdown of the costs.

BBC sports editor Mihir Bose says ministers are confident the budget is “robust”, despite persistent criticism.

He says this confidence is likely to be exuded by Olympics minister Tessa Jowell when she makes a written statement on details of the budget to the House of Commons later.

In November, the House of Commons public accounts committee attacked ministers over planning for the event, saying foreseeable costs had been “grossly underestimated”.

I didn’t vote for it.

I don’t know anyone who voted for it.

Yet I’m going to end up paying for it.

How can this hypocritical government moan and whinge about public sector pay rises on the one hand, then approve increases in the Olympic budget on such a massive scale?

The Home Office may have saved £30million by reneging on an established pay deal, but that is a drop in the ocean compared to the vast sums being pumped into yet another white elephant in London.

Cancellation

Amy Whinehouse (spot the deliberate typo - it’s more polite than Shitehouse) has cancelled all of her concerts for the rest of the year.

 Perhaps when she comes back, she’ll have learned how to sing?