Repressive treatment of rioters

That makes me wonder how they will fit all these people in jails. How about sentencing them to clean up the areas where they wrecked stuff? You broke it, you fix it.

Well, yeah. You didn’t really think blindboyard was a good person, did you?

Hey, Der Trihs, I didn’t know you had a twin.

Hey blindboy, just thought I should let you know something that you may have missed this lifetime: you’re an idiot.

Quote: SeldomSeen

Quote: Captaine Zombie

'Twasn’t porn, it was a piece I read years ago by someone who claimed to be a journalist and to have been there. No, I can’t remember who, or even where I read it. Not an impeccable source, wouldn’t have used it anywhere else but the pit. And yes, I know De Gaulle didn’t exactly shine…in fact he fled to Germany for a time. That was intended to be taken with a dose of cynicism which didn’t come across very well.

Quote: Kobal2

It may very well have been fanciful or at least apocryphal as I noted above. Point is, the police have often achieved a reputation for brutality in dealing with riots. At Kent State the authorities panicked and opened fire on the protesters. In Beijing in 1989 they fired indiscriminately into the crowd and ran people down with tanks.

In the present situation the British authorities have by comparison shown a fair amount of restraint.

Are you vying for the award for the most BS posts in one thread? If so, you’ve nearly got a lock on it now.

Am I going to have to read you all the riot act for feeding the blatant trolls again? Jesus Christ.

Hrm… this is one of the rare cases where I’m willing to vote for “retarded” rather than “trolling”.

Appropriate pic.

What are “polices”?

…not working too well in Syria, but I guess you can always try harder. Personally though, I don’t favor Stalin or Pol Pot as role models.

Yeah, the woman thrown out of her home because her son was arrested wasn’t technically sentenced, in the legal sense. Obviously anyone convicted will have been convicted of an offence, whether they actually did it or not. This girl, for example, a respectable mother of two who slept through the riots, is now serving five months for accepting a gift which turned out to be a stolen pair of shorts.

Being English I have the possibly deluded idea that the government is a democratic institution which is supposed to respect our liberties, serve the public interest and administer the public finances and public services in a responsible manner. I may be a dreamer…

The point being that this is the result of a politicised judiciary serving the government rather than the public interest, which I find alarming. The government are the only possible threat to our ancient liberties, which I find rather more troubling than some riotous yoof,.

Well, they’re no Chinese slave labour, but they’re local.

Community orders, and other non-custodial sentences, are available to the judges. They’re also the normal way to punish, say, a first offence by an otherwise upstanding member of the community. If you’re wondering why they’re not being used for llittle cases like this, you’re not the only one.

Out of idle curiosity, how is punishing rioters not protecting society?

If the rioters are fighting for something that is good for the public, repressing rioters would be punishing society. Rioting to get a dictator to quit would be an example.

Whilst community service may be appropriate for merely stealing some water in normal circumstances, you have to bear in mind the aggravating factor that the offence was committed during a riot. There’s several reasons why riot is seen as an aggravating factor - the offence occurred at a time when:

  • the forces of law and order have broken down

  • normal access of the emergency services is impeded by the mob

  • severe disruption and fear is caused to members of the public

There’s public policy issues - If a full scale riot is going on then it’s even more important than usual that you don’t commit even small offences (for the above reasons - the police are busy, people are scared and the emergency services can’t get through if needed). Correspondingly therefore, if you do commit a small offence, you get a higher than normal sentence.

Is it at all possible that the next time a rioting opportunity arises, the punks involved might think “Ah, I might get 6 months in jail for this” and then go the fuck home instead?

If so, it’s all worth it.

Fuck 'em all. No sympathy. Zero. Enjoy your stay in prison and next time give a shit about your neighbours, your community, your tax-paying parents. Speaking of which, throw the parents in jail too. Fuckers. Who the fuck would let their kids go out at night knowing full-well what was on the agenda?

Once again: fuckers.

Also available to the judges are sentences of six months in jail for upstanding members of the community who help loot a store during a riot.

If you’ve just looted a store, you’re no longer an upstanding member of the community.

Looters should be shot on sight.

They aren’t.

I have no sympathy for them either. This was just complete chaos. I have no sympathy for people who have such a blatant disregard for their neighbors. They obviously have no respect for anyone. They deserve to be locked up.