Britain’s pitiful criminal justice system

It is no wonder that public confidence in Britain’s criminal justice system is so low.

I admire Ross Grainger for his tireless compiling of violent acts carried out by users of cannabis. This is to be found on his blog, attackersmokedcannabis.com. News over the last week has led me to consider the possibility of a similar site, covering acts of incompetence within Britain’s pitiful criminal justice system. Alas, this would suffer a content overload within weeks, such is the frequency of these acts.

Reading the papers, it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Already this week, police in south Wales have warned Facebook users publishing jokes about the hairstyle of a wanted drug dealer that continuing to do so could lead to prosecutions…

Last week – as recorded in Peter Hitchens’ Mail on Sunday column – a judge was reprimanded by a ‘Conservative’ Party Cabinet Minister (no less) for the crime of telling a defendant in his fifties (who has appeared in court forty times over thirty-five years, receiving sixty convictions as well as a number of prison terms, including for GBH with intent, and was, on this occasion, so fat he needed help getting in the dock) to lose weight and get a job… Punished for this? He should have been given a medal!

On Monday (12.08.2019), the Daily Mail reported that the police in one area – citing insufficient manpower – refused to pursue an investigation into an attack, despite the victim having obtained three separate lots of CCTV evidence (from various stores) of the attack and of his attackers getting away…

The list could go on and on and on…

No wonder public confidence in Britain’s criminal justice system is so low. This – and much more – would be fitting for a low-budget police comedy show. Not for a serious and safe nation, which we continue to pretend to be.