Wednesday, January 13, 2010
POLICING IS ROCKET SCIENCE
Professor Lawrence Sherman, the Wolfson Professor of Criminology at Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology no less, says that having bobbies stand in the same place for 12.5 minutes will crack street crime.
He's staging a year-long experiment in Madchester to prove it.
He says: 'We are trying to treat policing like rocket science, because that's exactly what it is. This is dealing with crime on an incredibly microscopic level.For the first time we are saying go to this street corner and stay there for 12 and a half minutes. It has never been obvious that policing needs to be that local.'
Never?
There's been a terrible mistake, Dixon. Abandon those case files and get yourself down to stand outside the Red Lion.
Having cops on the streets is better than having them inside the nick filling in forms, but does the Prof really think that the standard modern British moron will worry too much about this?
Coppersblog prediction: They'll either move two streets down or just take their chances, on the basis that absolutely sweet f*** all will happen to them if they are nicked anyway, but that the Cambridge Experiment will be written us as an enormous triumph all the same.
Interestingly, the yob who threw bleach into the face of the mother, in front of her family, after she asked him to be quiet in the cinema (repeat that sentence slowly to yourself) received a 12 month detention and training order (he'll do six months inside, playing Grand Theft Auto, posting pictures of himself grinning on facebook and learning lots of exotic new tricks).
This despite this being an appalling and potentially very serious offence AND the fact that he had numerous previous convictions including smashing someone over the head with half a brick.
Forget policing time and motion studies: just lock up serious, nasty recidivists for proper sentences.
Anyhoo, on a lighter note:
Labels: Mad academics, Mad judges
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
GRASS GREENER / SNOW WHITER
Living in the 9th best place to live on the planet, it now seems strange that I used to live on what is now the 25th best place to live. Given that the best place to live in the whole wide world is apparently France, this must be a deeply flawed survey.
I look back fondly to when I lived in the UK. All the bigger issues that one reads about in the papers never seem to make much difference at home: anti-social behaviour, immigration, black-on-black gun crime, knife crime, urban sprawl, poor roads and coastal erosion have very little impact if you ride a bike and live in a small town in the midlands. Perhaps that's the reason why people who are 'fed up with this country' are never really happy anywhere.
One of the nicer aspects of life here (and something that makes life unbearable for some in Britain) is the attitude and demeanour of youngsters. I often get asked why it is that British children are so well behaved. After speaking to them, it's clear that their only experience of Britain is watching Mary Poppins, so I tell them that Canadian children (even the really naughty ones) are mostly better behaved than British specimens. It's not their fault of course, in Britain it's too often the drink that's to blame.
Being a police officer on Britain, 'nuisance youths' and the consequent vandalism, public drunkeness and general screaming and shouting, was a kind of background music to the business of policing, so that wherever one went one met children swaying in the street shouting, 'Pigs innit!' Nowadays, I deal with very few children and the drunk, loud and abusive ones are so rare I'm momentarily shocked.
Even the older ones are reasonable. I once went to break up a party with about 150 teenage guests that had got slightly out of control. Naturally enough I anticipated the worst, but within 10 minutes, everyone had quietly dispersed and the music was turned off. People in nightclubs seem to drink a fraction of what they do in British ones, and afterwards... they get into taxis and go. Of course, at -20 deg C, you don't want to hang around for too long in the open, but even in high summer on a Saturday night, the worst you get is a bit of pushing and shoving.
There must be statistics out there that prove me wrong, that show Canadians to be a nation of violent drunks and their children even worse. If there are, I'm sure you'll let me know.
IF YOU DELIBERATELY BURN A TEENAGE GIRL TO DEATH...
...by throwing petrol on her and then setting it alight, and then you shut her in her bedroom so she has no chance of escaping or calling for help, should you ever be allowed to walk the streets again?
Mad Judge Lord Bracadale thinks you should.
Well, it's a point of view!He's given Stewart Blackburn 21 years for that. Assuming he keeps his nose clean, he'll be under 40 when he is let back out, doubtless with a taxpayer-funded change of identity to assist his reintegration into society.
Jessica McCagh was 17 years old when she died in agony.
We recently discussed the case of Craig Hodson Walker, who was shot dead. His killers will serve a minimum of 34 years.
In the comments, one John B pointed out that 'There's a lot of rot been talked on this (blog) about sentencing and arbitraryness'.
I don't know about John, but on a purely qualitative basis I think most people - if forced to choose - would prefer to be shot than burned alive. There seems to be at least some arbitrariness at work here*.
But that's not the point.
Set someone on fire and let them burn to death: Never See Daylight Again.
Shoot a young man dead during the commission of a robbery: Never See Daylight Again.
Cricket bat and stab your boyfriend to death as he lies in bed: Never See Daylight Again.
Cricket bat and stab your boyfriend to death as he lies in bed: Never See Daylight Again.
*Yes it's Scotland, so what?
FOXY LOXY
Labels: Mad judges
