Topic: The Roots Of British "Disorder"

[trapeze]

LINK

Great article. Great author. Writing in Monday's WSJ about how stupid ass soft on crime British policy is responsible for the rioting and the inability of citizens to defend themselves.

As wild gangs of youths burned homes, shops and cars and severely beat anyone who tried to stop them last week, English people tried to defend themselves. Their desperation triggered a 5,000% increase in purchases of baseball bats from Amazon.

This is a sad symbol of the failure of the British approach to crime—with its sympathy for offenders, intolerance of self-defense, and unwillingness to pay for adequate crime control. A people once proud of their peaceful country and unarmed policemen had to resort to clubs to protect life and limb.

Great Britain's leniency began in the 1950s, with a policy that only under extraordinary circumstances would anyone under 17 be sent to prison. This was meant to rehabilitate young offenders. But the alternative to incarceration has been simply to warn them to behave, maybe require community service, and return them to the streets. There has been justifiable concern about causes of crime such as poverty and unemployment, but little admission that some individuals prefer theft to work and that deterrence must be taken seriously.

[Pandora]

Access to the rest of the piece requires WSJ subscription.

This was meant to rehabilitate young offenders. But the alternative to incarceration has been simply to warn them to behave, maybe require community service, and return them to the streets.

This may have worked through "community policing"; if the community hadn't been disarmed, some of the "young offenders" would have been made to take the warnings seriously.

[charlesoakwood]

Thinking about this yesterday except along the line of British colonies.   Each colony they lost is a marker in their decline.  One may say it is the beginning of the weakness that has culminated in the surrender of their sovereignty to the barbarians.

This is analogous to us and Europe.  Europe has effectively been our colony since 1946  with the apex marker being the retreat of the Mongols and the fall of the Berlin wall.  Since the retreat of the Mongols from the US at Berlin, we have had inept, poor (43 failed to complete the missile defense in Poland), and misguided administration   Today, Europe is rudderless and the Mongols are looking at it with a lusty, hungry look.  
Loss of these colonies will be a demonstrable marker of our decline.

 

[charlesoakwood]

They are definitely  winning the national suicide race.

Link

Suspected terrorists are complaining about a fence around the exercise yard in their high-security prison which restricts their view of the horizon.
...
And astonishingly, inspectors accepted their complaints, criticising the cladding put around the edge of the exercise yard because it stops the men seeing into the distance.

[Libertas]

Nanny-statism run horribly amok will get you into this sorry state!

I think more violence is most definitely in their future.

I'm sure they'll be all over it...