MURDER OF WPC FLETCHER - GADAFFI "SORRY?"

According to press agency Reuters, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said "we are sorry" for the 1984 killing of a British policewoman outside the Libyan embassy in London which led Britain to suspend ties between the two countries for years.

Yvonne Fletcher died after being hit by shots fired from the embassy during a demonstration against Gaddafi.

"She is not an enemy to us, and we are sorry all the time and (offer) our sympathy, because she was on duty, she was there to protect the Libyan embassy, but this is the problem that should be solved -- but who did it?" Gaddafi said in an interview with Sky News, to be broadcast on Monday.

Britain's foreign ministry said in a statement: "We agree with him that this issue needs to be resolved.

"Libya can help in the search for answers by allowing the UK police to return to Libya to complete their investigations into the murder of WPC Fletcher."

Chairman of the police federation, Paul McKeever, met with Daniel Kawczynski MP last week, following an Early Day Motion being tabled.

The motion expressed astonishment at reports in the Daily Telegraph on 16 October 2009 that the Crown Prosecution Service believed there to be sufficient evidence two years ago to charge Matouk Mohammed Matouk and Abdulgader Mohammed Baghdadi in connection with the murder of WPC Fletcher; deploring the Libyan government's continuing obstruction of efforts to bring her killers to justice; and called on the Secretary of State for Justice to make a statement to the House immediately.


Relations with Britain were only resumed 15 years later when Libya "accepted general responsibility for the actions of those within the (embassy)...and expressed deep regret to the family" to whom it agreed to pay compensation.

Gaddafi said Britain and Libya had enjoyed good economic relations, even when diplomatic ties had been broken.

The United States in late 2003 began a process of rapprochement with Libya, after decades of estrangement, because of Tripoli's decision to abandon the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

Gaddafi also talked about the release of former Libyan agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison where he had been serving a life sentence for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing in which 270 people, mainly Britons and Americans, died.

Libya angered Britain and the United States over the warm public reception it gave to Megrahi, who was freed in August on compassionate grounds as he has terminal cancer.

Critics of the move accused the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the devolved Scottish administration, of freeing Megrahi to win business deals with Libya.

Gaddafi brushed off the issue saying: "It is a matter of concern for the British, Scots, Americans. We are not really concerned about it."

Gadaffi sorry? - Yeah, sounds like it.

If you're really sorry, produce Matouk Mohammed Matouk and Abdulgader Mohammed Baghdadi for them to face the Justice of a British Court NOW.

10 DOWNING STREET PETITION . . . .

WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed outside the libyans people bureau in 1984. Her killer was released from the bureau and returned to Libya a few days later. In view of the compassion shown by the UK to the lockerbie bomber, her killer should be returned to the UK to face justice.

A petition has been raised on the site http://www.number10.gov.uk/

To support this petition click http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/YvonneFletcher/


Deadline to sign up by: 28 December 2009 – Signatures: 9,260 (as of 25th October 2009)

Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited

No faith in police statistics?

As the Government seek to maintain that crime is falling, its claim is undermined by the disclosure that police forces are routinely failing to record many violent offences. HM Inspector of Constabulary found that vicious street attacks and wife beatings are being wrongly dismissed as "no crimes". The police inspectorate found that one in three decisions to record a violent incident as “no crime” were wrong. If the findings, based on a small sample, are repeated across England and Wales it would mean that an estimated 5,000 violent offences a year are being wrongly dismissed.

While serious assaults are only a small proportion of total crime, can we place any faith in other statistics provided by the police?

The recorded crime figures have become almost impossible to take seriously. The Home Office has changed the methodology so dramatically since 1997 that comparing figures for crime over time has deliberately been made an impossible task. This allows ministers to rely upon the British Crime Survey as their preferred measure of offending, even though it was introduced in the 1980s to complement, not replace, police figures.

But far more important than the manipulation of dodgy figures is the fact that thousands of victims have received no justice; indeed, they have not even had their ordeal taken seriously. Two stories have exemplified the backward approach which prevails: an investigation of an attack on a 17-year-old girl was dropped because of the cost of sending her clothes away for DNA tests; yet a man who returned a £5 takeaway meal he had ordered was arrested by four officers, interrogated for 20 hours and charged with criminal damage.

• A female pensioner said she was pushed to the floor, banged her head and was kicked repeatedly by four offenders while on the ground. The force recorded the crime as inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent. HMIC would classify it as wounding or carrying out an act endangering life, a form of Most Serious Violence.

• A victim of an attack in a pub said he was punched repeatedly in the head, pushed to the floor and continually kicked. The injuries included a swollen eye, cuts and swelling to the head and cheek and bruising to knees, legs and hands. The force recorded the crime as ABH (Assault With Less Serious Injury) while HMIC would classify it as attempted grievous bodily harm with intent (Most Serious Violence).

• A husband allegedly smashed up his wife’s car, threw things at the window and threatened her with a stick. The force classified the offence as an incident while HMIC would classify it as a criminal damage.

Denis O’Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, said: “It’s a very high error rate on a small sample. For us, as the regulator, it’s a matter of concern.”

Denis O'Connor Chief Inspector of Constabulary

Of the 479 incidents that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) examined, 35.7 per cent of the decisions were found to be wrong. The report’s findings raise concerns that officers are under pressure to dismiss some crimes in order to make their forces appear better and to meet government targets.

Warped priorities such as these result in a corrosive decline in public trust of the police. Mr O'Connor said "perverse targets" set by the Government might be partly to blame. But there must come a time when the authorities take direct responsibility for such inanities.

The HMIC report came on the same day that the quarterly crime statistics were released by the Home Office. They showed that between April and June, compared to the same three-month period last year, more burglaries, robberies and personal thefts were recorded. Domestic burglary rose by 3 per cent, robbery by 1 per cent and personal theft by 5 per cent. The economic downturn is one possible reason for the rise.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: “The increase in burglary rates is worrying since it is the unemployed who are most likely to be the victims – making life even tougher for them at the moment.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “This is the fourth quarter in a row in which theft and burglary have risen as the recession bites. Senior police officers warn that we have not yet seen the full extent of the credit crunch crime wave.”

Crime Analysis Team

Nice 1 Limited

PETITION TO BRING THE MURDERER OF WPC FLETCHER TO JUSTICE

WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed outside the libyans people bureau in 1984. Her killer was released from the bureau and returned to Libya a few days later. In view of the compassion shown by the UK to the lockerbie bomber, her killer should be returned to the UK to face justice.

A petition has been raised on the site http://www.number10.gov.uk/

To support this petition click http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/YvonneFletcher/

Crime Analysis Team

Nice 1 Limited

Cash For Crash Fraudster staged almost 100 car crashes and cost insurers £1.6m

• Mohammed Patel charged £500 a time to stage 'accidents'
• Office workers noticed high number of crashes at roundabout

A "crash for cash" fraudster who lived the high life on the proceeds of staged accidents and cost the insurance industry £1.6m was jailed today.

Mohammed Patel, 24, charged £500 a time to stage accidents which enabled fraudsters to claim an average of £17,000 from insurers. He staged at least 93 crashes, earning himself around £46,000, Manchester's Minshull Street crown court heard.

Patel, of Bolton, Greater Manchester, admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud, six counts of dangerous driving and four counts of driving while disqualified. He was jailed for four and a half years and banned from driving for three and a half years.

William Baker, prosecuting, said Patel's earnings funded an "Aladdin's cave" at the home of his unemployed girlfriend, Ettorina Hay. The court heard the pair enjoyed luxurious foreign holidays and drove expensive cars.

Baker said the scam was exposed by suspicious office workers at Bovis Homes, who overlooked the Eden Point roundabout on the A34 at Cheadle Hulme. He said that in the latter part of 2005 "they became suspicious that road traffic accidents were being staged" because of the number and similarities of crashes.

Baker, describing the set-up, said: "One vehicle colliding with another at low speed with minor damage and often the same person driving the lead vehicle. They told drivers of the rear vehicles they thought they were the victim of fraud."

Baker said: "Mohammed Patel staged the road traffic accidents. He drove cars on to the roundabout and then stopped them so abruptly the vehicle behind could not avoid a collision.

Fraudulent claims, submitted by people not present at the scene whom Patel purported to be, were then made. Claims would include compensation for injuries such as whiplash, damage to the vehicle, a hire car, and storage of the damaged vehicle.

Baker said Patel staged the accidents between May 2005 and August 2008. Patel was arrested in Bolton on 7 August last year and gave a prepared statement to police. He pleaded guilty to the charges.

Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited

CRIME MAPPING - IS POLICE RECORDED CRIME A TRUE MEASURE?

Click on the map above to see full size.

An interactive map offering detailed crime statistics on every street in England and Wales crashed hours after its launch today.


Users in London, Yorkshire, Humberside and Manchester were unable to access the detailed online map.

Those attempting to visit the site, http://maps.police.uk/  were shown an automated message saying it was temporarily unavailable.

The teething problems surfaced as Home Office minister David Hanson officially unveiled the website during a visit to a regeneration project in south west London. He was joined by National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) deputy chief executive Steve Mortimore, whose colleagues drew up the map.

The website aimed to offer members of the public unprecedented access to information about crimes taking place in their neighbourhood. The national map follows on the heels of regional versions created by the 43 forces across England and Wales.

Users should be able to access figures on levels of burglary, robbery, violence, vehicle crime and anti-social behaviour. They can also compare one area against another and compare figures against the same period the previous year to see if crime is getting better or worse. The website also offers messages from senior officers and links to local policing priorities and information about forthcoming crime-fighting events.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The high level of public interest in the new national crime map has put temporary pressure on the website. Urgent work is under way to resolve this and the website should be working again shortly."

The launch of the “Crime Mapping” facility, http://maps.police.uk/ unites the crime statistics of the 43 police forces of England & Wales  under one software banner for the first time.

This is long overdue. Only yesterday an article posted on this site complained that the Home Office were allowing 8 forces responsible for 40% of the population and 48% of crime to use their own software. Cynical perhaps, but we suspected that this was yet another Home Office strategy to prevent the general public from accessing the full picture of current recorded crime, and also continuing the “fudging” of figures.

After the shaky start when the facility kept freezing up, it started to work more efficiently this evening. We have attached a composite report of the 43 forces current recorded crime for Burglary, Car Crime, Robbery and All recorded crime. On completion, we are not one bit convinced that the police recording of crime is now an accurate reflection of crime in the UK.

A few observations.

• The “All Crime” monthly average for the most recent three months is 357,365 incidents

• On that basis, the full year forecast will be 4,288,380 crimes

• In 2008 the recorded crime incident was 4,703,814 (-415,434)

• Will we be expected to believe a crime reduction of 13.4% ??

• This is more than a months full crime reporting for the nation!

• In 2008 as in previous years, the BCS estimates of crime were over twice that of recorded crime

• Front line officers tell us that if anything, the volume of crime is increasing NOT decreasing

• Crimes are often misclassified… robbery downgraded to theft, car theft included in burglary when keys are stolen on egress

• How many crimes are not now reported as such, if the victim does not insist? (Citizen focus?)

• Has public confidence sunk so low that they have simply lost all faith in reporting?

• The BCS last year suggested that reporting had dropped as low as 33% for some offences, to 38% overall

To quote from the Home Office BCS : “For the crime types it covers, the BCS provides a better reflection of the true extent of household and personal crime than police recorded statistics because the survey includes crimes that are not reported to or recorded by the police. The primary purpose of the BCS is to provide national level analysis but some headline figures are available at regional and police force area level. The BCS is also a better indicator of long-term trends than police recorded crime because it is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices”.

• This implies that the Government will place importance on police recorded crime only when it suits them. i.e. If recorded crime shows a decrease, with all the measures introduced to achieve that.

• The table below shows a steady decline in reporting of overall crime in the last 12 years, coincidentally the years of New Labour.

• Does this explain the “gap” of crimes that seem to have appeared in the reduction of reported crime?

• With so many new offences created, we are advised that it is simple to reallocate a reported offence to a lesser category.

• Section 5 Public Order Offences (crimeable) are now commonly demoted to drunk and disorderly (no crime report)

• Of those interviewed by BCS, 76% said they did not report because they felt the police would not/could not do anything

Click on table below to see larger image

• Is that what the CJS has come to, that the public won’t report because they have lost heart?

• Could this be a major contributory factor to the decrease in recorded crime?

• Has the massive surge in bureaucracy resulted in the massive misreporting of crime?

• How timely that the Government have pushed through the alignment of 43 forces data for current crime

• Are they planning yet another media spin about how crime has been dramatically decreased thanks to their effort?

• The recorded crime shows reductions of 5% burglary, 18% car crime, 7% for robbery and overall crime

• The target, performance and senior officer bonus culture will continue to “fudge” until stopped.

• We are guessing that a Home Office release will be imminent.

We wish we could accompany all of this skepticism with a dose of solutions, but unfortunately, we cannot yet see an answer. Clearly, the crime recording system is flawed and unreliable as a measure of crime. Detections are similarly distorted it would seem. It will be a courageous team that arrives at an acceptable solution that will encourage confidence to return, in the face of a Government and senior management teams that will apply many more dirty tricks to keep their noses buried in that trough. The BCS is only based on a trawl of 46,000 members of the public which hardly seems representative.

Dominic Grieve stated it so well. “We would advocate and support the proposal to make crime statistics properly independent. This would remove responsibility for compiling and publishing crime figures from the Home Office. The responsibility should be placed with the Office for National Statistics which is totally independent. The pre-release access that Ministers and political advisers get to crime statistics should be abolished – so the public would be the first to get an honest account of the facts. Any politician can talk about resuscitating public trust”.

The party that demonstrates their intentions and follows it up with decisive transparent and honest action that is genuinely in the public interest, will have the best chance of achieving it.

Crime Analysis Team

Nice 1 Limited

FUDGING CRIME STATISTICS IS NO WAY TO RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

WHOOPEE!! Pass the rose coloured spex, crime is on the decrease, detections are on the increase. Or so the Government would have us believe.

Whilst the production of crime statistics remain the responsibility of the Home Office, the public faith in the Criminal Justice System will not be restored.

There are now countless examples of how this Government have manipulated the numbers to portray the impression that all in the garden is rosy.

According to research by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, trust in government Ministers to tell the truth is down from 27% (2006) to 22% (2008). Polls show politicians at the bottom of the list of professionals trusted by the public. What’s gone wrong, and what can be done about it?

At the most basic level, the Home Office has relied on the British Crime Survey to argue that violent crime has come down by 40% under this government, ignoring formal warnings by Sir David Normington, that ‘levels of the most serious violence are higher than they were ten years ago’. The BCS is an obviously poor measure of violent crime. It does not count homicide offences, rape and multiple assaults. It also excludes some of the most vulnerable victims of violence, including: the homeless, elderly people in care homes, students in digs and – until this year – all children. In fact, we know that police recorded violent crime has nearly doubled since 1997.

The Home Office clearly place great importance on the British Crime Survey (BCS), as this quote from the Home Office website confirms :-

"The BCS includes crimes which are not reported to the police, so it is an important alternative to police records. The BCS is a particularly important survey because it can provide a more complete picture of crime than police recorded crime statistics alone. The BCS includes crimes which are not reported to, or recorded by, the police and is therefore unaffected by changes in recording practices. It can provide the best guide to long-term trends in crime".

Reports from front line officers, of ridiculous levels of bureaucracy and procedure confirms what many of the public already suspect, that their effectiveness is severely impaired. This results in a lack of public confidence in the system of policing in the UK. How can the public be expected to have confidence in either BCS statistics or police recorded crime, when the BCS figures for 2008 suggest that over 10 million crimes were committed, yet the police recorded numbers amount to only 4.7 million?

Again front line officers provide an answer. They tell us that so much time is consumed recording and dealing with so many minor offences that are purely for the purposes of meeting political performance targets, that the most desired objective, providing protection where it's needed most, is the most impossible target of all to hit. This Government have introduced over 3000 new offences since arriving in office.

When Gordon Brown took office, he promised ‘a different type of politics – a more open and honest dialogue: frank about problems, candid about dilemmas’. And the reality? Back in June 2008, he responded to a planted question in Prime Minister’s Questions, by claiming ‘As far as CCTV is concerned, in the most recent experiment, in central Newcastle, CCTV reduced crime by 60 per cent’. Dig below the surface, and the study relied upon was not recent at all – but published in 1995. Whilst burglaries in central Newcastle allegedly fell by 56%, the wider area showed a fall in burglary of just 2%, whilst criminal damage and theft rose by 8%. The Prime Minister ignored as inconvenient subsequent Home Office studies (2005 and 2007) showing CCTV had ‘little overall effect on crime levels’ because 80% of CCTV footage is not fit for purpose.

THE WAY POLICE RECORD CRIME

Public access to information about crime in their local area has improved. And yet the Government still have not delivered on this promise to the full extent the public deserve.

The table below illustrates the 43 police forces of England & Wales, showing the population & households each force is responsible for, and the share of the national crime each polices.

The BCS is published in July each year detailing crime that occurred in the previous year. Six months have elapsed by the time the document goes to print. The statistics are already history, so what's a bit of manipulation and fudging here and there? The public will never know the difference, so why not exploit the opportunity to sensationalise and spin with inaccurate headlines? Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary in a recent speech, said that crime statistics are the least important part of the problem. Well, he would say that when the years of manipulation have served only to diminish public confidence still further.

Only by opening the books and exposing the real picture, will there be an opportunity for reform.

Have a look at the table. Of the 43 police forces 34 subscribe to the same analytical software that the public may view for the current crime in a particular area.

The top nine forces in the table police 41% of the population & households and a massive 48% of the nations crime. Yet these same forces are permitted, perhaps even encouraged to utilise their own software that is not as easily interrogated. The question has to be asked whether this is yet another Government strategy to make the collating of national current crime less accessible. The national picture of current crime is not easily obtained. When 48% of it is made difficult and laborious to compile, there are not many who would bother. And so, once again, the Government continues its charade of falling crime.

Click the table to see full view

Beyond the Home Office, the manipulation of government information has become endemic. The government has fiddled the figures on numbers claiming Jobseekers allowance to mask the true state of unemployment. The Treasury has disguised the level of government debt. Last year, the National Audit Office criticised the government for the way it counts carbon emissions, to overstate its record by up to 12%.

This is bad for policy-making – if you cover up the problems, how can you solve them? It also erodes public trust. Government must be much more honest about the challenges facing the country, if we are to begin to tackle them. Short-term spin must give way to proper long-term strategic thinking. That is the way to restore public confidence.

We would advocate and support the proposal to make crime statistics properly independent. This would remove responsibility for compiling and publishing crime figures from the Home Office, who clearly cannot be trusted to be truthful with the electorate and not to apply their political spin. The reposnsibility should be placed with the Office for National Statistics which is totally independent. The pre-release access that Ministers and political advisers get to crime statistics should be abolished – so the public would be the first to get an honest account of the facts. Any politician can talk about resuscitating public trust. The party that demonstrates their intentions and follows it up with decisive action that is genuinely in the public interest, will have the best chance of achieving it.

Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited

CONSERVATIVE PROMISE - IN A NUTSHELL

Following on from the rousing Conservative party conference in Manchester last week, here, in a nutshell, are a selection of observations, quotes and pledges from the speeches of David Cameron and Chris Grayling on the plans they have to reform the Criminal Justice System. 

• Criminals aren't caught because the police are stuck at desks doing paperwork.
• Violent offenders, sex offenders and heroin dealers get off with cautions because it’s the least hassle.
• Even if they go to prison, the Government releases them automatically after a fraction of their sentence to reoffend on the same streets as before.
• People think our criminal justice system is broken.
• Worrying too much about the criminals and not enough about the justice.
• It makes me furious. It makes you furious. And law abiding, decent, people are asking - who’s looking after me?
• That’s why need radical reform in every part of the system. The police. The CPS. The courts. Prisons. Probation. We need to sort it out, so there's no more excuses, no more buck-passing, no more nonsense. We need a criminal justice system that is focused on fighting crime and that is exactly what we plan to deliver.
• No one thinks that the Government’s 24 hour drinking regime has led to the creation of a “continental café culture.
• We’re not talking about stopping people enjoying a few drinks in the pub. But things have gone far too far. Our town centres on a Friday and Saturday night can be battle zones for our police. Local parks and local estates are blighted by gangs of young troublemakers…. fuelled by alcohol given to them by irresponsible adults.
• I have talked to people up and down the country whose lives are being ruined by antisocial behaviour. It’s time we stood up for them.
• We’ll start with the problem of fourteen year olds hanging around with bottles of super-strength beers or ciders. It’s much too easy for them to get very drunk quickly and cheaply.
• We will increase the price of a four pack of super strength lager by £1.33. We will more than double tax on super strength cider. And our planned increase on alcopops will raise the price of a large bottle by £1.50. These tax changes will not hit responsible drinkers.
• We’ll tear up this Government’s lax licensing regime. Right now virtually anyone can get a licence to sell alcohol. We even have all night takeaways selling more drink to people as they stagger home from the pub. We will change that.
• We’ve also got to deal with those who commit the acts of antisocial behaviour and disorder as well. Right now they can offend again and again and just get away with it.
• Our criminal justice system is sending all the wrong messages. We need real punishments for young troublemakers. Not to send them home with a rap over the knuckles. That’s why we are working on a range of instant punishments for antisocial behaviour.
• Like grounding the offenders for up to a month. Or making them do community punishments, like cleaning up local parks. Real consequences for the trouble they’ve caused. But that’s for low level offences.
• For the more serious incidents, things must be different. We were all shocked by the tragic case of Fiona Pilkington. But let’s be clear. What happened to her wasn’t antisocial behaviour. It was criminal.
• Giving someone a caution or a fixed penalty notice means box ticked, case closed, another solved crime. But we know the system is being misused.
• But when serious offenders, like people carrying knives, also get off with a caution, when they should be behind bars.
• I think anyone who assaults a police officer should end up in court facing time behind bars.
• It’s time for a new deal with our police. We’ll deal with the things that frustrate them. We’ll get rid of the mountains of bureaucracy that make it easier to cut corners. We’ll provide them with proper protection against violence. We’ll get rid of the target culture that makes it easier to issue a caution than to prosecute. And we’ll give them back more power to charge criminals themselves.
• But in return we want real action against the troublemakers. And we want them to be more accountable to the communities they serve. The next Conservative Government will get rid of Britain’s caution culture. And will demand real moves to tackle antisocial behaviour. It’s time justice was really done on our streets.
• We will tear down Labour's big government bureaucracy, ripping up its timewasting, money-draining, responsibility-sapping nonsense.
• The police, the prosecution services, the prisons … is failing under the weight of big government targets and bureaucracy. The police aren't on the streets because they're busy complying with ten different inspection regimes.
• The police say the CPS isn't charging people because they have to hit targets to reduce the number of unsuccessful trials.
• And the prisons aren't rehabilitating offenders because they're focused on meeting thirty three different performance indicators.
• This all needs to change. I'm not going to stand here and promise you a country where nothing bad ever happens. I do not underestimate how difficult it will be to deal with this problem of crime and disorder.
• We cannot rebuild social responsibility from on high. But the least we can do the least we can do is pledge to all the people who are scared, who live their lives in fear and who can't protect themselves, that Chris Grayling, with Dominic Grieve, will reform the police, reform the courts, reform prisons.
• I see a country where you're not so afraid to walk home alone, where you're safe in the knowledge that right and wrong is restored to law and order.
• But if we pull together, come together, work together — we will get through this together.
• And when we look back we will say not that the government made it happen … not that the minister made it happen … but the businesswoman made it happen … the police officer made it happen … the father made it happen …the teacher made it happen.

You made it happen.

 

Right now it seems that the Conservatives are closest to the real issues and have the desire to bring about the reforms that are essential if we are to enjoy a more peaceful society. The message we would send out to whichever party is elected at the next election is this. Show us that you have learned from the lessons, mistakes and errors of judgement of the past. Waste no time on party policital spin, we've had a belly full of it. Ditch the blame culture once you have cleared the decks. Show us the truth about the state of the Criminal Justice System as it stands now, then waste no time on blame, show us with your actions that you are healing the wounds inflicted on this country over recent years. Then you will have our blessing, support and confidence. 
 
One last thing. There will be sectors of society waiting for you to trip up. Show us your guts and determination to succeed for us all. Don't give them the ammunition to shoot you. There will be those who will accuse you too, of having your noses buried deeply in the trough. Be aware of that. Act with transparency and honesty so that we will not feel our trust is misplaced.   
 
The Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited
 
 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE FARCE

A man has been charged with causing criminal damage to two hamburgers worth £5 after an alleged doorstep dispute with a fast food firm.

Stephen Morgan, 31, of South Wales, underwent a police grilling after he was arrested and taken from his home in handcuffs at the weekend.

He is due appear at Swansea Magistrates' Court, in south Wales, next Monday.

Morgan was at home in Culfor Road, Loughor, near Swansea, with partner Michelle Owen on Saturday evening.

The couple, who have two children, planned to stay in and watch ITV1's The X Factor with other family members.

A dispute is alleged to have started after an order of food with a local pizza parlour arrived minus two hamburgers.

Mr Morgan claims it was agreed the group should wait for the rest of the order, he told the South Wales Evening Post.

A dispute is alleged to have started with a delivery man who came to the house later, and £15 compensation was eventually paid out, he claims.

Police visited the address later that evening and arrested Mr Morgan on suspicion of robbery. He was taken to Swansea Central police station where he was questioned about the incident and held overnight.

A South Wales Police spokesman confirmed that a 31-year-old man was arrested on Saturday evening and has since been charged with causing criminal damage to food valued at £5.

COMMENT

Yet another example of the farcical abuse of the Criminal Justice System and complete and utter waste of police and judicial resources. C'mon Mr Johnson get it sorted for crying out loud!!! Ah well, at least the Home Office auditors will be pleased they got another detection.

David Cameron : We'll Put Britain Back On Her Feet

David Cameron today pledged to defend “family, community, country” as he set out his vision for “a responsible society” under the Conservatives.

Promising he had the character, temperament and judgment to lead Britain, he described “how good things could be” if Government was cut back to help “put Britain back on her feet”.

He started with "I want to get straight to the point.We all know how bad things are: massive debt, social breakdown, political disenchantment. But what I want to talk about today is how good things could be. Don't get me wrong, I have no illusions. If win this election, it is going to be tough. There will have to be cutbacks in public spending, and that will be painful. We will need to confront Britain's culture of irresponsibility and that will be hard to take for many people. And we will have to tear down Labour's big government bureaucracy, ripping up its time-wasting, money-draining, responsibility-sapping nonsense.


"Why is our society broken? Because government got too big, did too much and undermined responsibility.
Recognising that what holds society together is responsibility, and that the good society is a responsible society – that’s what I’m about, that’s what any government I lead will be about,” Mr Cameron told the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

On Law and Order . . . .

The instinct to protect the people we love is so strong. Nearly two years ago it was that instinct – that love – that drove Fiona Pilkington to do something desperate.


When I first read her story in the paper I found it difficult to finish the article – it's one of the saddest things I've ever read.

Fiona was so driven to despair by the vile thugs that bullied her and her lovely disabled daughter Francecca and by the police that didn't answer her cries for help that she could only see one way out. She put her daughter in her car, drove to a layby, and set it on fire.

If no one would protect them then by ending their lives, she was keeping them safe.

No one could hurt them anymore. Just think about what we allowed to happen here in our country. This goes deep and it's been going on for years.

It is about a breakdown of all the things that are meant to keep us safe … a complete breakdown of responsibility.

A breakdown of morality in the minds of those thugs a total absence of feeling or conscience. A breakdown in community where a neighbour is left to reach a pitch of utter misery. And a breakdown of our criminal justice system.

Every part of it, the police, the prosecution services, the prisons … is failing under the weight of big government targets and bureaucracy. The police aren't on the streets because they're busy complying with ten different inspection regimes. The police say the CPS isn't charging people because they have to hit targets to reduce the number of unsuccessful trials.

And the prisons aren't rehabilitating offenders because they're focused on meeting thirty-three different performance indicators.

This all needs to change. I'm not going to stand here and promise you a country where nothing bad ever happens. I do not underestimate how difficult it will be to deal with this problem of crime and disorder.

We cannot rebuild social responsibility from on high. But the least we can do the least we can do is pledge to all the people who are scared, who live their lives in fear and who can't protect themselves, that a Conservative government, with Chris Grayling, with Dominic Grieve, will reform the police, reform the courts, reform prisons. We will be there to protect you.


Why is our society broken? Because government got too big, did too much and undermined responsibility.


Why are our politics broken? Because government got too big, promised too much and pretended it had all the answers.

Of course it was done with the best intentions. And let's be clear: not everything Labour did was wrong.

Devolution; the minimum wage; civil partnerships, these are good things that we will we keep.

But this idea that for every problem there's a government solution for every issue an initiative, for every situation a czar …

It ends with them making you register with the government to help out your child's football team. With police officers punished for babysitting each other's children. With laws so bureaucratic and complicated even their own attorney general can't obey them.

To read the full speech transcript click here

Chris Grayling: A no-nonsense approach to crime and disorder

The shadow home secretary, the Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP spoke today at the Conservative Party conference. He oputlines some of the plans he would implement as Home Secretary in the event of the Conservative Party being elected to Government in the election next year.

Let me tell you a story about life in Britain today. About one of our soldiers in Afghanistan. He was home on leave In his local town centre on Saturday night. Out of the blue he was attacked and beaten by two drunk youths. The police were called. The two attackers were arrested.

And let off with a caution. Not tried. Not put behind bars. Not even given a community sentence. Just given a legal slap on the wrist.

Time and again the troublemakers just seem to get away with it. The gangs, the drunks, even those who commit acts of violence. They just get away with it.

Criminals aren't caught because the police are stuck at desks doing paperwork. Or because they aren’t listening to the communities they are supposed to protect.

Violent offenders, sex offenders and heroin dealers get off with cautions because it’s the least hassle option for police and the Crown Prosecution Service. And even if they go to prison, the Government releases them automatically after a fraction of their sentence to reoffend on the same streets as before.

People think our criminal justice system is broken.

Worrying too much about the criminals and not enough about the justice.

It makes me furious. It makes you furious. And law abiding, decent, people are asking - who’s looking after me?

Well, my message to them is that a Conservative Government will start looking after you.

That’s why need radical reform in every part of the system. The police. The CPS. The courts. Prisons. Probation. We need to sort it out, so there's no more excuses, no more buck-passing, no more nonsense. We need a criminal justice system that is focused on fighting crime and that is exactly what we plan to deliver.

But today I want to focus on the antisocial behaviour that blights so many of our communities. And the drunken disorder that so often causes it. No one thinks that the Government’s 24 hour drinking regime has led to the creation of a “continental café culture”.

We’re not talking about stopping people enjoying a few drinks in the pub. But things have gone far too far. Our town centres on a Friday and Saturday night can be battle zones for our police. Local parks and local estates are blighted by gangs of young troublemakers…. fuelled by alcohol given to them by irresponsible adults.

I have talked to people up and down the country whose lives are being ruined by antisocial behaviour. It’s time we stood up for them.

Last week in Brighton Ministers announced tweaks to the system so they could claim to be doing something about it. They aren’t. We will.

So let me tell you how we’re going to tackle binge drinking and antisocial behaviour.

We’ll start with the problem of fourteen year olds hanging around with bottles of super-strength beers or ciders. It’s much too easy for them to get very drunk quickly and cheaply.

So let me today give you more detail of our plan to introduce big increases in the tax on super strength alcohol.

We will increase the price of a four pack of super strength lager by £1.33. We will more than double tax on super strength cider. And our planned increase on alcopops will raise the price of a large bottle by £1.50. These tax changes will not hit responsible drinkers.

The ordinary pint in the pub will not be affected. and there’ll be exemptions for some local traditional products. But we’ll call time on the drinks that fuel antisocial behaviour.

Then there are supermarkets which boost the sales of other products by selling alcohol below cost price. That also fuels Britain’s binge drinking culture. So we will ban them from doing so.

We’ll tear up this Government’s lax licensing regime. Right now virtually anyone can get a licence to sell alcohol. We even have all night takeaways selling more drink to people as they stagger home from the pub. We will change that.

Local councils will have the power to stop town centres being taken over by pubs, clubs and off-licences. We’ll give communities a right of veto over new licences in their area.

There’ll also be tough new rules for existing licensed premises. Councils will be able to restrict opening hours. There’ll be strict penalties for pubs and off-licences that break the rules. Much bigger fines if they sell to under age drinkers. If they do it again, we’ll close them for a few days as a penalty. And if it still happens, we’ll strip them of their licence permanently.

There’s also the huge cost of policing areas that are already dominated by pubs and clubs and off-licences. Under a Conservative Government late night problem premises will pay more for their licence. So we can pay more for policing in our town centres to tackle the blight of antisocial behaviour after closing time.

I know some of those in the drinks industry will complain about the impact of these changes. But I think there are times when it’s right to put the interests of communities ahead of the interests of business.

We’ve also got to deal with those who commit the acts of antisocial behaviour and disorder as well. Right now they can offend again and again and just get away with it.

Our criminal justice system is sending all the wrong messages. We need real punishments for young troublemakers. Not to send them home with a rap over the knuckles. That’s why Dominic and I are working on a range of instant punishments for antisocial behaviour.

Like grounding the offenders for up to a month. Or making them do community punishments, like cleaning up local parks. Real consequences for the trouble they’ve caused. But that’s for low level offences.

For the more serious incidents, things must be different. We were all shocked by the tragic case of Fiona Pilkington. But let’s be clear. What happened to her wasn’t antisocial behaviour. It was criminal.

The people who did that to her should be behind bars.

There are too many serious offenders getting away with it. Our police are too inclined to take the easy option.

Giving someone a caution or a fixed penalty notice means box ticked, case closed, another solved crime. But we know the system is being misused.

Not just for the young men who attacked that soldier. Or the others who get violent on a Friday or Saturday night. But when serious offenders, like people carrying knives, also get off with a caution. When they should be behind bars.

And would you believe this. Last week I met the commanding officer of a local PCSO who had been assaulted by a gang member, and then thrown down a staircase. He was given an eighty pound fixed penalty notice. That is outrageous.

It is the sign of a system that is bust.

I think anyone who assaults a police officer should end up in court facing time behind bars.

Then there was the extraordinary claim by a senior police officer, at the inquest into the death of Fiona Pilkington, that the police are no longer responsible for antisocial behaviour. What complete nonsense. So it’s time for real change.

It’s time for a new deal with our police. We’ll deal with the things that frustrate them. We’ll get rid of the mountains of bureaucracy that make it easier to cut corners. We’ll provide them with proper protection against violence. We’ll get rid of the target culture that makes it easier to issue a caution than to prosecute. And we’ll give them back more power to charge criminals themselves.

But in return we want real action against the troublemakers. And we want them to be more accountable to the communities they serve. The next Conservative Government will get rid of Britain’s caution culture. And will demand real moves to tackle antisocial behaviour. It’s time justice was really done on our streets.

Ladies and Gentlemen. There are two other big priorities for a Conservative Home Office.

The first is our immigration system. For twelve years it has been a complete shambles. Uncontrolled immigration. Widespread abuse of our student visa system. Human traffickers exploiting the vulnerable for profit. So let me make things clear today.

A Conservative government will be robust in the way it controls immigration. There will be no open door to Britain. Instead we will have a system that treats people fairly and decently. That welcomes those who should be able to come and live here. Like the Gurkhas who have done so much for our country.

But we’ll close the gaping hole in our student visa system. We’ll crack down on the traffickers. Britain will have its own, specialist border police force. We will set an annual cap on the number of people who can come and live and work here. I will not tolerate more of the chaos of the past few years.

The Home Office has another key responsibility. The security of our people and of our nation. To take the lead in the battle against terrorism. And the fight against an ideology of hate and violence. An ideology that damages the reputation of decent, law abiding British Muslims as well as threatening life and limb. And let’s be clear. That ideology wants to destroy the civil liberties that make this country what it is. No Government should allow them to do so, and the way this Government has eroded those liberties is shameful and must be reversed.

Our police and security services have done a magnificent job in protecting us against the terrorist threat. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. But we are still not tough enough on those who spread a doctrine of hate in Britain. So I will immediately ban Hiz b’ut Tahrir, and any other group that actively incites hatred and violence.

We also have extremists using video links to hold meetings with banned preachers of hate from overseas who urge violence against our society. If I am Home Secretary the people who organise those meetings will be arrested and prosecuted. Under this Government the extremists have been free to protest on our streets and incite violence and hatred in the most blatant ways.

We cannot and we will not allow this to continue.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

What people want from the Home Office is a no-nonsense approach to the crime and disorder problems in their communities. They understand that those problems are complex.

That we need to get to grips with the social problems that foster crime …. ….as well as with the crime and antisocial behaviour itself. But right now they are hugely frustrated.

They feel let down by the police. They feel let down by the courts. They feel let down by the Government.

Above all they believe that under Labour those who commit crime and antisocial behaviour are just getting away with it.

They’re right.

They are.

And if we win, it will stop.

HAGUE WARNS AGAINST TORY COMPLACENCY

William Hague delivered a powerful first day speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester today.

To download the full speech click here.

Mr Hague said Labour would run a "wholly negative" campaign characterised by smears and playing on people's fears.

He told the Conservative Party conference that if Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, won the election "the last traces of hope and optimism and confidence about our national future would drain away".

Despite the opinion poll leads and local election successes, senior Conservatives have been careful to avoid sounding as if the general election was already won.

Mr Hague, effectively the Tories' deputy leader, said: "Whatever our successes and however much the country cries out for change, we must never allow one morsel of complacency to creep in to our campaign.

"We must be conscious that the system is stacked against us - that Labour only have to draw to win a majority in the House of Commons but we have to win by some two million votes to do the same.

"We must be conscious too that this election, as we saw in Brighton last week, will bring forth from Gordon Brown's Labour a wholly negative campaign - barricaded in the Downing Street bunker they will fling any dirt, stoke any fear, spread any smear and peddle any distortion to scare people into thinking that change is dangerous, honesty frightening, and the fresh air of new leadership actually poisonous for the people of Britain.

"This campaign will have ups and downs, it will have moments of difficulty, when we will need to keep our nerve, calm our friends, and make sure that we always march in step towards the goal of a better government for our country."

After the Prime Minister's conference speech last week, in which he reeled off a list of Labour's achievements, Mr Hague gave his own version detailing the Government's failures on public finances, crime and health.

He mocked Mr Brown over the "goats" that joined - and subsequently left - the Government of All the Talents.

"The arrival of a string of ministers from outside politics - Lord Malloch-Brown, Lord Darzi, Lord Digby Jones, was hailed by Gordon Brown as showing it was a Government of All the Talents.

"It turned out they were so talented that after working with him for a short time they left, and so we now have a Government of All the Talents with all the talents taken out of it."

Mr Brown and his Government "do not possess the quality of honesty, directness, decision-making and leadership necessary to make this country great and successful again".

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, who Mr Hague said had given "new meaning to the word chumps", was singled out during an attack on the Government's lack of accountability.

"The Prime Minister nobody ever elected has been kept in office by a deputy nobody in the country had voted for at all, making up a Government with the least moral or democratic authority to govern in our lifetime."

COMMENT

Very persuasive Mr Hague. The fear the British public will have is how long the commitment to transparency and honesty will last once in office. The country will be looking for the next Government to prove by their actions that they will deliver on their plan. We have read the Conservative Plan for Social Reform (see links opposite & previous posts). The proposals for change will be challenging and require a courageous and committed team to implement them.

The priciples are sound. Should the Conservatives be successful at election time, we only hope that they will not provide the opposition and the public with the same ammunition for doubt, suspicion and ridicule that Mr
Brown and co have evidenced diring their rule.

We look forward to Chris Graylings' speech on Law & Order at 11.15am on Wednesday 7th October. We hope to see that Messrs Cameron & Grayling have a firm grasp of what is needed to fix the broken Criminal Justice System in this country and evidence that they will deliver the transparent and honest solutions so badly needed.

Over the coming weeks and months, where gaps in the Law & Order strategy seem evident, reports and communications will be posted directly to Mr Grayling from this site.

To see the full agenda for the Conservative Conference click here

The Crime Analysis Team

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CAN DAVID CAMERON SAVE BRITAIN?

Next week sees the Conservative party conference rolls into Manchester. David Cameron promises they won't be playing it safe - instead they will be offering bold plans to deal with the big problems the country faces.

Labour spent their conference talking only to themselves - not the country.

In contrast, Mr Cameron says, you will see a Conservative Party united, determined and ready to deliver the bold, tough and radical change Britain needs.

Labour are now the party of unemployment - at this conference we are promised the tories will show that are the party of new jobs and new opportunities.

To deal with Labour's Debt Crisis the Conservatives will be setting out some of the tough decisions that need to be taken. They promise that unlike Gordon Brown they won't duck them.

To give people hope for the future the country needs to change direction, and the Conservative Conference must show how they are ready to make that change. There is absolutely no room for complacency.

DAVID Cameron pledges he will put the Great back into Britain.

He vows to deliver a better place to live if he becomes Prime Minister. He says he will put common sense back into everyday life and end Labour's days of political correctness.

"The Conservative Party did need to change. We weren't paying enough attention to the big issues of the future. I hope readers will come to us as an alternative to a government that they are fed up with.There are a series of things the Conservatives will do that readers would welcome after the 12 years we have had. These things will make Britain a better place to live."

He unveiled ten pledges aimed at achieving his dreams.

• He vows to freeze council tax
• Reassess Incapacity Benefit for 2.6million people to get loafers back to work
• Replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights.
• The number of MPs would be axed & Ministers' pay will be cut
• A Military Covenant with troops would be honoured to ensure they are properly equipped.
• Corporation Tax would also be axed
• National debt and public spending tackled
• Interest rates kept low to boost investment.
• Discipline would be restored at schools
• Magistrates would get more powers

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron today also pledges to turn Britain into a world-beater in time for the 2012 London Olympics. He wants to repair Broken Britain and turn it into a beacon for industrial strength, national confidence and strong society for the world to see.

Central to his plan would be to make JOBS his number one priority if he is made Premier. Mr Cameron says: "I'd like people to come here for the Olympics in 2012... but we also want to show a country which is getting back on its feet."

He adds: "We have to start with that appalling scourge of unemployment. We're now facing a situation where we have one in five young people out of work. We're getting back towards that terrible number of three million unemployed."

Mr Cameron pledged "big, bold and radical plans" to get people back to work. He says: "I understand, if you leave people unemployed, and short term unemployment becomes long term, then it becomes a lifetime of unemployment. It's a waste of a life. I must stop it happening."

He also vows to be "straight" with people about the deficit - "the most difficult issue facing the party". Mr Cameron says: "We are going to confront it. Gordon Brown completely failed to do this. You cannot deal with it just by cutting waste. This is going to require a great national effort.

"The people will have to come together under strong national leadership and come out the other side with a strong economy and we will be living within our means and we can start getting peoples' taxes down again.

The Tory chief also warns that the Conservatives are not going to sit back and take an election victory for granted. He says: "We will not sit back on our laurels. We want to earn the trust of the British people."

WHAT OF THE POLICE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS?

David Cameron and Chris Grayling, (the next Home Secretary if the Conservatives gain power),  have set out their blueprint for reforming the Police & Criminal Justice System. We have captured the essence of their proposals in a summary document. To see what they plan to implement, click here to download the summary.

To download a copy of the Conservative Plan For Social Reform click here. Both of these documents will remain avaiable from links on the right side of this site.

So, returning to the question "Can David Cameron save Britain?" - well that remains to be seen. If his words back up his actions, and his promises of tough and radical changes are delivered, he faces the prospect of a Thatcher like unpopularity amongst sections of the community. This country needs someone who will not falter in the face of unpopular decisions. It needs someone who will meet them head on and take the course that is right for the masses.

Max Hastings of the Daily Mail asks if Mr Cameron is ruthless enough to do what is necessary. His article sums it up well. Click here to see it.

Crime Analysis Team

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THE FARCE OF UK CRIMINAL JUSTICE

When a 17 year old teenager threw stones at the window of a disabled pensioner, Renate Bowling, 71, confronted the 17-year-old youth in the street. She bravely went out to remonstrate with him. During the conversation the frail widow, who fled to Britain from Communist East Germany and walks with a steel frame, prodded the youth in the chest with her finger.

She told him what she thought of him. He called her "some ****ing German woman".


Police officers were called to the quiet residential street and the teenager told them he had been assaulted.


'Then the police arrested me - I thought "What a joke. What is going on?"


'That lad had held my wrists and bruised them and he had the gall to call it self-defence.

'The police put me in the back of their van like a sack of spuds and took me to the station where they questioned me. Then a few days later I was told I was being prosecuted. I could not believe it, neither could my family.

'I had to borrow £20 from a friend to pay the court costs as I only had £30 on me. It has all been a nightmare

To read the full Daily mail story click here

COMMENT

This story exemplifies what a complete farce the Criminal Justice System has become.

That a system has become so perverse that common sense could not prevail is beyond belief. The sad fact is that the majority of common sense coppers in the UK agree with how ridiculously commonplace such incidents are.

Inspector Gadget, Copperfield, Ellie Bloggs, 200 and other police bloggers and authors have been trying to raise public awareness about the mid boggling utter stupidity of the crime reporting system for a few years now.

Hunting detections to improve crime figures is slowly but surely eroding the confidence of natural police supporters. Ordinary people who make up the bulk of the British population are being criminalised in ways like that of Renate Bowling, all in the crazy pursuit of ticked boxes and meeting targets. The common sense police response would be to exercise descretion, rap the youth on the knuckles for his behaviour and advise Mrs Bowling. The mad system that has evolved however does not allow for discretion. Once the matter is reported, (the assualt in this case) it is logged on computer as a crime. The case cannot be resolved and "detected" until the accused accepts responsibility. The officers are not permitted to show discretion and walk away, they are forced by the system to follow it through. Teams of audit officers scrutinise and follow up on such cases until the detection box is ticked.

In this case, as with many thousands of others concealed within Home Office figures, the price paid for the detection was way out of proportion with common sense policing. The result is one criminalised disabled grandmother who has lost all confidence and support for the police. Consider further the many hours consumed by officers taking statements and processing the matter for the CPS. Whilst police officers are tied up with enquiries like this that only serve to diminish confidence in the service, they are not available to respond to other more serious and needy cases. Little wonder police morale is at its lowest ebb, when the very system they are forced to implement prevents them doing the really important jobs as effectively as they would want.

The example is one of thousands where the CPS then exacurbate the situation by pursuing the case, safe in the knowledge they have another detection secured. Why oh why, could common sense not have prevailed and the decision made to take no further action? If the responsibility and decsion to charge was returned back to the custody sergeant, common sense might well have prevailed, and Mrs Bowling may have been saved the indignity of a court appearance and a black mark against her otherwise good name.

Police Officers and CPS are being strangled by Government directions and performance targets to detect at any cost. All so that the Government can feed the public more statistical spin about how crime has reduced since they came to power. 

A consequence of the true public perception is that less than 50% of crimes are reported. The public have lost confidence that the police will be able to do anything, or worse, as in this case, as the real victim, you are more likely to face prosecution than the yob. We no longer have an accurate grip on what is real and manufactured concerning crime in the UK. On that basis, how can any Government accurately forecast the financial and human resourcing for a given area?

The system doesn't legislate or care, it got its detection and that's all that matters.

Politicians take note . . . .  This needs addressing SOON.

The Crime Analysis Team
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