Tuesday, July 25, 2006

David Fraser - A Land Fit For Criminals

I've already bigged up this book, available from Amazon at a bargain £11.87, in this post.

Now the Dalrymple review.

"All in all, Fraser’s book is a searing and unanswerable (or at least so far unanswered) indictment of the British criminal-justice system, and therefore of the British state. As Fraser pointed out to me, the failure of the state to protect the lives and property of its citizens, and to take seriously its duty in this regard, creates a politically dangerous situation, for it puts the very legitimacy of the state itself at risk. The potential consequences are incalculable, for the failure might bring the rule of law itself into disrepute and give an opportunity to the brutal and the authoritarian."


The point about the legitimacy of the state is an important one. Listening to a BBC (it could have been Radios 4 or 5, the politics will be the same) piece on a UK version of Megan's Law, the studio consensus was that it would lead to attacks on, and possibly the murder of, named offenders.

No-one seemed to have grasped the enormity of what they were saying. The implications of such a statement are either

a) the disconnection between the appropriate punishment as seen by judges and as seen by the public is so great that such attacks are likely. This should perhaps have caused some soul-searching as to whether the current punishments are appropriate. After all, one of the unique selling points of a functional criminal justice system is that, by inflicting punishments which are generally felt to be appropriate, vendetta and vigilantism are avoided.
If this thesis is accepted (and it seemed to be by the studio guests), the logical thing would seem to be to increase the punishments. But we're much too sophisticated for such simplicities. No, the real villains are the tabloid press, whipping the clod-like populace into homicidal frenzies in the style of Radio Rwanda.

b) the posited vigilante attacks would be the work of a miniscule minority of sick people, with no public support. And law and order in 2006 is such that this tiny, unsupported minority will be able to successfully carry out those attacks.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

dont know if you are aware of the Jason Swift case , from years ago.
one of the murderers was out on parole, and was shot dead.

the police never followed it up, or bothered investigating.

which does say a lot about the disconnect between sentences being handed down and what most sane people judge to be a fair and just sentence (i.e. life sentences should mean just that - life)

Anonymous said...

Sidney Cooke

paedo murderer. imprisoned 1984. paroled 1998.

Anonymous said...

Did you hear former Judge John Samuels on R4 at lunchtime ? The arrogant complacency of the Barrister oozed from the judicial throne blaming perecptions of the hoi-polloi who could not understand the divinity of the judge

Anonymous said...

If you want books - I recommend Christopher Lasch (Amazon.com) - Revolt Of The Elites and The Culture of Narcissism

dearieme said...

When you beieve that The State will not deliver on its side of the "social contract", what are you to do?

Anonymous said...

Jason Swift case - Ive had a look into that. The guy (nonce) who was killed, the police did investigate but strangely no members of the public felt like coming forward with any information. Another member of the gang was killed in prison.

Laban said...

Sidney Cooke is alive, well, and was staying in a police safe house in Bristol last time I looked.

Another of the killers, Lenny Smith, has just died of AIDS.

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/content/hackney/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=HKYGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshkyg&itemid=WeED07%20Jul%202006%2011%3A33%3A01%3A077

Anonymous said...

jason swift wasn't a rent boy, thats just what he old tpolice to try to make it look better for him, the media beived itcos it made good story. me and a freind were nearly abducted by them in petticoat lane a few years before, they were just preditory, god knows how long jason was in that flat before they killed him. there were weeks unaccounted for. we flipped the stinking old bastard over a wall before running off but the younger one was in a phone box right by him and came out laughing as we ran off so he was waiting for whoever sidney cooke managed to get hold of.

Anonymous said...

where is sidney cooke now? is he dead, is he out, anyone got any info?

Anonymous said...

He was jailed in December 1999 for a series of sexual offences he committed between 1972 and 1981. He was told that he would have to serve a minimum of five years in prison before he would be considered for release. Evidently he hasn't applied for parole or even at his age, hasn't convinced a parole panel that he is fit for release. Cooke is still in prison and it is very unlikely that he will be released now.

Anonymous said...

It mentions in this link that Leon Brittan's name might have also cropped up with regards to Jason Swift. Which may be connected to other politicians and care home abuses.

http://pebpr.blogspot.com/p/comments_19.html

http://pebpr.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

It seems that the above link regarding Brittan's now been changed to the link below.

http://pbepring.blogspot.co.uk/p/comments_19.html

Unknown said...

Paedophile cult operating in benevent l'abbaye: the whistleblower blog about Chris and Clare Godson is slippingbeneaththeradar.WordPress.com now edited by Ariela Cohen

Unknown said...

To contact Ariela Cohen please email: arielacohen99@gmail.com for advice concerning the Godson Cult and Chris and Clare Godson. The cult uses pilgrim23.com as a site for its bogus advertisements. Be event l'Abbaye is located in central France.

Unknown said...

Some people very worried about Chris and Clare Godson have found "slipping beneath the radar" hard to access on WordPress so we have a mirror on lacreusehostsevilcult.blogspot.com which should help to alert the vulnerable. Pilgrim23.com is used by this paedophile cult as a means of drawing in expats and pilgrims walking to compostelle. From: Ariela Cohen.

Unknown said...

Updated: lacreusehostsevilcult.blogspot.com now holds additional information on how to deal with the bogus enterprises used by Chris and Clare Godson to trap people into joining the Godson Cult and how to avoid being fleeced. My email: arielacohen99@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Pilgrim23.com and Godson TP are the links used by the Godson Cult to trap the innocent into their web of deceit and abuse. My email: arielacohen98@gmail.com if you have further information about their activities in Thailand and Ireland.

Unknown said...

It is already well documented that Chris and Clare Godson ran child brothels in Thailand and Cambodia under the guise of their evangelical cult charitably rescuing very young girls from sin. Fat western pervs made substantial donations for a season ticket to the house of "rescue.". Email: arielacohen99@gmail.com

Unknown said...

The Godson Cult has recently started to use new entrapment links and emails: fossepro.com, fossepro@orange.fr and lachouettebenevent@orange.fr. Please be very careful when coming into contact with Chris and Clare Godson. My email: arielacohen99@gmail.com