Have the police lost control of the streets?

As Rake pointed out different people on different political leanings have different interpretations of what is the real purpose of sending someone to prison after committing a criminal offence is.Some say it should be about punishment,others say it's should be about rehabilitation & others say it's a deterrent as well as protecting the public.In truth it's all of those (& various other reasons) in equal measure but I'm a firm believer that the main priority of any Government is to protect it's citizens & if that means imprisoning a knife wielding individual with no remorse for their actions for 5+ years then so be it.For me judges when handing out sentences should never be swayed on cost-cutting measures (ie whether it's cheaper to keep a criminal out of prison or if there are too many people are in prison already) or be sold a line about how traumatic the perpetrator's life has been since they lost their job or blame poverty or how their family life will be affected (don't commit the crime then)etc where more lenient sentences are driven by a Judge's who shows more compassion for the criminal than the victim.If prison population is at an all time high or prison's full then build more because if we are to build extra infrastructure for an annual population increase of more than 250k+ a year then I would have thought prison population as a proportion would increase too plus we are one of the most cctv watched countries in the world.

Unless any of us commentors have been in prison or know someone who has been in prison then we can only assume what life is like inside based on tv documentaries & media stories.But considering re-offending rates are so high & where fellow ex-inmates give interviews & various depictions documentaries portray I gather prison isn't a place to fear going.I've seen interviews with career criminals who admit they prefer prison life than life on the outside world as it's a lot easier & would just re-offend once released just to carry on life inside.If prisons are the holiday camps they are led to believe where inmates can choose to watch tv or play video games all day then why not turn prisons into places where inmates earn their keep.Inmates should be placed in work envronment (in jobs that can be carried out in the prison confines) where they would earn a wage that pays towards rent,food & entertainment (tv,radio etc) or money sent to family & savings.

Yes prison is meant to:

punish
rehabilitate
deter
protect the public

The most miserable year of my life was spent working on a contract in a prison.

They were all in there from a Tax Evader who happy told everyone he was just waiting for his release so he could get his hands on the money he'd hidden away to the utter scumbag who deliberately infected 3 women with HIV.

One of the few enjoyable moments was watching a regular customer laughing as he was let out on early release for "good behaviour" only to be immediately arrested outside the gate for something else. He was back inside on remand later that day

I'd bury the whole lot in a deep pit and leave the worms to have a party.

There are far too many people prepared to make excuses for scumbags who simply do not give a shit about anyone but themselves. What we need is a zero tolerance approach to crime, stiffer sentences, more prison places and more police officers on the street instead of them sitting in their offices monitoring twitter.

We've had bombings, stabbings and other crimes in my area which is too bloody close for comfort - the bombing was an Army Recruitment centre just literally up the road from where I live, a car that was blown up outside a Jewish centre, a taxi blown up outside the old BBC Television Centre and one night when the massive warehouse area of Staples Corner in North London was blown up. I heard this from miles away and felt the shockwave that occured seconds later. The stabbing was again a few years ago coming back on a bus at late evening after leaving my grandfather(I used to look after him for the day at home) and there was a kerfuffle in the back of the bus up top where I was. I had earphones in but next second someone flew past me and literally jumped over the barrier down the stairs and fled. I looked back and saw that someone was being looked after. It turned out this thug had stabbed this guy in the eye. The police were called and kept us on the bus for nearly half an hour.

As I understand it another stabbing took place on a bus in North London-it turned out yet again it was near to where I live and I know that bus route well having used it many, many times. This is turning into an epidemic and something must be done-we need more police on the streets. It is a fact that every time Labour put 5,000 police on the streets, the Tories took them off again and made cut after cut. Remember that riot that happened a few years ago, a year before we were due to host the Olympics - more police are needed, they need resources, money and backing, otherwise you might get another riot and looting but this time it could be ten times worse. Another way to prevent stabbings is to stop selling knives to underage kids, single-use knives in shops and educate kids on the dangers of using a knife. I also believe these morons who upload themselves in videos to social media and Youtube need to be stopped and prevented by the very social media companies that allow videos.

One of my sister's friends has a younger brother who was stabbed several times & had his lung punctured in a knife attack outside a nightclub in North London last year.He almost died & is still traumatized by the attack but he knows who the person is that stabbed him.His family,friends & police urged him to come forward with a name but he won't as he fears repercussions & a revenge attack down the line by the guilty persons friends & family.I also hear many similar stories about other people being stabbed & not revealing the criminal involved or witnesses too afraid to come forward for fear of reprisals from friends or gang members of the person being grassed up.This creates the perpetual motion that a person/gang member will carry on stabbing people knowing full well they aren't reported & so it continues with more bloodshed,stabbings continue & although some may survive the attack(s) fear it will be a lot worse if they came forward with a name.

Greenmachine mentions about the bombings in his area I was working on the 4th floor next door to the University at Russell Square near Tavistock Square when the July 7th bombings hit London in 2005.The explosion from the underground train in between Kings Cross & Russell square caused us to feel the tremors throughout the building even on the 4th floor me & my colleagues were working on at around 8:45-9am on that fateful day.We were completely oblivious to what happened other than members of public outside mentioned about a bomb going off & then nearly an hour later just before 10am the double-decker bus exploded at Tavistock Square a few hundred yards away.Despite the then London Mayor Ken Livingstone & the Labour Government praising the coming together & the unity of Londoners who helped out on the tragic day what they failed to mention that because no buses were running many local Taxi services (including Black Taxis) in the affected London areas upped their fares to £50 min charge & all the hotels inflated their prices that day & all the phone networks were turned off.Effectively cashing in on the tragedy of July 7th because they knew many of us commuters were stuck.I managed to walk 5 miles before getting to a functioning bus service to get me 3 miles from home.When the phone networks were back on I had over 60 missed calls from family,friends & other work colleagues who new I was working in the area in a panic.I'll never ever forget that on July 7th & whenever I can every anniversary I visit & pay my respects at the Memorial/Epitaphs they put in Russell Square & Tavistock Square to remember those who died.

In the latest act of judicial lunacy a man walked free from birmingham crown court after being caught in possession of 3 zombie style knives, said scumbag was sentenced to 4 months in prison suspended for 12 months.

That'll teach him...

I think part of the fallacy of lets get tough on crime and that will put them right is that it is based on a logical mindset, if there is a threat of tough punishment then they will be deterred. The problem is, committing a crime is not a logical thought process, many people who commit crimes have either a mental illness, a substance dependency be it alcohol or drugs or find themselves in desperate circumstances for whatever reason. Somebody on crack cocaine or heroin is not going to think like the people on this forum and so the idea that they will consider "I better not do this because I might end up in rough tough prison for 10 yrs" is just not feasible

(11-03-2019 19:19 )GreenMachine Wrote:  I also believe these morons who upload themselves in videos to social media and Youtube need to be stopped and prevented by the very social media companies that allow videos.

Social media in part has a role to play in this too and I completely agree social media sites need to prevent the morons who upload these type of videos. But they should assist the police if they request the video so it can be use as evidence against them and make convictions that much more likely.

Any social media giant/site who fails to respond to a police request for the evidence, they themselves should face charges of perverting the course of justice and also obstruction of evidence.

I read an article in one the newspapers yesterday that claimed over a quarter of murder investigations in London in 2018 have lead to no convictions,charges & have been left unsolved.Of the 132 murder investigations in the capital 36 have lead to no convictions which include of the 15 deaths by firearm 9 of those have no convictions.And of the 75 knife killings 13 of them haven't found a guilty person accountable.