THE NEW ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR RULES: PART 7 DISPERSAL POWERS

Read the report in CRP News and wonder just how much authority is being given to a single police officer in this fair land.

DRIVEN TO DESPAIR

It never fails to amaze how many people feel that if they ignore official communications somehow they will go away and the tidings within will be forever unable to come back and hit them where it hurts.  So it is with much of the process at motoring courts.  We had five s.172s.  One defendant managed to convince us that he had indeed returned the form with the errant driver named only for the recipient police department to deny receipt.  One might consider that the boot was well and truly on the other foot. One other had sufficient evidence that he was not in a position to have received the notice to nominate.  The remaining defendants had, for a variety of reasons, failed to persuade us that they had not received their s.172 forms and were duly convicted one of whom with six penalty points already on her license was immediately made subject to six months disqualification her legal advisor assisted plea of exceptional hardship falling far short of any reasonable hurdle.   We also had an ambulance driver before us for driving the wrong way in a "one way" street.  This is virtually a strict liability offence and although he was on an emergency run to a hospital we had to convict him after persuading him that his defence was not tenable.  I blogged on this topic last year. After explaining the situation to him we gave him an absolute discharge and no costs but the atrocious so called "victims` surcharge" had to be paid.   Being in an area where there are large numbers of immigrants from the E.U. the problem imposed on our courts a year or two ago by a European Directive  that such license holders did not have to convert to a U.K. license is a regular occurrence.  We just do not know their driving history.  I suppose it could be worse; if we don`t know they could be  convicted murderers when they arrive here what difference in reality would a conviction or two for careless or dangerous driving make?

LEGAL AID REFUSAL OVERTURNED

The denial of legal aid in many criminal cases as a result of deliberate government intention is a blot on the justice landscape for which many will never forgive the Tories.  It is therefore pleasing to see even occasionally this atrocious policy being found to be beyond the pale.  A report in the Law Society Gazette is worth a glance.

NOT BEFORE TIME

There have been many occasions here when I have criticised, rightly IMHO, those representing the magistracy as being ineffective status seekers who were more or less lap dogs to government seemingly kowtowing with little resistance to our downgrading by the weasels at HMCTS.  Well; it seems that the current chairman of the Magistrates Association Richard Monkhouse has decided to bite back..........and not before time.  Today`s Independent carries an article in which he gives that oh so Liberal Simon Hughes, recently appointed Justice Minister, some home truths although for a statistician I think he has his arithmetic wrong by 16.5% but who am I to get the sums right with my A Level maths at only a B.

“We have the evidence that in the last 10 years we have reduced the proportion of the prison population sentenced by magistrates from 6 per cent to 4 per cent. That may not seem very much but that’s a 50 per cent reduction in the number of people who aren’t going to prison who were going to prison 10 years ago.”

Anyway more of this sort of combative argument is not before time.

THOUGHTS ON POLICING

Give him an inch and he'll take an ell (mile).  An old adage but one as true as when it was first coined in the 16^th century.  An organisation which exemplifies this message more than most is the police. RIPA was not considered controversial when it was promulgated over a decade ago.  Perhaps the draftsmen in those days of Tony Blair`s a “new day; a new law”  period were unable or uncaring of the fine print.  Be that as it may its use has taken it into corners of our life where it has no business.  “Freedom of the press”  passes off the tongues of many in government as a token response as further restrictions are being placed in the way of free expression when privacy loses the battle with security or the public`s right to know.  To be fair many right thinking people of influence are content to sit on this most uncomfortable of fences but not police who wish to use RIPA`s provisions to silence free reporting.  This from an organisation which has been involved in so many hushed up scandals of varying degrees including murder and where senior officers` and Police and Crime Commissioners` misdemeanours or “errors of judgement”  make the headlines weekly.

Direct entry at Superintendent level was Tom Winsor`s idea to shake up complacency in current police levels of competence. The armed services` policy of officer direct entry subsequent to successful completion of  two years at Sandhurst or the Navy and RAF equivalents was held as an example.  The Police Superintendents` Association is not exactly in the vanguard of this initiative`s proponents.  Since its enthusiasm as reported above on March 3rd West Yorkshire has rejected every application and I understand the Met has also found none of the applicants met its requirements.  If ever a major public organisation needs a thorough overhaul this one fits the bill but I suppose that has been the case for decades and look where we are now.