I'm amazed to read that police in the UK have been instructed to let serious criminals off with a "caution".
Burglars will be allowed to escape without punishment under new instructions sent to all police forces. Police have been told they can let them off the threat of a court appearance and instead allow them to go with a caution. ...Some serious offences - including burglary of a shop or office, threatening to kill, actual bodily harm, and possession of Class A drugs such as heroin or cocaine - may now be dealt with by caution if police decide that would be the best approach.
And a string of crimes including common assault, threatening behaviour, sex with an underage girl or boy, and taking a car without its owner's consent, should normally be dealt with by a caution, the circular said.
Eh, it's too much trouble to prosecute someone for "taking a car with its owner's consent" -- stealing a car -- so let's just caution them not to do it again. It sounds like the UK has a problem with overflowing prisons, but since when is the solution not to build more prisons?
The crisis of overcrowding in UK prisons has also prompted moves to let many more convicts out earlier.It emerged last month that some violent or sex offenders, given mandatory life sentences under a "two-strike" rule, have been freed after as little as 15 months.
It's sad that the Labour government doesn't have what it takes to protect the British citizens from thugs and criminals.
(HT: David Hardy and Clayton Cramer.)
I've always been a big fan of electric bleachers. They provide economies of scale in times of high electricity costs over the old, inefficient electric chairs.
Once again, our precious institution of family produces criminals faster than we can get rid of them. Thank you mommy and daddy.
"sex with an underage girl or boy... should normally be dealt with by a caution"
That can't be right...
I can see it now;
"Officer, did you catch that 35-year-old bastard who had sex with my 16-year-old daughter after meeting her online?"
"Yes. Rest assured, we told him to please not do it again".
As it occurred to me that the line above sounds like something Chief Wiggum would say, I realized that this whole thing sounds like something from a good Simpsons episode. At the end, though, Springfield would realize that this system does not work and that criminals are getting out of hand, at which point they would replace it by an even worse system. I wonder what that would be.