The Olympics Cut Crime In London
Figures show that crime fell by five percent during the Olympics. Read all about it, here in the Daily Telegraph.
On a similar vein, the BBC in London has just announced that London Ambulance had a quiet time. Come to think of it, I’ve only seen the Air Ambulance once in the last couple of weeks. It tends to pass over, where I live.
In fact, although I’m not that far from the Olympic Park, I have hardly seen any helicopters at all; police, military, ambulance or otherwise.
Let’s hope it continues. I’m not bothered about the noise, but it just means that crime and serious accidents are a a low level.
Hastings Police Fail To Get Rid Of Dodgy Mobile Phones
I found this story in The Times today, but they got it from this page in the Hastings Observer.
Apparently, the police left marked mobile phones in bars and clubs, to attempt to find those nicking them in Hastings and St. Leonards. Unfortunately, every one was handed straight in to staff.
There are two possible explanations.
Perhaps people in the two towns are more honest than the police think.
Or the criminals in the area are brighter than they’re supposed to be and know a marked mobile phone, when they see one.
How To Complain
This guy got angry in a Manchester mobile phone store over a high phone bill.
It Was A Friend of Flying Rats What Did It!
That is the theory about who nicked Rufus the Hawk in the Evening Standard tonight.
I also think, that the Flying Squad are looking for a thief, with some large cuts in his fingers.
They’ll Nick Anything These Days
If you watched BBC Breakfast last week, you might have seen the harris hawk, used to frighten pigeons from the courts. So now someone has nicked it. It’s here in the Mail. It appears to have been a family pet as well, so I suspect that they may have stolen something they can’t handle. I hope so, because most birds have a strong homing instinct.
They could always borrow the eagle from Crystal Palace.
Police Use London Bus For Disguise
London has been having trouble with Eastern European con artists, so they used the obvious solution of how do you get lots of boys in blue to the area, without the con-artists knowing. You use a big red London bus and cram it full of police. The story is here in the Evening Standard. More than 25 were detained and a dozen or so were charged.
Surely though, the choice of a Number 2 bus was wrong. Perhaps it should have been a 49 or 99, or perhaps one that went past a convenient prison like Wandsworth, Pentonville or Wormwood Scrubs. That would give a whole new meaning to the phrase “Go Directly To Jail”
Wedding of the Century Ends in Jail
Kirsty Lane wanted an amazing wedding. So she nicked £200,000 to pay for it. It’s all here in the Mail.
She’ll have 0f plenty of time to mull it all over in jail. Jail might also help her to lose a bit of weight!
Prison or Tagging
The debate this morning on BBC Radio 5 is about punishment for crimes.
Most seem to be in favour of more prisons, but would we accept the extra taxes and where would we build them and where would we find the prison officers.
Having been over a prison recently, the biggest problem would appear to be lack of education and lack of jobs when they come out. In fact most of those I met, were extremely courteous to me and all the officers and others that worked and visitors. So the basics are there, it just needs to motivate them in the right way.
I am constantly reminded of the book, Menace to Society by Bill Fletcher. Fletcher had been in minor trouble for many years and had had all sorts of punishment. None had worked. In the 1960s, he ended up in Bow Street Magistrates Court in front of a Stipendiary Magistrate, who said he was going to give him the worst punishment he ever had. He let him go into the care of The Apex Trust, an organisation that rehabilitated offenders and still do. They taught him to read and write and he ended up as the doorman of the Shaw Theatre in London. I don’t think he was ever in trouble again.
I would agree that many offenders are beyond reform. On the other hand, a lot are good people underneath it all and with the application of a bit of training and a job, they can be set on the straight and narrow.
Baroness Warsi Puts the Boot In!
Baroness Warsi is reported on the BBC as condemning in the strongest terms the child abuse of white girls by a minority of Pakistani men. I am very much behind her views, as child abuse is child abuse no matter who does it. It can never be excused under any circumstances.
I would however question the views of some that should know better, who have done little to follow up complaints or condemn the proven abuse.
Let’s hope too, that Baroness Warsi and others, like Jack Straw and Trevor Phillips, keep the pressure up, as only by a concerted and forceful campaign will we stamp this vile practice out for good.
The Anonymous Widower 