will the government act on it, though?
In unusually emotive terms, he said: 'The principle which must be grasped is that when we speak of dwelling house burglary we are considering not only an offence against property, but also, and often more alarmingly and distressingly, an offence against the person.'
Writing just weeks after he called for tougher sentences for knife crime, Lord Judge quoted the 17th century judge Sir Edward Cooke's description of an Englishman's home as his 'safest refuge - where above all we should enjoy secure tranquillity and untroubled peace'.
The ruling observes that the declining years of elderly victims can be 'overshadowed by what sometimes becomes an ever-present, pervading fear and constant nervousness'.
Lord Judge added: 'Many warm and happy memories of bygone years can be destroyed as a direct consequence of burglary and for some indeed their home becomes something of a prison, as they barricade themselves behind the security arrangements they believe they need.'
On the loss of sentimental items, he said: 'A photograph is worth nothing, except to the person who owns it, but may be the only image left of grandparents or now-deceased parents.
'The loss or destruction of letters written in the early days of courtship may distress the widow or widower who has lost them far more than the disappearance of valuable electrical equipment.'
I have never understood the "Well, it's only burglary" and "Well, it's only property" attitude; it's your home. It's your property. Having someone come into your home, trash the place and steal your stuff isn't just theft of property, it's a violation of your home. It's a virtual rape of your peace of mind there, of seeing it as your safe place. And it should be punished harshly.
Labour initially adopted a tough stance on burglary, enacting a Tory plan in 2000 to impose minimum three-year jail terms for those convicted of a third offence, although the measure was watered down to give judges more discretion.
But since then magistrates and judges have increasingly been encouraged to hand out more community punishments, and the proportion of convicted burglars sent to jail has plunged from 51 per cent to less than 40 per cent last year - down from 14,338 offenders to just 9,237 - while the number of suspended sentences has soared.
Police recorded more than 280,000 domestic burglaries in England and Wales last year but clear-up rates are low at just 13 per cent, and a quarter of all burglars caught by police are let off with a caution.
The Home Office's recent 'policing pledge' does not expect forces to visit burglary victims promptly unless they claim to be 'distressed', and sentencing guidelines published last month urge courts to consider softer punishments for burglars who steal to fund a drug habit.
Oh, God. "Softer punishments for burglars who steal to fund a drug habit." Whether these morons understand it or not, they're encouraging this shit. At the same time they've made it a crime for you to protect yourself, your family, your home from these dirtbags. You encourage something, you get more of it; is that so damned hard to understand?
One other encouraging sign from the article:
By contrast the Lord Chief Justice recently tripled the sentence on a 16-year- old knife attacker, and said: 'Those who carry knives on the streets, and use them to wound and injure, must expect severe punishment. No ifs, no buts, no perhaps.'
They're still in that 'having a knife is an offense' mindset, which is bad; but that 'and use them to wound and injure' is a hopeful sign; punish someone for the illegal act, and stop blaming hardware for what they do.
In the comments of the post on the Brit cops being chased- actually 'pursued' would be better- by the 'peace activists', Thud said
there are police blogs in which some of the officers are shall we say..less than happy...the average brit is aching to even the score of the last 10 years and only a major effort by our defeatist govt and media elite is keeping the lid on...
That the officers had to run away from these thugs is another symptom of the 'be nice to the bad guys' attitude that wants to give addict burglars an extra break, and it's one more thing causing the good people to get more and more ready to act. Which they'll either do, or they'll go down the drain, which the country is halfway to now. One of the bad things? If the blowup had happened a few years back, it would have been a lot less nasty. At this point, if it does happen, it's going to be profoundly ugly.
And the longer it waits, the uglier it's likely to get.
1 comment:
Two thoughts here;
When someone steals from another, they are by my reasoning literally stealing the finite hours of the victims life spent in a labor to acquire what was stolen. Those hours spent can never be regained, any more than one can regain the days spent recovering in a hospital after being the subject of battery. For me, significant theft should involve a significant chance of injury to or the death of the thief. They have no regard for the cost to the finite hours to others, so I see no reason to concern myself with theirs, beyond the fact of what the illogically compassionate would do to me in the courts.
Secondly, I should not be surprised to see England become the first major western nation to eventually engage in a full-fledged ethnic war since the 1940s. At some point, the middle-eastern population will think itself undefeatable, and cease to worry about consequences. That will be an interesting time for the far left, as they'll be between immigrants who regard them as inferiors, and natives regarding them as traitors.
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