To set the scene, my daughter is a hard working post graduate student studying for an MA at the RCA, London. She is funding herself and get’s no help with grants etc. She is trying not to get into debt so is very economic with going out on jollies as she knows she cannot afford to do it very often. Last week it was her best friend’s birthday so it was planned that they go out to a club in Clapham for the evening with other friends. Ella had not been out for ages so was really looking forward to it.
They went to a club called Inferno in Clapham and whilst in there some scumbag dipped her bag and lifted a purse out of it which contained her wallet with £40 cash, her driving licence, her bank card and various other personal things. Her bag was over her shoulder and across her body but it was such a crush in this club that she did not feel it happen and did not realise until she went to buy a drink. To say it ruined what should have been a great night would be an understatement.
There are so many mean spirited, selfish scumbags out there who just don’t care about anyone but themselves and it sickens me.
My job as a legal secretary (criminal) has meant I have seen how low people go and I am so sick of how the victim is the one who is penalised. I have worked on cases of paedophiles, rapists, fraudsters, petty thieves, the lot and in all the time I have been doing this work I cannot think of any one of them who showed the slightest bit of remorse, in fact it is just the opposite, they have contempt for our ‘criminal justice system’ and laugh at it. Asbos are laughable, they do not work. I have been telling my husband this for years and he wouldn’t believe me but hey, didn’t they say in the news last week that Asbos are not working – they should ask the staff in Solicitors’ offices around the country, they have known this for years!
I hope the b***ard that took her money etc., get’s his come uppance but I’m sure he won’t.
Ella has now had to pay for a new phone and insurance on a new phone (one of the economies she had to make to fund her MA), she has decided she has to have insurance as this could happen again and again or she will be in fear of taking anything out with her. I could not let her be on her own in London (or anywhere) without a phone, I know too much. This is so unfair, she had managed to get herself 2 days work during her Christmas break so that she could afford to buy pressies for friends and family, now this money will have to go to replacing the above.
I am so angry, when is something going to be done to protect those of us who don’t break the law or take the attitude that “I want it so I’ll take it”, so much for Tony Blair’s dictat of we should be lenient to criminals. I wonder how he would feel if it happened to one of his kids.
I know of a Crown Court Judge who was of the ‘you have to give them the benefit of a second chance’ ilk until his son was mugged. Seems that after that he held an entirely different perspective on criminals. How bad is that, that we have to wait for something to touch these Judges/Mps/do gooders for them to actually realise that there is no criminal justice system in this country any more!
I have in my possession an application pack to become a Magistrate, I have thought long and hard about applying and would really like to but I fear that I would not be accepted as, in my husband’s words, they don’t want Attilla the hun on the bench.
I was doing really well in trying to get over my feelings at this time of year but things like this just knock me back and my prevailing feeling at the moment is that I would love to get hold of the perpetrator and …………. I will leave that to your imagination but it wouldn’t be pretty.
I think I had better go and have a camomile tea or something to calm me down.
ADF
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Gee, sorry to hear that. Hope you do get ‘refunded’ in some way. I can understand your anger, simply because this kind of situation is so unfair. I am, however, of the opinion that everybody does deserve a second chance. But only if they have served their sentence (appropriate for the crime they committed) ànd it is more or less clear they are ready and willing to make the best of it again.
Comment by Serge December 11, 2006 @ 10:05 pmThere are, unfortunately, always people who seem to get away with more than anybody else and when these people get that feeling at a very young age, they are probably ruined for life. You need policing and repression, but you also need a society where people are less likely to take the wrong path. It’s like a household where you need firm and strict parenting before the kids start doing whatever they want. But children also need to feel they are welcome, that they are loved and respected. And that is where it often goes wrong. And when these kids hang out with the wrong kind of friends, notice they can get away with small crimes, don’t get a decent education etcetera… well, then an unsufficiently funded judiciary system is just that little extra they need to make them feel untouchable. To sum it up: I guess it’s a total mix of factors leading to a society where people get the feeling that you have got now. Although there will probably always be ‘bad seeds’, I am convinced that – if people are willing to each take their responsibility (parents, schools,…) and politicians are willing to invest in this matter, the situation might eventually start to look up a bit. Until then, we should keep making clear there are people who are not willing to take this any longer. And who – why not – are willing to play the role of Atila the Hun on the bench. Go for it!
Thanks Serge, I will think again about applying, all my friends tell me I should go for it.
I take on board everything you say about second chances but I feel jaded as I work with kids who have had several chances but don’t want to change. Don’t know what it’s like in Belgium but it really is depressing here. Ella was made to feel like she had done something wrong when she tried to report the theft to the Police and they were so unhelpful. An example of a second chance would be the thief who stole my car. He had been in Court in the morning for TWOC (taking without the owner’s consent) and was given a 6 month conditional discharge. He left Court at 12 noon and at 1.30pm that afternoon he stole my car from the car park where I was working. He wrecked my car, wrecked another persons car and injured a woman quite seriously – do you still think he should have been given a second chance. Apparently it was the 10th time he had been done for TWOC!
Have finished ranting now.
ADF.
Comment by antidairyfairy December 12, 2006 @ 10:49 amSee what you mean. And I’m with you there. Those are the bad seeds I’m referring to and/or the ones who are lost because of the system. My second chance argument was especially meant for – like I mentioned – the ones who are clearly able to make something of that second chance (usually first-time offenders of not too serious crimes – the ‘mistakes’, let’s say). For the rest we need to toughen it up and make very clear society can and will not put up with antisocial/criminal behaviour. If only politics would provide the means for that. Repression- AND prevention-wise… Don’t know if the situation in Belgium is comparable to the one in the UK, btw. Fortunately (?), I have never really been in contact with the law…
Comment by Serge December 16, 2006 @ 8:09 pmHi ADF,
I totally agree with your comments and I can understand how angry and upset you are. This crime happened to me just two weeks ago…. Then I got back to my car to discover my window smashed and my leather gloves gone! I mean please what sort of low life scum bag would even think of a) Smashing a car window, b) Taking leather gloves (Well worn!?) c) Causing mindless vandilism. The Government should stop burrying heads in sand and realise that Britan is now becoming a home for immergrants that do not have the same morals as English people. – And for all you people about to shout abuse at me, yes the leather glove stealing Eastern European rotter was caught again repeat offending in the same car park, I am not being racist, they have different morals and views, they see this crime as being, now let me read his statment “No problem only gloves and a window” Oh yes and while im at it on a bit of a rant people in authority should be opening eyes to the fact that the country’s younger party crowd is fuelled on cokcaine and other drug/drink concoctions, thus giving false confidence and perceptions – there for more crime will be caused, fights, break ins, muggings, theft, rape etc etc…. And again to all you people thinking I am a stuffef old suit, I do fall into this cowd, I am a 27 single professional who works ones ass off in the week and enjoys letting ones hair down at the weekend…. WHY WHY WHY can’t people just have some morals and honour?
Comment by Amy December 19, 2006 @ 1:11 pmHey Amy, you go girl, it’s so good to hear someone else who is on the same track. Totally understand about you being non racist, you just have to go to your local Magistrates Court and look at the lists to see who is perpetuating these crimes and yes, Eastern Europeans do seem to have a different take on what is a crime and what they should be able to get away with. Obviously not all are like this and there are good and bad in all races but it can’t just be a coincidence that this country has started going downhill so fast since Blair’s open door policy kicked in, can it?
Comment by antidairyfairy December 20, 2006 @ 9:38 amIt is so horrible to go to your car only to find it has been nicked or that it has been vandalised and pillaged. When my daughter was a student in Nottingham she had her car windows smashed several times and stuff thieved, makes your blood boil.
You are the same age as my kids and they feel the same as you as both have suffered at the hands of thieves so I totally agree, let’s get a backbone back in this country and make a stand for morals and honour, wouldn’t that be great.
Wishing you a merry Christmas.
ADF