Don't rage at the laughing burglar - save it for the clowns who let him go free

By Peter Hitchens

At last we know what thieves really think about the people whose lives they ruin. A bitterly funny and honest letter from a burglar to his victim disposes for all time of the notion that there is any point in being nice to crooks. Remember that this creature has actually been caught and is in the hands of the police. Is he trembling and afraid? Not exactly.

He explains: ‘I have been forced to write this letter... To be honest I’m not bothered or sorry about the fact that I burgled your house. Basically it was your fault.’ The victims, he argued, knew they lived in a high-crime area, so they shouldn’t have left a window open.

What is doubly funny about this is that it is almost exactly the same message given to honest citizens by our defeatist police. They, too, are always telling us that if we are robbed, it is our fault for not turning our homes into fortified bunkers. They assume that nobody has any morals or conscience any more, and also that robbers are no longer afraid of the law.

And why should they be afraid? They know the law won’t hurt them, or punish them. The courts yearn to find some excuse to let them go – because otherwise the prisons will burst.

It was while seeking an excuse to let the laughing burglar off that the police told him to write to his victim.

They let him off anyway – no prison, just an ‘electronically monitored curfew’ and 25 hours a week of so-called ‘structured activity’. The more syllables these phoney sanctions have, the less they mean. They mean ‘let off’.

Letting criminals off is what we are good at. Nearly 30,000 habitual criminals were also let off last year with cautions, after they had returned to crime.

The prisons are bursting because hundreds of thousands of people who were once afraid of the law now laugh at it. Eventually, after 15 or more crimes, the state locks them up for a few weeks in an effort to look tougher than it is. But it is just for show.

This is all quite obvious. Our Government refuses to learn from it because it is the slave of a foolish, Leftist dogma, that crime is a disease caused by hardship. It is not. It is human evil let loose, and till we return to that view, it will get worse. Like the laughing burglar, I’m not going to show any sympathy for the clowns who have got us into this mess and keep us there.

No doubt you agree with me, in which case why do you keep voting for the clowns? That’s the bit I don’t understand.

Mr Injustice Bean says that it is not a crime to swear at the police because they hear foul language too often to be offended.

On the same principle, the time will come when burglary, mugging, GBH and even murder will no longer be crimes, because we have all got used to them happening all the time. Well, when that day comes, we won’t need Mr Bean any more.

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Useless British police again

They are only good for harassing inoffensive people over trivialities -- like helping put a silly man in jail for 4 years for "holocaust denial"

Police abandoned the streets to opportunistic looters during the August riots, an inquiry has concluded. By not getting a grip at the outbreak of the violence, officers allowed the impression to take hold that the streets had been surrendered to thousands of yobs. Disturbingly, the report added that unless police improve their response few rule out the prospect of riots in the future.

The official inquiry into the five days of violence – which cost the country at least £500million – concluded the shameful scenes were not motivated by ‘politics’. Instead, the rioters’ main objectives were getting their hands on ‘luxury branded goods’ which ‘confer instant status’. The report describes looters queuing up inside shops to get the best products, trying on trainers in the wreckage of stores and admitting their motivation was ‘greed’.

The panel, established by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, concluded: ‘Rioters believed they would be able to loot and damage without being challenged by the police. In the hardest-hit areas, they were correct.’

Labour MPs had claimed the shocking scenes witnessed in August, which included 5,000 crimes and five fatalities, had been sparked by Coalition cuts. But panel member Heather Rabbatts said: ‘These were not riots that were political, these were particularly characterised by opportunistic looting and very much targeted at brands.’

The panel, which interviewed those who lost their homes and businesses, said the vast majority believed the ‘sole trigger’ for disturbances was the perception that the police ‘could not contain’ the scale of rioting in the capital.

Between 13,000 and 15,000 people were 'actively involved' in rioting which swept across the country between August 6 and 10. More than 4,000 suspected rioters have been arrested with nine out of 10 already known to the police, the study said. More than 5,000 crimes were committed - and there were five deaths.

There were 1,860 incidents of arson and criminal damage, 1,649 burglaries, 141 incidents of disorder and 366 cases of violence against the person.

The final bill could be around £500 million, with up to £300 million of claims under the Riot Damages Act and £50million on policing London.

Miss Rabbatts said scenes from Tottenham, North London, in which it ‘looked as if police were backing off’, led to a ‘perception that the streets were there for the taking’.

The panel members, headed by Darra Singh, have a long history of working in the public and voluntary sector. Mr Singh has worked for homeless charities and was chief executive of two local councils. Miss Rabbatts spent time as a barrister and a BBC governor.

They were joined on the panel by Baroness Sherlock, of the Refugee Council and the National Council for One Parent Families, and Simon Marcus, who founded the Boxing Academy for teenagers at risk of gang crime.

Riots broke out in Tottenham on August 6, two days after the fatal shooting by police of 29-year-old Mark Duggan. Unrest spread to other cities, including Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

Mr Singh said: ‘Our research has also led us to conclude that riots of this nature will happen again unless immediate action is taken.’

The Riots, Communities and Victims panel painted a devastating picture of a country in which ‘some would argue consumerism is the new religion’. It said: ‘The desire to own goods which give the owner high status (such as branded trainers and digital gadgets) was seen as an important factor behind the riots.’

Looters repeatedly targeted the same types of shops across the country, including Footlocker, JD Sports and electrical stores. The panel went on: ‘The ownership of luxury branded goods confers instant status. It is therefore perhaps not surprising these goods became the rioters’ main objectives.’

The panel, demanding much improved planning from police in future, said: ‘The police decision to withdraw to the periphery of riot-hit areas left many communities feeling they had been abandoned.’

The panel also called for insurers, who were accused of a ‘poor response’ in some cases, to do far more to pay compensation claims promptly.

It also called for an overhaul of the 1886 Riot Damages Act, which is used to claim compensation from the state.

An Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman said the riots had presented ‘considerable challenges’ to the police.

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Britain's poor whites 'feel like they are last in line for council housing'

White working class people believe they are the last in line for state handouts, welfare help and council housing, a report by a respected research group said yesterday. It said that many think if they complain they will be silenced with the charge of racism.

The inquiry by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that many white people in poorer districts use ‘racialised language that would be unacceptable to many reading this report.’ But it found that such rough language is regarded as normal by the people who use it, that they regard themselves as tolerant and welcoming, and that they hate being labelled as racist.

The Rowntree report also said that, contrary to the fears of many politicians and left-wing commentators, white working class people do not turn to far-right politics or organisations like the British National Party. Instead, it said there was ‘active distaste’ for racial extremism and the far right, and people were outraged that their views were taken as indicating they supported racist parties.

The report, produced by Professor Harris Beider of Coventry University was based on interviews with residents of three working class districts and findings from focus groups drawn from people who lived there. People with lower incomes from Aston in Birmingham, Canley in Coventry, and Somers Town in North London, took part in the project.

Professor Beider said: ‘The way that people from working class white backgrounds are portrayed is often negative, which doesn’t reflect the reality of the pride most people hold in their community, nor their strong work ethic, and collective values.

‘It is important to confound negative stereotypes and understand that people in these communities feel their voices are not listened to, and that they have no stake in their community. They want to be valued, heard and connected to government.’

The inquiry comes in the wake of wide concerns over the past five years over the resentment felt in by white people in poorer parts of the country.

Former Labour minister Margaret Hodge said in 2007 that her white constituents in Barking in East London felt they had little chance of getting council or housing association homes because newly-arrived migrants were given priority in the queues.

However fears that disaffection would lead to large-scale support from the BNP or other far-right extremists in places like East London or Stoke-on-Trent were proved groundless when the BNP collapsed in the 2010 general election.

The report from Rowntree – whose chief executive Julia Unwin was an adviser to Gordon Brown during his premiership – said that the allocation of social housing should be seen to be fair. This would ‘counter widespread perceptions of queue jumping or preferential treatment for certain groups.’

Since the 1970s council and housing association homes have been awarded not on the basis of waiting lists compiled largely from the names of local people, but on the basis of a points system in which ‘need’ is important. Families who are newly-arrived in a district can often score highly in terms of points if they are jobless or can say they have inadequate housing.

The report said that terms like ‘community cohesion’, coined after the 2005 London bombings when Labour ministers decided to abandon the left-wing doctrine of multiculturalism, mean little to working class white people.

Instead equality programmes are associated with political correctness or attempts by selected groups to siphon away state money. One project in Birmingham was described by a white resident as ‘run by Asians for Asians’.

White working class people, the report said, ‘are proud of their working class identity and the values it stands for – working hard, looking after each other, pride in the community.’

The report said white working class people deeply resented being painted as political extremists. ‘The association of the white working class with the far right follows an established (and false) narrative going back to the rise of Oswald Moseley in the East End of London,’ it said.

‘Since this point, the white working-class has been labelled as hostile to race and immigration: teddy boys in the 1950s; dockers in the 1960s; skinheads in the 1970s; and the rise of the BNP since 2000.’

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Fat Fascists put on their brown shirts

This is NOT a medical issue. It is a civil liberties issue. The deprivation of liberty is real whereas the medical considerations are hypothetical. Overweight people live out a lifespan little different from slim people.

An obese eight-year-old boy has been taken into custody in Cleveland after social services said his mother was failing to keep his weight at a healthy level. Authorities said the child's mother was essentially neglecting him by allowing his weight to rise to more than 14 stone (200lbs).

The intervention, which will be challenged in court, has potentially widespread ramifications for social policy in the United States, where up to a third of all under-18s are estimated to be obese.

Social workers took the boy from his school on October 19, placing him in a foster home and telling his mother she could only see him for two hours a week.

"They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don't love my child," the boy's mother told The Plain Dealer website.
"Of course I love him. Of course I want him to lose weight. It's a lifestyle change, and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying."

Aside from his weight, the 8-year-old is reported to be happy and doing well in school, where he is on the academic honour roll.
His only current health problem is sleep apnea, a treatable disorder which affects breathing at night, and his weight meant he was at high risk of developing diabetes or hypertension.

"We approached this as a medical issue, this wasn't a about obesity it's about the child's health and well being," Mary Louise Madigan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Family Services, told the Daily Telegraph but said she was unable to give more detail.

The child first came to the attention of social services in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, early 2010, when he was taken to hospital with breathing difficulties.

His mother was given advice on how to control his weight, including getting him a bike, and for a time he appeared to be returning towards a healthy size.

But in recent months his weight began to rise dramatically, prompting social services to step in.

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

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