Soft justice kills the innocent

Offenders with serious "form" should never be bailed

One in seven murders in Britain is committed by suspects freed on bail while awaiting trial for other crimes, according to disturbing new figures.

Last year 56 murders – more than one a week and a shocking 37 per cent rise on 2011 – were carried out by people bailed by the courts.

If they had been remanded in  custody, the victims’ lives may have been saved.

Criminals on bail also committed an average of two rapes a week, and were responsible for tens of thousands of less serious offences, the Ministry of Justice figures reveal.

Overall, suspects who have been released by the courts commit a crime every ten minutes.

There has been pressure on magistrates in recent years to remand fewer suspects to Britain’s over-crowded prisons, but these figures suggest that too many dangerous criminals are being released.

Peter Cuthbertson, director of the Centre for Crime Prevention think-tank said: ‘These figures are horrifying – victims’ families will be sickened.

‘If the authorities have let this happen through sheer incompetence then they need to scale back immediately the use of remand on bail for people suspected of serious crimes.

‘If, on the other hand, they have decided that one extra murder a week is an “acceptable” figure, it only shows how much the public is put at risk by an obsession with keeping down prisoner numbers.’

The figures say there were 60,129 crimes committed last year by people who were on bail. Of these, 42,302 were classified as indictable offences, the most serious.

In addition to the convictions for murder, 16 people were convicted of manslaughter, and 684 for serious violent assaults.

A total of 111 rapes were carried out by people on bail last year, as well as 166 sex offences against children and 6,372 home break-ins.

One in every five burglaries is carried out by a suspect who has already been caught for something else but then released back on to the streets.

In 2011, suspects on bail carried out 41 murders, 857 serious assaults, 102 rapes and 206 sex attacks on children.

Former Justice Secretary Ken Clarke limited the use of prison remand – leaving thousands more offenders at large.

Judges are no longer allowed to remand people in custody if their crime will not lead to a jail sentence if they are eventually convicted.

Three years ago, Jonathan Vass, 30, murdered his ex-girlfriend while on bail for raping her.  The former bodybuilder was released by a Crown Court judge despite standing accused of repeatedly raping nurse Jane Clough, 26, at her Blackpool home while she was pregnant with his daughter.

Former paramedic Vass launched the frenzied knife attack on Miss Clough only eight weeks before he was due to stand trial. Vass, who stabbed her more than 70 times in the car park of the hospital where she worked, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years in 2010 after admitting murder.

Since her death, Miss Clough’s devastated parents have campaigned to change the law, saying their daughter was betrayed by the justice system.

They have demanded that bail laws be changed to make it harder to grant bail to perpetrators of domestic violence who are thought to be particularly dangerous.

The judge who granted Vass bail had been warned about the threat he posed.

Last year teenager Kevyn Viner was jailed for two horrific rape attacks – the second was carried out while he was on bail for the first.  Viner, 18, of Newport, South Wales, was given an 11-year sentence for raping a 25-year-old woman just days after he was released for a similar assault on a 50-year-old victim.

In 2007, teenager Adam Swellings, was on bail for assault when he murdered father-of-three Garry Newlove in Cheshire.  He was allowed out despite a long history of breaching court orders.

One of his bail conditions was that he did not go to Warrington – the town where he killed Mr Newlove.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Dangerous offenders should always be remanded into custody while awaiting trial.

'That’s why the Government changed the law, to allow prosecutors to challenge decisions where a potentially dangerous prisoner could be bailed.

‘The overwhelming majority of people bailed do not reoffend and they are often given strict conditions such as tags and curfews.’

SOURCE





British social workers again

It's not only endangered children that they neglect

A troubled student killed herself after a social worker dismissed her as a ‘an effing waste of space’ and ‘an attention seeker’.

Now a coroner has formally criticised the ‘failure’ of the NHS team supposed to be caring for tragic Hannah Groves, 20, who committed suicide after she spent nine days threatening to take her own life and asking to be admitted to a specialist unit.

Her frightened mother Mandy Park, 43, who made similar unsuccessful efforts to secure help for her daughter, said: ‘If she had been admitted for treatment I believe Hannah would still be alive.

‘I feel completely and utterly failed by the lack of help and care.  'She was talked about in such a vile, horrific and derogatory way by certain people.  'It was like being caught up in a horror film.’

Her complaints were backed up by the evidence at the inquest into Hannah’s death, which heard that Accident and Emergency doctors, police and paramedics all concluded she needed help.

But the specialist mental health team diagnosed her as simply having ‘attention-seeking behaviour’.

In a narrative verdict, Southampton coroner Keith Wiseman said: ‘There was at all stages a failure to appreciate the extent of the risk that Hannah was at in the community.’

Hannah was studying French at the university of Southampton when she began suffering mental illness for the first time.

On an October morning last year – after she had spent nine days repeatedly asking for treatment in the city’s Antelope House mental health unit – she was being assessed at a police station when a policeman phoned the mental health team.

It was then that a social worker told the officer: ‘Yeah, I know her, she is an effing waste of space, she’s an attention seeker.’

Within three hours Hannah was dead after strangling herself with scarves and belts.

Now her mother has told how her daughter’s mental state swiftly degenerated into severe panic attacks and she had to be prevented from strangling herself.

Miss Park said: ‘It was like she was possessed but we just couldn’t get the help that she needed and she wanted.  ‘The image of finding my daughter will haunt me for ever and I can no longer sleep at night without heavy medication.’

Yet Miss Park said that when she called the psychiatric team on her daughter’s behalf, she was ‘treated as if I was a pain’.  She added: ‘I could hear the sighs on the phone when I told them who I was.’

Coroner Mr Wiseman said in his verdict earlier this month: ‘It is surely self-evident that by the end of the week it was unsafe for both Hannah and her family for her to be at home.

‘One only has to pause for a moment to visualise Hannah’s mother and teenage brother being forced to leave the house for their own safety in the early hours of the morning and for the police to have to be called, to realise that by then a wholly impossible stage had been reached and that for however modest a period of time Hannah required hospital admission and care.’

He went on to say that a ‘safety first’ policy had clearly not been employed, particularly in light of Hannah’s clearly worsening condition.  She needed immediate help, he said, ‘not the almost throwaway line of: well she can always come to see us when she wants to’.

Hannah’s mother said she was now taking legal action against the Southern Health NHS Trust.

A spokesman for the Trust rejected her family’s and the coroner’s claims that she should have been admitted to hospital, but said: ‘In this case we deeply regret the failure to provide the right level of intensive community support which would have avoided any need for hospital admission.’

The social worker who made the ‘waste of space’ comment had been suspended while an investigation is carried out.

SOURCE




Debate over jeweller Stephan Turk who killed 18-year-old thief in France

A FRENCH jeweller who shot dead a teenage robber has sparked a national debate, with a Facebook page supporting him getting 1.4 million "likes".

Stephan Turk, 67, shot an 18-year-old in the back on Wednesday as he and another robber were fleeing on a scooter with gems stolen from the jeweller's shop in the French Riviera city of Nice.

His actions have divided France, with supporters arguing for the right to self-defence amid a general climate of insecurity, while critics condemn the use of violence and vigilantism.

A Facebook page created anonymously several days ago in support of Turk - who on Friday was charged with murder - had garnered 1.46 million likes by Sunday afternoon.

"He did what the justice system isn't able to do! These days, if you want something done right, do it yourself," user Fanny Duvergt wrote.

But on Twitter, where debate over the issue is also raging, doubts have emerged about the huge swell of Facebook support, with some saying many of the "likes" may have been bought.

A Facebook page against the jeweller and the use of force has also emerged over the past few days, though it has a comparatively meagre 13,800 "likes".

"Shooting someone who is escaping in the back, that's murder. It's not self-defence... We're not in the Wild West taking justice in our own hands," Facebook user Katia Chipolina wrote on the page.

French law allows for killers to escape conviction for murder if they can show they acted in "legitimate defence".

But the prosecutor who recommended Turk be charged with murder does not believe this can be applied as the jeweller's life did not appear to be in immediate danger when he fired an unlicensed semi-automatic pistol.

If convicted of voluntary homicide, the jeweller could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Mainstream politicians have generally avoided comment on the case, saying it is a matter for the courts. But it has been seized upon by the far-right Front National (FN).

"When people feel obliged to defend themselves with such dramatic consequences, it is a sign that they no longer have any confidence in the state or the forces of order," FN leader Marine Le Pen said Saturday.

And in a photo published in the Journal de Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the FN party, was shown brandishing his fist at the camera.

"I would have done the same thing," he was quoted as saying in the paper.

SOURCE





Your Safe, Moral Boy Scouts Alternative

It was Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 6, 2013. The huge hall was overflowing, the convention sold out. Over 1,200 attendees, with many spilling out into the foyer, eagerly awaited the announcement. What would this safe, moral and non-sexualized alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) look like? With a stirring introductory video came the answer: “Trail Life USA” would now endeavor to “be the premier national character development organization for young men, which produces godly and responsible husbands, fathers and citizens.”

The reveal, eagerly anticipated by hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of Americans was met with rousing cheers. “Our mission is simple and clear,” came the official mission statement, “to guide generations of courageous young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others and experience outdoor adventure.”

A brief summary from the new scouting-like organization’s website (TrailLifeUSA.com) reads as follows:

“Most guys want exciting outdoor adventure with their friends. We’ve got that! Trips and travel? That, too. Camping. Check. Physical and mental challenge? Yep. And awards? Of course!

“Trail Life USA is a Christian adventure, character and leadership movement for young men. The K-12 program centers on outdoor experiences that build a young man’s skills and allow him to grow on a personal level and as a role model and leader for his peers. Living the Trail Life is a journey established on timeless values derived from the Bible.”

Countless men and boys who once called themselves “Boy Scouts” will now proudly bear the title of “Trailman.”

Back in May, millions of Americans were shocked and saddened when the BSA inexplicably bowed to left-wing political pressure and became something it had never before been: a hyper-politicized, aberrantly sexualized petri dish for social and sexual experimentation.

Created in 1910 to “prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes,” the BSA, on May 23, 2013, tragically voted to welcome into its ranks “open and avowed” homosexuality (boy-on-boy sexual attraction and behavior), thereby disavowing the “morally straight” Scout Oath its members have been sworn to uphold for over a century.

Even worse, and in so doing, the BSA effectively waived the only legal defense it once had to preclude openly homosexual Scout leaders and gender-confused girls from its ranks: religious and moral conviction. It’s only a matter of time until the BSA is forced to capitulate to sexual extremists’ political demands and allow homosexual adults – men who define their identity based upon carnal appetites for other males – to take your boys on overnight camping trips.

Once that happens, Trail Life USA will be the life raft for the multitudes. Those who abandon the fast-sinking BSA ship will have a safe place to land.

The group has released a must-see video explaining both the history of Trail Life USA and the BSA’s tragic and financially driven cave-in to extremist political groups, hard-left corporate donors and the mainstream media (Click here to view video).

Oh, but what a faithful Lord we serve! We are reminded in Romans 8:28, “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Trail Life USA is indeed good. It has indeed been called according to His purpose.

And it will never waver.

In a recent interview on “WallBuilders Live” radio, John Stemberger, an Eagle Scout, lawyer, pro-family advocate and Trail Life USA’s acting board chairman, addressed the BSA tragedy and the resulting birth of this exciting new principled alternative: “Sometimes things have to die before there’s a new birth and it comes back better than before. And, not to extend the analogy too far, but even our Lord went through that process,” he said.

Regrettably, the usual left-wing suspects have attempted to smear Trail Life USA by labeling it “anti-gay.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Trail Life is simply pro-purity. As Christians, the group’s leadership has adopted the tried-and-true “love the sinner, hate the sin” model. They’ve simply chosen to obey and follow Christ’s “I do not condemn you … From now on sin no more” example on sexual immorality – all sexual immorality – be it adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior or any other sexual sin explicitly identified in Scripture.

Trail Life’s Membership Standards state, without equivocation, “The basis for the program’s ethical and moral standards are found in the Bible. In terms of sexual identification and behavior, we affirm that any sexual activity outside the context of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman is sinful before God and therefore inconsistent with the values and principles of the program.

“Within these limits, we grant membership to adults and youth who do not engage in or promote sexual immorality of any kind, or engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the program.”

Under the heading “Purity,” the group’s Statement of Faith & Values states: “Members are called to live a life of holiness, being pure of heart, mind, word and deed, reserving sexual activity for the sanctity of marriage; marriage being a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman.”

We condemn you not. Now go and sin no more.

“Real men value truth over tradition,” Stemberger told the cheering convention crowd. “Real men value principle over program, and they value integrity over institutions.”

The BSA has lost its integrity. It has chosen the almighty dollar over the best interests of the boys it once served so well.

Now you have a choice.

An oak has died, but a new seed buds.
I pray you’ll water that new seed. I pray you’ll choose Trail Life USA.

SOURCE

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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, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS,  DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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