Re: Interesting commentary on the UK riots

On 15/08/2011 23:42, DGDevin wrote:

I can remember reading about how there were parts of London (and
presumably other cities) in previous centuries where the cops went only
in force, that apparently hasn't changed much. What is different these
days is at least some of the thugs live in public housing and get paid
to do nothing, so it would appear that the welfare state isn't too good
at getting rid of the criminal underclass.

Historically, I don't think it was intended to do that. One of the main problems is that we have become soft on antisocial crime but don't mind harassing pensioners over petty incidents. People can be fined for littering because ash falls from their cigarette or their child loses their crisp packet but only thirty percent of burglaries will be investigated because the Police apparently don't have the resources to follow up every reported incident.

I think they ought to get their priorities right and if prisoners were made to work all day and didn't have plasma televisions and games consoles, prison might stop being seen as a right of passage to a generation of thugs.
.

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