Tough On Crime?

‘THERE’S no pleasing the Daily Mail.

‘The meter’s expired. Move in! Go, go, go!’

‘Call for back-up, lads, we’ve got a number plate with a wrong-colour screw,’ it sneers sarcastically across two pages.

Underneath, it shakes its head in disbelief at the ‘£20,000 case of the borrowed banana.’

Upon closer inspection, the cases do for once bear some relation to the headlines.

A Yorkshire lady’s car was surrounded by police officers after a traffic warden tipped them off about her illegal screw. She describes the incident as ‘bureaucracy gone mad’, and the Mail appears to agree.

Meanwhile, in Newcastle, a young man was jailed for burglary after nicking a banana from the kitchen of an Indian restaurant.

Lord Mackenzie, the Government’s advisor on crime, describes the sentence (a mere one day, which he was let off anyway because the thief had waited all day in court) as ‘way over the top’.

Is it just us, or is there some inconsistency here? How are young people ever going to learn respect for the law when even usually sane voices like the Mail are undermining the criminal justice system?

At best, it’s a case of mixed messages – zero tolerance one minute; bleeding-heart hand-wringing the next.

Let’s be clear. Either we are tough on crime or we are not. The present state of affairs is nothing less than political correctness gone mad.’

Posted: 20th, August 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink