Rough justice for have-a-go heroes
by Greg McDonald
Alma Harding has been given a criminal record at the age of 63 for hitting a swearing teenager with her rolled up church papers. She should get a medal.
Let me also commend 67-year-old ex-army boxer George
Bayliss from Suffolk, whose pension a young man recently tried to
steal.
“I just threw a left at him”, says George – “it was a peach, a real cracker.” The man – and his two friends – fled.
When we’ve reached the point where people like Mrs Harding are put in the dock, it seems the law has an indefensible case to answer, but let's give Superintendent Richard Baker his day in court.
"Mrs Harding,” Baker explains, “hit someone on the head with papers. Is that something we can be seen to condone?"
This black joke on British justice is tragically typical both of a culture of disrespect born out of the breakdown of community and a failure of our lawmakers and judges to ensure the law’s fundamental principle is to protect the fundamentally principled.
Superintendent Baker and co, fearing vigilantes armed with The Tunbridge Wells Parish Gazette running the streets, fail to recognise that by putting policing and justice in opposition to the decent majority they ensure the very disregard for the law they seek to avoid.
Alma Harding’s case demonstrates we desperately need a new culture in which burglars entering a house, thugs waiting to mug a pensioner, or kids swearing at old ladies, are in no doubt that the moment they cross the line they forsake the protection of the law.
I just returned from 4 weeks in Thailand, swear at an old lady there and see what hapens, lol. If she dont slap you, the nearest policeman will, just as it used to be here. some things about the old days were damned good.
Posted by: Nedkelly | 06 March 2009 at 15:59
Well, this is not the first such case and it won't be the last. We have a police force driven by statistics and targets, and obsessed with traffic "crime". We have a nation drivin by namby pamby human rights fanatics. Personally, I have no faith in the "justice system" in the uk anymore. Give Alma a medal, and give George the yobs in questions address so he can give him nice right hook. Now, thats JUSTICE. This country is a joke, I for one will not lie down and take any crap from these feral youths who think they rule our streets.
Posted by: Nedkelly | 06 March 2009 at 15:56
Bring back the death penalty.
Posted by: jfv | 05 March 2009 at 11:20
The police were wrong to bring such a charge. The CPS was wrong to progress it. The judge was wrong in accepting the case. He (or she) should have throw it out of court. As long as the authorities act like this then the yobs of this world will get away with anything. It's about time society stood up against this kind of behaviour. And it's about time the authoritues supported them. I wholeheartedly support Alma, and George. The only thing that worries me is that the youth could have been carrying a knife. The possible consequences are too horrendous to think about.
Posted by: John Holt | 03 March 2009 at 17:37
THE LAW IS THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THIS COUNTRY NOT JUST BECAUSE OF THE STUPID HUMAN RIGHTS,CONSIDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY DID A GOOD JOB AND MORE CRIMINALS WERE LOCKED UP.
IF YOU ADD UP ALL MEMBERS OF THE CRIMINAL PROTECTION FORCE( SORRY, THE POLICE),PRISON STAFF ALL THE LEGAL AND PROBATION PEOPLE,THE CRIMINALS PLUS ALL THE PERIFERY GROUPS YOU END UP WITH THE LARGEST BUSINESS IN THE COUNTRY.
Posted by: billo | 01 March 2009 at 18:51
When do we get a blog about Fred the Shred and Jaqui Smith?
Seems to me that what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.
Fred the Shred just took us for a cool £700,000 whilst Jacqui Smith took us for an uncool £116,000.
It seems to me that all this Government is interested in is whipping up public frenzie against this banker. He sure as hell was smarter than this Government.
At the moment what he did is not illegal but neither is what Jaqui Smith has done allegedly perhaps just immoral.
Will the law be changed to prosecute both of them I wonder?
Posted by: Eye Spy with My Little Eye | 01 March 2009 at 15:52
Jo,I completely understand what you say but I was looking at the broader picture. I think that to make an arrest in this case was inapropriate but the law is the law and the police have to abide by it whether or not they agree with it. The law was not called an ass for nothing. Personally I (who incedentally am not a police officer)think that the CPS should have not taken it up. If you read my post you would see that I like yourself think that the 'Do Gooders' in politics are totally to blame for these asinine laws.
Posted by: reggae | 28 February 2009 at 18:38
Yes, Reggae, but it was the police who decide to charge Alma in the first place and in the second the CPS for deciding to go ahead and take the case to court. What I would like to know is, was the youth charged with anything? At the very least he could have been given an asbo.
Posted by: Jo's mate | 28 February 2009 at 15:02
What exactly was the charge against Alma Harding?
Being put in the dock for the action that
"is something we can't be seen to condone?"
Is this what our Justice system is for?
None of us should condone the actions of the boy (now man) who stabbed the headmaster to death outside the school. Yet he is now out of prison with a new identity.
Isn't this the sort of person the Superintendent Baker should be looking into not victimising grannies.
I bet it made him feel big.
It makes him look like a big plonker.
Posted by: Anon | 27 February 2009 at 18:15
Jo, whilst I completely agree with your frustrations with the way this country is going. It must be realised that it's not the police who are to blame. It is the Bleeding Heart Society who gets these yobs and ladettes less than a slapped wrist. This must make the police feel they are wasting their time and resourses if the law can't or wont deliver hard justice to these individuals.
Posted by: reggae | 27 February 2009 at 13:28
Oh poor yobbo. I can imagine the pain and distress he must have suffered being swatted with the parish magazine. No wonder he was provoked into swearing.. who wouldn't have done. Vicious woman needs locking up.
Now where's the phone book, a, b, c,... ah, here we are.. criminal compensation lawyers. No win- no fee. Let's see if we can get this poor misunderstood youth the rightful pay out he deserves.
Don't laugh - it'll happen. Stupid police, greedy lawyers. I really really hate what has happened to this country.
Posted by: Jo | 27 February 2009 at 09:58
I remember when Tony Benn first stood as Labour candidate in Chesterfield. Gangs of 6-8 local yobs were roaming the town centre on market days, pushing, shoving, chanting Labour slogans, slapping "Vote for Benn" stickers on the chests of anyone who got in their way and shouting "You will be voting for Tony, WON'T YOU, mate (or luv)!!". The only thing missing from what I'd seen in the 1930s newsreels were the black shirts.
THEY knew who their champion was then, and nothing has changed now. Andy has got it right - the only way to get back to decent behaviour in society is for decent people to vote Labour OUT.
Posted by: Jason | 27 February 2009 at 08:57
When we finally caught the teenager that had decimated my car with a baseball bat he wasn't even chastised by his father.
This teenager had systematically and consistently over many months repeatedly done damage and it had cost me a lot of lolly.
He got only a caution.
His father never repremanded him for his actions and the kid never said sorry.
Somebody has got to do it. Alma Harding, I've got another job for you luv, good on u.
Posted by: Dot Wilkinson | 27 February 2009 at 08:11
Dont you mean,get rid of the do gooders and GET some people that can and will do some good!
Posted by: Grammar! | 27 February 2009 at 07:59
Spare the rod, spoil the child!
Just because it is no longer PC, it doesn't mean that it is not relevant.
Get rid of the do gooders and some people that can and will do some good!
Posted by: acme | 26 February 2009 at 22:36
Why do we act surprised?
Don't we already know Britain is a country where the thug and the bully are protected by law?
So go ahead kids, go pick on the old and defenceless. If they try to retaliate you can have a good old laugh as you watch them get a criminal record for their troubles.
Posted by: Gcarse | 26 February 2009 at 21:28
People want a return to decency?
They have voted three times for a government that has done everything it can possibly do to undermine decency. Why? Stupidity? Gullibility? The promise of easy money? Who knows.
But within 14 months they will get their chance to remedy their mistake. A vote against Labour is a vote for a return to decency.
Posted by: Andy | 26 February 2009 at 19:07
We live in a police state where the police are too busy doing the bidding of their paymasters, stamping out dissent, and protest, and strangling free speech. When it comes to dealing with real crime they are useless unless someone 'grasses up' the culprit. The only way to keep their statistics looking half reasonable is to go after easy targets like people who try to defend themselves or their property, or motorists.My son recently had his windscreen smashed during the night which he reported and told the police who was a strong suspect, but they would not investigate because there were no spy cameras in the area. I guess Mrs. Harding should have swatted the yob away from prying cameras.
Posted by: Equilibrium | 26 February 2009 at 18:57
i went too a well known place to see the new clint eastwood picture yesterday. on leaving ,i sat to wait for my son who is 27 years, when we set of from this wait, a group of youths thought it would be funny poor liquid over both us .i made a finger gesture at the youths, (@least6 youths ) and we walked away.my son said leave it mum you will be in more trouble then the gang of yobs. could not find anybody to report this too and went home. why should good people have to put up and shut up, with all this and the youth get away with no record or even the parents not knowing.feel the pp should home and check what family and friends are up too.
Posted by: wendy | 26 February 2009 at 16:46
oh, forgot to ask, what did the yob, who was swearing at the lady concerned, get ? nothing, i'll be bound !!! apart from the pleasure of watching this lady go through a lot of hasstle, and, distress, plus, now having the stigma of a police record !!!
Posted by: SUPERGRAN | 26 February 2009 at 16:45
PITY IT WASN'T A BASEBALL BAT ! OOPS, SORRY ! BUT JUST HOW SICK IS THIS CASE ? AS A COUNTRY, WE HAVE EVEN GONE BEYOND THE BOUNDS, OF BEING, THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WESTERN WORLD !!! IS IT ANY WONDER, WITH POLICE OFFICERS TAKING THIS SORT OF CASE TO COURT ! NOT TO MENTION THE COST OF IT !!! I WONDER JUST HOW MUCH THAT WAS ?
Posted by: SUPERGRAN | 26 February 2009 at 16:41
Another one of the Blairs legacies - Human Rights - but who do they work for. Certainly not law abiding citizens.
Posted by: Shafted Britain | 26 February 2009 at 15:54