Crime and the ever-extending tentacles of the state

According to the Telegraph, a senior cop has popped up at the Inquest of the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and Francecca Hardwick (a mother and daughter who tragically killed themselves following a campaign of terror by scum bags) and said that anti-social behaviour has nothing to do with the police.

At the inquest into the pair's deaths yesterday, Superintendent Steve Harrod, head of criminal justice at Leicestershire Police, acknowledged that the criminal justice system was set up to avoid sending juveniles to prison.

He said police officers were only allowed to issue warnings to young troublemakers unless their behaviour was judged to be serious.

"I'm not sure if people know but low-level anti-social behaviour is mainly the responsibility of the council"

Well, don't shoot the messenger. What he is saying is disgusting, but it's not particularly his fault and he is right. Because indeed, the terrorism of society and the low level crime that blights estates and communities up and down the country is no longer in the domain of the judiciary.

Because the state, along with everything else near it's grasp, has snapped up and entwined the issue of juvenile delinquency and anti social crime and terror within its clammy tentacles.

Of course, we all know that councils are useless at solving these ASB problems. They can't impose proper punishments, they cannot act as an effective or efficient wing of the judiciary. Councils barely manage to have rubbish taken away or abused children taken into care, or mentally ill people looked after. How are they going to stop out of control pikeys with no upbringing from stoning people and torching cars?

Central government has allowed this, and the problem accelerated under Blair who brought in the whole system of ASBOs and council led initiatives. But don't be fooled, because it was the ineffective and almost treacherous handling of law and order under the Tories that laid down the seeds for this terrible malady.

Our ruling elites either do not have the stomach to get properly tough on crime, or they know they can't because of the European Union and the Human Rights Act. That they refuse to look deep at the root causes of our Eunuch status as a high crime, low grade society (namely our powerlessness under EU law) and if they refuse to even discuss our continued membership under the current circumstances, then our politicians are guilty of being complicit in the mortal decline of the country.

They also share a chunk of the blame, in my view, for the persistent rates of terror and wounding and death that take place in this country week in week out.

They should all, whether Tory or Labour, be ashamed of themselves.