ZIMBABWE

Yesterday Gordon Brown was talking tough on Robert Mugabe. But just talking — no doing. A pity he can't be tough on the ruffians and scoundrels who roam the streets of our cities.

PENALTIES FOR ASSAULT

In Scotland new guidelines issued by the Crown Office have advised that people accused of "minor" assaults (apparently defined as those requiring less tha three stitches) should no longer be prosecuted before a court but be subject to a fine of up to £300. Previously a court might, and often did, hand down a prison sentence. Our police are rapidly becoming little more than tax-collectors. Politicians, prosecutors, the legal profession, lily-livered judges are failing in their duty to the public. And on my way back from the newsagent's shop there is a notice attached to a lamp-post advising me that it is an offence to drop litter and I could face a fine of £2000. Pity I'm the sort of person who doesn't go round knocking old ladies on the head as it looks like a cheaper hobby.

POLICE TARGETS

A few months ago I was caught by police for not wearing a seat-belt on a short trip to get the morning paper (I normally walk but not this day). They filled in the documentation and drove back to base to collect their points and I went to the council to pay the fine. I refrained from asking why they weren't out chasing "real" criminals. But after they left a passer-by said that he had been in the town a few evenings earlier and a large group of youngsters were creating mayhem. Not a copper in sight. Possibly just a simple, small police presence was all that was needed.
Yesterday the head of the Police Federation hit the nail on the head when she said that government targets mean that some forces will make a playground incident between children a statistical "crime" (when in the past a quiet word would have done the trick, assuming police were involved at all). She said there is a growing perception that police are targetting "middle England" (and polite geriatrics) rather than dealing with more serious crimes (and proper thugs). How right she is. As she says there is nothing wrong with targets per se but they have to be the right targets.

And I'm certainly not saying that police shouldn't pull up people who are not wearing a seat-belt. Just that it's beginning to look as if police priorities are skewed towards dealing with this sort of offence at the expense of others. Jan Berry, the head in question, made a comment to the effect that police were "spending too much time inside counting things instead of outside doing things"

CHILD CRIMINALS

So a 10-year-old in Rawtenstall (Lancashire) got fingerprinted by police and fined £40 for writing on a neighbour's wall in crayon. Well she was a naughty little girl to do that but hardly a criminal. I'm all in favour of stopping children, even 10-year-olds, from messing up their neighbour's property. But all it needs is a good tongue-lashing, which her mother says she got, or a spanking. I'd need to know more about the girl to decide which was appropriate. When I lived very many years ago not far from that Rossendale town nobody, had I committed such a crime, would have been upset if the neighbour had punished me or made me rub it off. But now with policemen and social services alert to every touch, neighbours tend to grit their teeth and keep hands off. Seems like overkill to me.

Perhaps not entirely unconnected is a report that Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary in Gordy's new broom government wanted to toughen up police targets to increase the number of arrests for serious offences. I don't pretend to know how the targets operate but basically at present a policemen gets as many points for arresting a 10-year-old girl as for dealing with a 17-year-old lad on the streets with a knife. Given the choice which would you choose? In fairness it seems some officers would rather deal with "real" crime and feel they are being let down by management. And though the targets may apply in reality to the force, rather than individuals, they must generate pressures from command levels which feed down to men on the beat. In any case it's all academic because Jack Straw has said he can't agree to a policy which would put more people in jail because there isn't room. So the law and order aspect of Gordy's new broom is just a sham.

CARRIER BAG CRIME

A hardened dangerous criminal was sentenced at Swindon after police charged him with criminal damage. The 16 year old boy had torn the handles of a fellow pupil's carrier bag which she was using to carry PE kit. The report claims the value of the bag as a penny. Glad to know the police are following up these incidents with such zeal.

AIRGUNS

The Scottish Executive are proposing a ban on airguns. To some extent this is political posturing as weapons control is at present a matter which is reserved to Westminster. A ban would have minimal effect. Restrictions on firearms were tightened after Hungerford and again after Dunblane when it became illegal to possess a pistol/revolver/automatic weapon/rifle. Nevertheless as we have seen in the past three weeks a large number of teenagers seem to have no problems in getting hold of one. I expect the illegality just increases the value as a "status" object. Unless the police make a determined effort to prosecute anyone they find with such a weapon, and the men in red dressing gowns send them to prison, new laws are a waste of time.

BEAT BOBBIES

For several days now the press and TV have been reporting on the search for the teenage killer of Rhys Jones an 11 year old boy. Arrests have been made of several teenagers who were then released. Once again police have been appealing for witnesses and/or information that could lead to the killer. Of course if there had been bobbies on the beat, as some in the community had requested, they might have built up a rapport and known what was happening on their patch. As things stand police seem to zoom into an area after disaster strikes and might as well be men from Mars.