Printable Version of Topic
Click here to view this topic in its original format
Newbury Today Forum _ Random Rants _ Our legal system; what's gone wrong!
Posted by: On the edge Jul 26 2014, 08:41 AM
Richard Benyon is challenging the CPS decision not to prosecute a local care home worker for a failure to care because they believe it wouldn't be in the public interest to do so! I have to say, our MP is right; who are these people to make such decisions.
There seems to be rather too many cases where public servants decide cases themselves rather than have the question tested in court; our age old right and the basis of our legal system.
How many times do we hear that Social Service Departments have taken serious decisions behind closed doors. Similarly, we now have the latest daft idea, restorative justice, where 'offenders' meet their victims to apologise and put things right (aw bless!).
It seems that today's public servants think 'going to Court' is a punishment itself. No, it isn't, it's a fundamental right. If you are charged with doing something you didn't think wax wrong, who would you rather have in judgement? For me, it certainly wouldn't be WBC or any other Government Agency.
Posted by: Andy Capp Jul 26 2014, 10:13 AM
Going to court doesn't guarantee justice either. A system where how you look and how wealthy you are will heavily weigh on whether a guilty verdict is delivered. Seeking alternative methods is not a bad thing, if it can be demonstrated to work better. In this case, I'm inclined to agree, but I'd like to know more about how the CPS came to their decision. Richard Benyon describes it as a 'brutal assault', but that doesn't come across in the limited description of the incident.
Posted by: Simon Kirby Jul 26 2014, 12:13 PM
There seems to be rather too many cases where public servants decide cases themselves rather than have the question tested in court; our age old right and the basis of our legal system.
How many times do we hear that Social Service Departments have taken serious decisions behind closed doors. Similarly, we now have the latest daft idea, restorative justice, where 'offenders' meet their victims to apologise and put things right (aw bless!).
It seems that today's public servants think 'going to Court' is a punishment itself. No, it isn't, it's a fundamental right. If you are charged with doing something you didn't think wax wrong, who would you rather have in judgement? For me, it certainly wouldn't be WBC or any other Government Agency.
My feeling is that our legal system has some good checks and balances, and one of those is that a public prosecution should always be in the public interest. It's not entirely straight forward so the best thing is to read the http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/code_2013_accessible_english.pdf. It's somewhat unsatisfactory, but the public interest test is not easily applied by a non-specialist on the basis of a few paragraphs of alleged evidence in the local paper, so it means at times that what is the right and proper decision in the circumstances isn't necessarily easy to understand, but then if the decision isn't easy to understand then justice is not obviously being seen to be done.
Posted by: Bloggo Jul 29 2014, 02:52 PM
In my opinion I think the justice system, on many occasions, does not give the victims of crime the support that they deserve but seems reluctant to deliver a suitable sentence to the perpetrators of crimes letting them off with "a smack on the wrist" allowing them back into society to commit further crime.
In my opinion "life" should be life and those that abuse and kill children should be hanged.
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)