Anyone feeling slightly uncomfortable with the scale of the sentencing after the riots?

[TiredWife]

Firstly, in no way do I support the disgusting, racist behaviour we've seen over the last couple of weeks, and I fully believe the major perpetrators need to be found and punished.

Given his background Starmer has obviously been able to pull lots of strings to process a huge volume of offenders through the courts, and there is clearly a directive to name and shame in the media to send the clear message that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated. All good, and in the past I would have been firmly in support of this.

However there's something about the scale and speed of the court response which is making me uncomfortable. It feels as if they are highlighting specific cases to 'send a message' and it doesn't seem consistent with how the police and courts have handled previous similar cases.

So for instance an 18 year old has just been sentenced to 26 weeks in a young offender institution for 'possession of a bladed article in a public place'. I live near a London suburb and I reckon about a third of men out on the streets on a Saturday night would fall foul of this! But the police seem reluctant to stop them, let alone charge them?

Similarly the 53 year old woman, first offender, jailed for 15 months over Facebook hate post. Again, I don't condone what she did, but when you look at all the hate that women get online, or the death threats sent to JKR or MPs, there are few instances of people being jailed in the same way?

Justice needs to be applied fairly and consistently, across all groups, but this feels like a response at a level which cannot be maintained/applied across the board? Is that fair?

As soon as the sentencing started the trouble making rioting stopped. Remember it's violence stopped

Yes, me too.

This
I'm torn, as a mixed ethnicity woman, I am happy to see these sentences and think they are right - but I despair inside because I know that they could do the same for sickening crimes such as VAWG, sexual abuse of children, rape etc. If they wanted to.

It’s persecution.

Serves them right!!!

I wish they’d get this tough on lots of criminals. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. Get the machete wielding thugs off our streets next.

The people who rioted yes but a woman getting sent to jail for a comment on social media is excessive in my opinion.

Prisons are at capacity , and did you know it costs the tax payer about 40k a year to keep someone in custody?

Again , I think this particular woman didn’t deserve to go to prison.

I think we are heading for something quite worrying here.

My sister in law two years ago was assaulted by two men in front of her children and the police weren’t interested in doing anything.

And now the police are putting resources into looking for people who make social media comments. It doesn’t add up.

I agree. Seeing justice served so quickly has put a stop to it. Well done Keir Starmer!

I think publishers and facilitators of information should be held accountable online to the same standards as offline media.

Plenty of online fraud on TikTok , Facebook and Instagram. They are multi billion dollar organisations. They publish fake adverts and scams and people lose out from the fraud they publish. They take revenue from it and aren't accountable (in some cases paying little tax here). Their business model needs to adjust they need to verify the information they provide on a platform to in the same way as a newspaper. They can do this by limiting sharing to friends or though pausing sharing of controversial viral content until it is verified - the same call a lawyer might make for a newspaper in the past.

If you want to disagree fine. I dont think its tricky for AI to flag viral content for verification early on for verification when the subject matter might be controversial. That's not a limit on free speech.

You can teach however much critical thinking you like but some very smart people have been defrauded and AI has already faked convincing videos of politicians. If you facilitate it through your business you should be accountable. We did it with newspapers, why not online media?

It's actually about 52,000 to keep a prisoner each year. More expensive than a boarding school pre VAT.

i think with happened in Leicester Square this week they were right to make a stand . We can not have Riots on any scale .
Saying that they need to tackle a huge problem occurring in the UK right now . I think everyone has just had enough.

This is an excellent explanation! Thanks for sharing!

Yes you’re right. And when they’re are released if they’re homeless, they have to be housed and have more resources.

So for this particular case I don’t see it being reasonable.

No people released from prison are not automatically housed.

There has been no night courts sitting as far as I know.

There are insufficient court staff, prosecutors and defence advocates to cover 24 hour court sittings

Firstly, in no way do I support the disgusting, racist behaviour we've seen over the last couple of weeks, and I fully believe the major perpetrators need to be found and punished.

Yup and I genuinely don't care how long they are locked up for, they're animals. In my view, as a taxpayer I leave the legal process to those who manage the legal process and I don't have the time or energy to worry about a bunch of miscreants who used a tragedy as an excuse to trash property and abuse the police.

Are you for real? She incited the killing of people!

@Namechangey23

Yes of course they can appeal like anyone else convicted, unlikely as most of them appear to be pleading guilty.
And they would be eligible for early release for good behaviour, just like any other prisoner
That's the process.

Your comment seemed to imply, to me at least, that you thought this was all done for show and as soon as the news cycle has moved on sentences would be just quashed without due process and we could all forget about it.

Agreed! You can't incite murder and expect nothing to happen.

It’s just that there are a lot worse crimes being committed with shorter sentences, so I think if it’s working so well and prevented further rioting, that maybe the reason other crimes such as knife crime and antisocial behaviour are on the increase, that sentences for these crimes are too lenient. I would increase prison terms for those carrying knives three fold. Maybe those claiming MH issues as a defence will even think twice if they know they face 10 years behind bars.

Of course it’s different to what’s happened before - he’s a new prime minister and he’s trying to do things differently. That’s the point?

I don’t get your point about how this guy had a knife but other people also carry knives so that makes it…ok?

Little girls just had their lives taken by a man with a knife - why would we want anything other than severe consequences for someone found to be carrying a knife?

And police can’t just stop people unless they’re doing something so until they’re caught for something else and a weapon is found on them, or they brandish the weapon, then what are they supposed to do?

how can we be complaining about too harsh a sentencing when we’ve had years of ridiculously lenient sentencing?! Not like they’ve been sentenced to death or something!

I thought it was harsh for folk who hadn't been in trouble before.

That's not surprising - Starmer was director of public prosecutions in 2011.

Will be interesting then to see what the councillor at the anti racist rally a few days ago inciting people to cut the throats of the rioters will get. He’s been suspended, but let’s see what sentence, if any, he gets for inciting the murder of others….

They’re over the age of criminal responsibility. Do you want that to be raised?