If You Were Home Secetary

[nailit]

for a day....
How would you handle law and order?

Lock 'em up and throw away they key?
Or be a bit more judicious and seek to judge each case on its own merits?

IE... Would you realise that not everyone in the courts are 'criminals' and that most of the defendants are people (just like you) that may have fallen on hard times (addicts, low income earners, mentaly ill, etc)

Ive personally known 2 people whove been magistrates and they have both been middle class idiots (cant say ***) who havnt got a clue what others have to go through to survive

[sandyRoe]

Violent crimes would draw down the full weight of the law. The same for 'white collar' offences. But the poor struggling to survive would get an easier ride.

[Hopkirk]

If I were Home Secretary I would resign immediately.

Impossible job.

[Psybbo]

Nail it, that's a difficult question, I think I'd come down hard on those real criminals who hurt, maim or kill.

[jourdain2]

I really hope that I would be sensitive enough and knowledgeable enough to know the difference, nailit.

After all my years teaching, I could tell the difference between the 'bad uns', the 'naughty, but unlucky' and the decent ones caught in difficult circumstances. I once went on a course to be a magistrate, but I'm afraid that in the end I couldn't afford the days out of work it entailed as a job.

I was sorry about it. You would call me middle class - but honestly, I'm not an idiot and I think I would have made rather a good magistrate :(

[anneasquith]

not all ( addicts. low income earners. and mentally ill people '' commit crimes ?

[jno]

judge each case on its merits???

All very well in real life but it'll never find favour in the internet.

[naomi24]

//Would you realise that not everyone in the courts are 'criminals' and that most of the defendants are people (just like you) that may have fallen on hard times (addicts, low income earners, mentaly ill, etc)//

No, they are not people just like me. I don’t commit crime. If I were Home Secretary I would put the interests of the victim before the interests of the perpetrator every time. The people you're defending, and expecting everyone else to have sympathy with, cause untold misery.

[magpie]

i'm all for punishment but when are they going to equalise it? you can get in your car and kill someone and get out of prison in 2 years. the victim is still dead. depending on the mood and where you are and who is sitting sentences are very different. bankers and traders who have stolen trillions have got away with it. i believe in justice when are we going to get it?