The current unrest dominating every news broadcast is horrifying.
 
Youths in the majority are using the police shooting last week as a way of legitimising utterly appalling conduct. Destroying shops, homes, livelihoods and lives, is in their distorted view  “compensation” for frustration, boredom and alleged social deprivation.
 
As the news unfolds it is patently clear the rioting, looting and arson attacks are nothing more than acts of vile mindless thugs who put their own voracious appetites above those of the hard working members of their own and other communities.
 
The sad fact is many will gain from their actions.
 
Whilst arrests topple 400, the perpetrators will exceed this more than ten fold. They care not that Riot can result in 10 years prison. Others facing attempted murder charges can face “Life.” Do they care?  “No!”
 
Their bold actions, now portrayed as thugs bold enough to be seen without mask or hood is such, as financial limitations have whittled down the size of the Police Force, resulted in few specially trained riot teams, resulting in emergency services being away from an area of conflagration for seemingly, up to an hour and a half. This provides adequate time for smash and grabs, damage & wilful destruction.
 
How many will ever be “Punished?”
 
As a Leeds Solicitor with 35 years experience of criminal law and advocacy I am shocked at the present policy of starving the criminal justice system. It is quite clear the policy emanating from “on high” is less arrests = less police = less interviews & solicitors = less court appearances = less legal aid = less judicial & admin costs = less prisons= money saved.
 
I was the Custody Duty Solicitor yesterday for Leeds City. Any person arrested since mid-day Saturday with no Leeds solicitor, appearing in Court would have asked for my help. For decades, in Leeds, that meant on a Monday morning lists of names of people demanding bail or disposal. It was invariably a full day’s job. Yesterday, as I entered the Leeds Magistrates Court, if it hadn’t have been for TV Licence prosecutions, the place would have been serviced by one court. I had at 9.30am one detainee for Breach of the Peace-so routine, he handled it himself. I’m told every court is the same, Bradford once heaving daily is down to 3 court rooms. A duty solicitor I spoke to today has not been called out in Bradford for several months———has crime disappeared in Cities, Towns and the Country? Of course not— the policy is just ignore it, it is theoretically cheaper.
 
One must now assess the cost of the mayhem occurring in England. The cost to businesses, homes, & futures is incalculable. This is a haemorrhage with no apparent end.
 
Perhaps a review of economies regarding the Police and the Criminal Justice System may restore law and order, arrest the disorderly and redeem the confidence and status of London in the eyes of the community and the world.