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Is our government doing enough to prevent crime?

Another day goes by and another child has died. one of sixteen in such a short period of time. it makes me wonder if there is any law enforcers out there who are meant to make this stop. But i'm guessing there is not. we pay our taxes for people that are meant to be police to take care of us and protect us... so why is this not happen.
Why should we pay for donut munchers to sit on there fat arses and do sod all. it makes me sick.
What do people think? do you think that our money should be put to better use.... rather than paying for a service we not getting. or should we just bite our toungue as we watch our population diminish to murderers?

Reply 1

jacketpotato

the police work very hard to stop crime, they are not donut munchers. You cannot stop all crime, if people want to be aggressive, form gangs etc.

Reply 2

mfm89

I see the police a lot in my area, although you see less of them at night which i would prefer. But more police can only do so much. Its a bit of cliche phrase but tough on crime, tough on causes of crime. I still dont think the government, any govt have effectively tackled the causes of crime. the fact that the majority of the prison population are either drug addicts/mentally ill and/or are basically illiterate speaks for itself.

Reply 3

A is for Awesome

If you want to see an improvement, why don't you join up?

Reply 4

username158373

It's nothing to do with the police. It's the fact that the police can't do there job because they end up getting sued or done via the red tape and political correctness.

If the police we're allowed to do there job properly, with a tough line on crime and no "we'll let them out early because they behaved" and no "the police man hit me he should be fired". Then we'd have lower crime rates!

But then...name one thing the goverment ever did that was best for the general population ?

Reply 5

Fusion

A is for Awesome

If you want to see an improvement, why don't you join up?

Well lets say you are in the Met and in London every teenage murder in the last 18 months has been committed by a black person but you can't target this demographic for fear of racism. Sounds like your ******.

Reply 6

cottonmouth

They are doing lots, but the direction is all wrong. Instead of all this "zero tolerance" nonsense, they need to start looking for more ways of preventing people turning to crime in the first place. Problems in children are left too late, and then the criminal justice system is used to attempt rectification, when in fact, social work at earlier stages is required.

Then there isn't a good enough rehabilitation programme once people are forced into jails. If we start actually tackling root causes of crime, rather than trying to deal with the consequences of crime once it's happened, we might get somewhere.

But i doubt, in this right-wing age, that will happen for a long time. Too much power in the hands of a select few media tycoons, who scare politicians away from sensible approaches to societal problems, based on their old-fashioned views on the world.

ChrisLincoln- police need some sort of regulation. Why should they suddenly be elevated to a staus above everyone else simply because they choose to do that job? They certainly should not be allowed to hit people, when it isn't called for. Obviously, restraint techniques have to be used in certain cases, but i don't want police to have the ability to whack people about. That will lead to more distrust of the police, when what we need is better cohesion and cooperation. If certain sections of the community respected and trusted the police more, more crimes would be solved with community help.

Reply 7

Monstrous

People don't get punished for crime anymore, they get shouted at then put in a comfy jail cell with a TV and a Playstation... Oh the justice (!)

Reply 8

Socrates

The government, the mayor and the police can do very little. More to do with parenting.

Reply 9

Vienna Cannon

they don't do enough. we pay taxes and they do sod all. they need more power and they should not have to feel that if they do one bad move their fired.

Reply 10

Prince Rhyus

Has the political establishment over the past 30-40 years taken away society's ability to police itself?

Has the corporate/financial establishment undermined the institutions that allow society to police itself, in pursuit of greater profits?

It's all very well for mainstream politicians to say "we should stand up to these louts" but unless the legal and judicial system allows for people to do this, no one's going to bother because they've seen too many headlines where haveago heros end up either in court or dead.

The next one's aimed at all of those people in favour of a free market - and deals with the point about "paying for your externalities." One of the features of flexible labour markets is that people move away from their home towns and as a natural result, people become more insular if there are not the institutions to help bind a community together. In days gone by it was churches and working mens clubs/trade unions. Today, it's...well, what is it?

If you live in a society where everyone knows each other, what is the likelihood of having a higher crime rate than one which has a very transient population? Which area is more likely to put pressure on police and need private security firms?

Personally I think it would be an idea to look at changing how national income statistics are calculated so that the income from certain firms is actually shown as a deduction from our national income - e.g. private security firms, or the UK taking on the statistics for carbon emissions for the goods that we import, so as not to "outsource" our problems. That way, the incentive for policy-makers would be to focus on long-term crime prevention rather than papering over the cracks.

The challenge as far as government and businesses are concerned is to see themselves as part of the community rather than the job of business being "just to make money". It's up to the government to put in place systems and frameworks where it makes business sense to invest in communities that go beyond their core business. Think of property owners who pay for local facilities for young people - giving people something to do means they are less likely to engage in petty crime and thus damage the assets of said property owners.

Reply 11

Collingwood

Prince Rhyus

The next one's aimed at all of those people in favour of a free market - and deals with the point about "paying for your externalities." One of the features of flexible labour markets is that people move away from their home towns and as a natural result, people become more insular if there are not the institutions to help bind a community together. In days gone by it was churches and working mens clubs/trade unions. Today, it's...well, what is it?
You need to read into the history of these things before you try to draw conclusions like this. The accumulation of people that allowed and led to the formation of working mens' clubs, trades unions and big city churches was in the first place a free labour market and free movement of people that resulted in mass movements away from disparate isolated rural communities to factory towns created as a result of free enterprise.

Though even if one were to grant you that liberty leads inexorably to disunity (and that is clearly wrong), I find it difficult to believe anyone would seriously propose banning people from moving house, seeking new employment or leaving churches or working mens' clubs of which they are members as an acceptable means of increasing community cohesiveness.

Reply 12

ConservativeNucleophile

It's not the police's fault.

Most "donut [sic] munchers" actually work very, very hard to protect Joe Public. Their hands are tied by our Nu Labour government. The teeth of the justice system have been removed, and as a direct result it is difficult to bring the guilty to justice.

Reply 13

Tory Dan

I think the police are doing their best, looking at all their walls they face such as Human Rights Act, paperwork and government targets. If you want to send a message then punishment is the key, bring back hanging for minor crimes I say the more serious ones then Hang, Drawn and Quartering is the only one that can do.

Reply 14

Socrates

Tory Dan

bring back hanging for minor crimes I say the more serious ones then Hang, Drawn and Quartering is the only one that can do.

Are you for real?!

Reply 15

Terry Wrist

I find it funny when people complain about a supposed 'New World Order', yet go on about the Government's lack of control over certain things...

Now please, make up your mind, what do you prefer?

Reply 16

Isodel

I think we're bring the wrong sort of people!e into the country. people who have no concept for our way of life and want to Change our country with there laws and values .our policemen are over whelmed by the disruption and violence .while the government is trying to sweep it under the carpet . political correctness is very dangerous .