From: Russia Today
Draconian sentences for UK rioters as courts fight fire with fire
Published: 18 August, 2011, 10:30
British courts are coming down hard on the rioters who spread mayhem last week, but human rights groups say the severe penalties being handed down are an over-reaction and a cynical attempt to curry popularity.
Two men were jailed for four years each for trying to incite street violence through Facebook. Prime Minister David Cameron defended the sentences handed down to Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, saying they sent out a much-needed “tough message”.
Although no-one responded to their online invitation to riot, which they later said was just a drunken joke, they now face sentences even tougher than many looters.
Andrew Nielson, Associate Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, says, “Our worry is that it is an imbalance. A four-year sentence for example would normally be given to somebody for grievous bodily harm, for holding someone up with a knife, or even for some forms of sexual assault. So it seems to me that there is a danger that the courts are moving into disproportionate territory, and that actually devalues our response to more serious crimes.”
The government has the encouraged courts to dish out harsh sentences, citing public disturbance as an aggravating factor.
It has meant, for example, that Anderson Fernandes, who is in custody after being caught stealing just two scoops of ice cream, could receive a prison term.
The British courts are now denying bail to most offenders and ignoring all statements of previous good character. Of the 1277 people charged so far, two-thirds have been remanded in custody. That is way up from last year’s rate for serious crimes, which was just 10 per cent.
http://rt.com/news/london-riots-facebook-trial/
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It is David Cameron who is ‘twisting and misrepresenting’ human rights
The prime minister’s speech on the riots was another excuse to attack human rights law and promote his British bill of rights
Benjamin Ward
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 August 2011 16.46 BST
When faced with a crisis, governments often look first to fix the blame before fixing the problem. That reflex has been in full view this week as the prime minister, David Cameron, responded to Britain’s worst riots in decades by blaming human rights.
In a major speech on Monday, he said the causes of the riots included what he termed the “twisting and misrepresenting of human rights in a way that has undermined personal responsibility”. But he failed to provide a single example to back up such a sweeping indictment.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice called on public bodies to review how they apply human rights law to avoid outcomes that Cameron said “fly in the face of common sense, offend our sense of right and wrong, and undermine responsibility”.
The truth is that human rights law imposes a duty on the state to protect the public from the kind of violence witnessed in London and elsewhere, and it sanctions criminal punishment — including prison or fines following a fair trial — for those who break the law. The framers of the European convention on human rights, who included Churchill, were no milquetoasts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2011/aug/17/david-cameron-human-rights-riots-speech
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Cameron calls for less human rights
On Line: 16 August 2011 16:34
In Print: Wednesday 17 August 2011
Just over a week after the first signs of violence emerged in London, British Prime Minister David Cameron gave yet another speech about the riots, once again looking for the causes and explaining how the government will handle the aftermath.
Talking from his constituency in Witney, and with graffiti in the background, he set a tone, according to which morality must bring an end to the era of relativism. He said that human rights and health and safety can interfere with morality, and are thus not always a good thing, the International Business Times reported.
When people hear politicians talk about morality, they think they have no right to do so, because “politicians can be flawed, their marriages break down,” Cameron said, insisting it is the actual unwillingness of politicians to speak about morality that “has made the problem worse” and created a culture of “moral neutrality”.
http://tehrantimes.com/index.php/world/1677-cameron-calls-for-less-human-rights
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