Crime is a political football - both left and right are terrified of seeming "soft" on the issue, but for all their efforts, or apparent efforts, crime rates continue to rise. Clearly something needs to be done. But what? Peter Hitchens argues that the time has come to re-examine the criminal justice system root and branch - to cope with rising levels of violent crime, and to restore public faith in society's ability to defend itself. Whatever you think of the solutions Hitchens suggests to this problem, you can be sure that they will excite controversy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
91 of 94 people found the following review helpful
By MR J P JONES
Format:Paperback
It's 3am and you're being burgled. Call the police in the UK, and they might send someone round the next day so that you can claim on your insurance. Tell them that you're going to shoot the burglar, and they'll be round immediately with a swat team and helicopters - to cart YOU away! Have you ever wondered why and when your welfare became less important than the criminal's?
Read Hitchens. His latest book systematically takes apart the development of the police service in the 20th century and exposes how the police force, once a representative of the civil population with close contact on the streets, has become sealed off and paramilitary in its operations over the last 40 years - and lost the respect of the law-abiding public in the process. He sets out how, despite there being more police and support staff per capita of population than ever before, more crimes are being committed, reported and remaining unsolved than at any point during our history. He explains how clear-up statistics have replaced crime prevention as the policeman's focus, and how only 5% of any police force's staff are out 'on the beat' at any point.
Other law and order topics include the encroachment of government surveillance on personal liberty. If the reason for having ID cards is to protect us from terrorism, how did the Madrid bombings happen? Spain had ID cards since Franco. And why weren't they introduced during the height of IRA bombings in the UK? It's these sorts of questions which Hitchens asks to great effect - and he produces a few interesting answers.
It's shocking reading in parts. But whether you lean left or right, this book will give everyone pause for thought.
63 of 65 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Hitchens is an articulate proponent of old-Right thinking. Hanging, flogging, retributive justice in general. Most of us would like to think we had moved on from that. But Hitchens doesn't pontificate from a distance. He has been into prisons and speaks with authority about the contempt the criminal classes in Britain now have for weaklings like us who have allowed them to set our nation's agenda. And he skilfully links our weakness in detecting and punishing criminals to our Government's increasing authoritarianism as far as decent law-abiding citizens are involved. If crime is a kind of disease brought on by poverty etc., then we are all potential criminals and should be treated as such. Just as the left has compassion for the criminals in prison, it is afraid of all the potential criminals on the outside. It's a perverted through-the-looking-glass logic which has the police harassing the decent and schmoozing the evil.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By S Smyth
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a well written and researched book explaining the key differences in continental, English and U.S. law and policing. This is backed up by a wealth of statistics to quantify how the expansion of crime without consequences to the career criminal has been facilitated by the growth of politically motivated policing in the UK, and England in particular.
At the heart of the problem is the moral vacuum of socialism which considers everyone to be criminals and, as a consequence, the career criminal is simply no different to anyone else and must be saved and reformed at any cost financially, and to the detriment of everyone else's life and liberty. Except for the enlightened elite at the heart of government and its institutions, that is.
The ID card is little more than the yellow star pinned on Jews in Nazi Germany. Criminals in Northern Ireland can now freely attack pensioners with hammers and guns, in the dead of night, in pursuit of small amounts of money and can reasonably expect to never be caught or punished. And they can also freely indulge in the tiger-kidnapping of the families of bank and business owners in order to gain ransom money, with detection, prosecution and punishment unlikely in case terrorists and paramilitary groups will be offended, or not be available to bolster the propaganda of the-war-on-terrorism.
Peter Hitchens suggests how many current failings of the law and policing could be addressed so that crime is prevented and criminals are punished. But this can only happen in a free society which has a government and legal system dedicated to upholding freedom and recognising that career criminals do not have more right to the expropriated resources of the state than the victims of crime.
At the heart of the problem is the moral vacuum of socialism which considers everyone to be criminals and, as a consequence, the career criminal is simply no different to anyone else and must be saved and reformed at any cost financially, and to the detriment of everyone else's life and liberty. Except for the enlightened elite at the heart of government and its institutions, that is.
The ID card is little more than the yellow star pinned on Jews in Nazi Germany. Criminals in Northern Ireland can now freely attack pensioners with hammers and guns, in the dead of night, in pursuit of small amounts of money and can reasonably expect to never be caught or punished. And they can also freely indulge in the tiger-kidnapping of the families of bank and business owners in order to gain ransom money, with detection, prosecution and punishment unlikely in case terrorists and paramilitary groups will be offended, or not be available to bolster the propaganda of the-war-on-terrorism.
Peter Hitchens suggests how many current failings of the law and policing could be addressed so that crime is prevented and criminals are punished. But this can only happen in a free society which has a government and legal system dedicated to upholding freedom and recognising that career criminals do not have more right to the expropriated resources of the state than the victims of crime.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very good, accurate book, needs updating. c. 2011 riots
This is a very good book, describing pretty well, the decline in law and order, and the elite part in it. Perhaps needs updating to 2013? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. M. Macrae
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hitchens tells us how it is in Britain today
The book confirms how you feel going about your daily business is todays Britain. If you are are over thirty then this book will resonate. Read more
Published on 24 May 2010 by Harry Faversham
4.0 out of 5 stars
A depressing read for anyone who cares about liberty
An excellent book by one of the few public persons at this time willing to describe Britain as it actually is. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2009 by badger
2.0 out of 5 stars
A couple of excellent chapters...
There were a couple of excellent chapters explaining how our civilian police force has been subverted into a para-military elite standing army, controlled centrally and no longer... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2009 by Herbs11
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thought-provoking read for anyone concerned with justice & liberty
Whilst I find Peter Hitchens' column in the Mail on Sunday a little too right-wing at times, I couldn't help but read this book without nodding frequently in agreement. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2009 by F. G. Lelliott
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very important book.
The approach to crime which has dominated the fashionable Left in this country for the last few decades, which very much includes New Labour, is truly reprehensible and, to put it... Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2008 by Steven
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK but flawed
Most of this text just states the bloody obvious about the liberal malaise afflicting Britain today. Read more
Published on 28 May 2007 by John F. Keane
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Invaluable, Albeit Disturbing Read.
In my personal opinion, Peter Hitchens is one of very few political pundits in Britain today, that couples the facts with common sense and logic to drive his arguments. Read more
Published on 2 April 2007 by Franco
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking
There can be little doubt that this is a well-argued and thought-provoking text. Anyone with an interest in the criminal justice system, or matters of modern politics, would do... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2006 by Mr. R. Cheeseman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wake up Britain!
How did you people ever win not one but TWO World Wars?
This book is an excepional insight into exactly what is wrong with Britain today. Read more
This book is an excepional insight into exactly what is wrong with Britain today. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2006 by Old Duffer
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