As usual The Commune has come up with an excellent article on the upper class hatred of the working class as displayed in the recent "show trials" after the August riots. Taimour Lay explains the meaning of these post-riot show trials'.
The criminal courts’ reaction to the riots was to instinctively follow the hysteria of a panicking government and a shocked police. Of 3000 people arrested, 1000 were charged in August alone. Magistrates have been sending hundreds to jail (an average of five months for theft or handling stolen goods), with the majority remanded in custody until a Crown Court can hand down an even longer term.
- 3000 arrested nationwide
- London’s Met police set ‘target’ of 3000 convictions
- six months jail for stealing a £3.50 bottle of water
- five-month sentence given to mother-of-two who ‘handled’ stolen pair of shorts
- burglary charge and jail threat for stealing two scoops of ice-cream
- rioters’ families face being turfed out of council houses, benefit cuts
It is hard to overstate quite how extraordinary this spasm of rushed ‘justice’ has been. Sentencing principles have been thrown out the window: it hasn’t helped defendants to plead guilty, be young, have a clean record, turn themselves in, express remorse, come from an abusive home or take a bottle of water as opposed to a plasma TV. Bail rights have been systematically disregarded. These are show-trials if the only aim is deterrence.
Continue reading HERE.
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