Monday, December 5, 2011

Further inequality ?

Further to yesterdays post on the inequalities in our legal system lets do another compare and contrast. In one corner we have Emma West, she's the woman who gained notoriety for (drunkenly?) mouthing off racist abuse on a train, whilst having one of her kids on her knee, unfortunately for her someone decided to film this and post it on Youtube, I'm sure you can still find it somewhere. As a result, there's a media/twitter frenzy and she's found, arrested, remanded in prison without bail and her kids taken away by social services. Normally you'd only end up on a section 5 public order offence, which in normal circumstances (assuming they even bothered arresting you) would get you a spot fine of £80. Now I don't know Emma West, it might be that she's exactly what the Youtube video portrays her as, though I would like to know what set her off and why there appears to be a chunk missing out of the middle of the video. I do know remanded in custody and your kids taken away from you is a disproportionate punishment for saying what you think, however warped your views are, but Emma was caught abusing a group protected by the state and for the temerity of saying what she did the full (unequal) weight of the law came down on her.
However yesterday the main horror story was of a 1 month old baby (rumoured to be a boy) who ended up in hospital with a broken arm, a broken collarbone, punctured lungs and severe bruising. and fractured ribs, with all the signs of a sexual assault too. On this too, people are up in arms, even vigilante action has been threatened. Yet the people arrested were bailed and released.
You can see the hypocrisy in our legal situation in its full measure here say some hateful words on video about a group of people the state for some reason or other gives special protection too, get remanded in custody and your kids taken away. Be arrested for a horrific assault on a 1 month old baby, get released on bail, with the possibility of a Christopher Jefferies situation developing.
(On December 30, Jefferies was arrested on suspicion of murder.He was questioned for three days and then released on police bail, an indication that he remained under suspicion. Three weeks later a Dutchman, Vincent Tabak, was arrested and charged with the murder, but it was not until March 4 that Jefferies’ bail was lifted and police confirmed he was not a suspect.)
No, I'm not saying that the people arrested for doing this are guilty, that's for an investigation and prosecution to determine and yes Emma West was caught bang to rights, although with the proviso's I mentioned. Yet the way the law has treated the people in these two cases is entirely different. The reaction by law enforcement for saying something and doing something is seriously out of kilter here.

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