Preparedness for when

ivyleaf

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Update on this.

In today's paper it says, of the 299 people arrested, only 52 defendants were proceeded against for terrorism-related offences, and only 42 were convicted.

It's looking more and more like the Hegelian Dialectic at work.

Even so, I feel that "only" 42 terrorists are 42 too many.

GreyQueen

Yes, one is too many.

I wonder what the overall ratio of arrests to charges to convictions is?

I know that someone did criminal damage to my home, was arrested for it and a file prepared for the CPS, who then decided not to prosecute. The damage was very real, but the criminal (who already had a record as long as your arm) had been fly enough to wait until the only witness was a few steps out of sight, and then fled in the few seconds it took the witness to return. No one else who could have done it, but he was not actually seen doing it, only heard.

Not pressing charges for something, or charging and not getting convictions, shouldn't be confused with the involved party being innocent. It means that it couldn't be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

There's innocent as in didn't-do-it, and innocent as in did-it-but-we-can't-prove-it. The first category of people aren't the ones you need to worry about.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

The express are at it again, every year we are going to have the worded winter in decades.. One year they will be right, is it this year??http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/604619/Long-range-weather-forecast-Britain-cold-winter-2015-arctic-snow-freeze

Frugalsod

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

The express are at it again, every year we are going to have the worded winter in decades.. One year they will be right, is it this year??http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/604619/Long-range-weather-forecast-Britain-cold-winter-2015-arctic-snow-freeze

They have got to be right once. Though with climate change making the path of the Atlantic jet stream more unpredictable they might be right more often. Climate change means weather will be more extreme, including winters getting colder.

ivyleaf

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

The express are at it again, every year we are going to have the worded winter in decades.. One year they will be right, is it this year??http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/604619/Long-range-weather-forecast-Britain-cold-winter-2015-arctic-snow-freeze

We've been using up a lot of our supplies lately. Time to replenish them just in case, methinks!

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

Yes, one is too many.

I wonder what the overall ratio of arrests to charges to convictions is?

I know that someone did criminal damage to my home, was arrested for it and a file prepared for the CPS, who then decided not to prosecute. The damage was very real, but the criminal (who already had a record as long as your arm) had been fly enough to wait until the only witness was a few steps out of sight, and then fled in the few seconds it took the witness to return. No one else who could have done it, but he was not actually seen doing it, only heard.

Not pressing charges for something, or charging and not getting convictions, shouldn't be confused with the involved party being innocent. It means that it couldn't be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

There's innocent as in didn't-do-it, and innocent as in did-it-but-we-can't-prove-it. The first category of people aren't the ones you need to worry about.

Yes I agree about the numbers but the police do have a record of targeting peaceful protest groups, like environmentalists or anti power station protesters. Would you want a power station next door to you? So they will have massive numbers of false positives in their search.

Also what about malicious comments that put people in the spotlight. The problem is that the police will say things that we are not looking at anyone else for this crime which pretty much tars them with the crime even if acquitted. It does not mean that they did it but the police are clueless as to who might really be responsible. In addition to this there will be the leaks and smear campaign against the suspect the victim or their families, so allowing the real criminal to escape in the fog of injustice.

GreyQueen

Even if it doesn't get that bad, I dread a reprise of the Dec weather a few years ago when the condensate pipes on combi boilers kept freezing and shutting down boilers. We repair raisers and the gas engineers were run ragged dealing with it. The weather broke warmer after about 10 days, if memory serves, which was a blessed relief.

I remember asking when a particular part for a particular broken-down boiler could be installed and was told as soon as a lorry can slither down from Scotland. We are a long way from Scotland. Supply chains for some things are stretched very long and thin.

I've often heard people a generations older than me talk about the winter of 1963 and wondered how we'd cope with one like that, particularly as so many people commute to employment, educational establishments etc. In the main family village, the children, the head teacher and the few schoolmasters were all within walking distance and snow didn't stop classes. The same village is much bigger now and the school is closed, so if buses and cars can't get through, the kids miss school and a parent has to miss work to supervise them, in most cases.

So yes, freshen up the stocks and supplies.

ETA I agree with your post. All too often, the Police have been used to enforce the wishes of the State, such as having so many infiltrators and provocateurs into left-wing organisations that the organisation was almost solely comprised of spies.

In my region, there is an unsolved child murder. The Police believe they know who did it, but this belief isn't in the public domain, I have heard it from several different sources over the years, as have others. No one has ever named the suspect even in hearsay, but his actions are inexplicable unless he was hiding evidence. He has never been charged and probably never will be; the child is still dead and the parents still have no closure.

[Deleted User]

ivyleaf wrote: »

Even so, I feel that "only" 42 terrorists are 42 too many.

But what of the 257 innocent people they arrested?

Over 82% of those arrested, weren't even charged, let alone convicted. :eek:

If 82% of people arrested for any other offence, weren't even charged, the police would be condemned, for having a policy of "arrest first, ask questions later".

Remember, those 257 people now have a permanent mark, on their Enhanced CRB records.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Not pressing charges for something, or charging and not getting convictions, shouldn't be confused with the involved party being innocent. It means that it couldn't be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Have to disagree with you.

In this country, we have innocent "until proven guilty".

If the prosecution cannot prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that you did it, then you are innocent.

We have enough problems with the "no smoke without fire" brigade, without the courts getting in on the act, with "guilty but we can't prove it".

Indeed, that's exactly the mindset we condemn BBC/TVL for having.

[Deleted User]

I think with something as insidious and potentially threatening as terrorism the police can't take chances and wait until there IS definite proof. The mere fact that there is suspicion of an individual and they HAVE to consider associates, aquaintances and family as potentially involved, they wouldn't be doing their job of keeping us safe if they DIDN'T check people out would they? It is very sad that some innocents are wrongly suspected and then have a blemish against their names for the rest of their lives but the alternative is waiting until an individual actually commits a terror offence and by then lives are lost and lives are destroyed in a more final way than just having been checked by the police.