Recently British Prime Minister David Cameron has been bloviating at length about the evil young who sent on a destructive rampage after a police killing of the father of four who worked as a taxi driver in a rough part of town. The family of the deceased came to the local Police station asking for answers as to why he was killed, no answers were given. A special anti-firearms unit had been involved in the attempted arrest and one of its members seems to have been the shooter. Supporters of the family became restive and when there was no response after four hours some began to break windows. From that point events escalated, in roughly the same way that events spiraled out of control in the Rodney King beating aftermath.
In response English Courts are working overtime to ram through the convictions of all that were swept up by the Police in the unrest. Some sentences have been oddly small, others, including four months in jail for a mother who was given a pair of shorts from a stack of garments looted from a shop, seem draconian (whatever that means). But there's more! Now Cameron and his Conservative government are pressing to evict the families of any young people who got caught in the Police dragnet from their public housing or subsidized housing. If mothers and fathers can't control their children, then they must suffer the consequences!
But while we are talking about "consequences", this is the same Prime Minister who hired a fired News of the World Editor who had been tarred by his connection to a phone hacking scandal. The Prime Minister spoke of believing that everyone deserved a "second chance". Except the poor who live in public housing, it would appear. They don't deserve shit. They apparently have no civil rights and should be considered unpersons.
And who is it that is suggesting this? Well sir, it turns out this is the entitled son of a wealthy family who in college was a member of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University. Who were they exactly? They turn out to be a lively group of well-heeled ne'er do wells who enjoyed going out to dinner and then trashing the restaurant or pub at the end of the evening, laughing and throwing money over their shoulders as they staggered out into the street, presumably to scream obscenities at passing women. It was so jolly to do that! Where have these lively lads gone? One is the Mayor of London. One is the Prime Minister. One is Chancellor of the Exchequer (kind of like the Secretary of Money). All of them are articulate, well-connected, upper-class douchebags.
But while we are talking about "consequences", this is the same Prime Minister who hired a fired News of the World Editor who had been tarred by his connection to a phone hacking scandal. The Prime Minister spoke of believing that everyone deserved a "second chance". Except the poor who live in public housing, it would appear. They don't deserve shit. They apparently have no civil rights and should be considered unpersons.
And who is it that is suggesting this? Well sir, it turns out this is the entitled son of a wealthy family who in college was a member of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University. Who were they exactly? They turn out to be a lively group of well-heeled ne'er do wells who enjoyed going out to dinner and then trashing the restaurant or pub at the end of the evening, laughing and throwing money over their shoulders as they staggered out into the street, presumably to scream obscenities at passing women. It was so jolly to do that! Where have these lively lads gone? One is the Mayor of London. One is the Prime Minister. One is Chancellor of the Exchequer (kind of like the Secretary of Money). All of them are articulate, well-connected, upper-class douchebags.
Oh, and that Secretary of Money? Here are his brilliant ideas for the future. Unions? Pfaagh! Planning Codes? An impediment to business! Higher taxes? Pish, who thinks that would be a good idea? How would the wealthy be able to afford to send their children to Oxford so they can trash restaurants and buy their way out of vandalism charges? I mean, surely it makes sense to send a single mother to jail for accepting a stolen pair of shorts, right? But it cannot, simply cannot be okay to jail a horde of well-dressed hooligans who trash restaurants, because they know they can do so with impunity. If they were poor, no, that would be wrong, but if you are wealthy and have good attorneys? It's all A-OK. And on one level or another, we have seen this in this country as well. How many went to prison for fraud in the mortgage (and economy) melt-down? Not so many? Umm, none? Wow. While I was living in Portland I read about a woman (probably BLACK for God's sake!) who was sent to jail for four years for stealing a carton of cigarettes. This was back when a carton of cigs cost about $2.00. It puts a low cost on human life, doesn't it? But interestingly I later heard that the same judge was well-known as the go-to guy if one needed to buy their way out of a pesky manslaughter case, or something silly like that. Twenty Grand would do it, if the case was a messy one. All the defendant had to do was ask for trial by Judge. Injustice will always be with us, but when will someone start to do something about it.?
Maybe we could start by voting such people out of office? Which people? oh, like this idiot.
Maybe we could start by voting such people out of office? Which people? oh, like this idiot.
Arthur
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