Criminal Violence is a Social Disease

Great day for pottering about on our little allotments.
Nosher was in good spirits until lunchtime - I think my tale of Shepton Mallet had induced in him sense of schadenfreude that obscured his usual demeanour.
But it did not last.
So, at lunchtime, as we sat in the sun on our old deckchairs by his allotment shed, the one o'clock radio news brought ample reason for Nosher to resume his old doom-laden attitudes.
As he switched off his little trannie he muttered:
'Why should everyone be so surprised at two young French exchange students being brutally stabbed to death, and their lodgings set on fire? It's horrible and tragic, certainly, but no surprise, for we no longer have effective measures to rid society of the violent scumbags who carry out such crimes.'
For once I was totally in agreement with him.
'Have you read David Fraser's A Land Fit For Criminals?'
Nosher shook his head.
'Well, Fraser was a probation officer for 26 years, then a criminologist. In his book he explains how successive governments since around 1960 have sought to avoid locking up criminals in order to avoid the politically unpopular costs involved in building enough prisons. In addition they have deliberately obscured the statistics on the continuing rise in crime, so that criminals now know the chances of them ever being caught, let alone being given anything other than a derisory punishment, are virtually nil. That's why our society is in the state we're in.'
Nosher nodded.
'So successive governments have failed in their first duty towards their citizens - to protect them from harm - and then lied about it?'
'That about sums it up.'
'Sounds exactly the sort of thing the hypocritical, self-serving, snouts-in-the-trough, slimy scumbags of politicians would do to us!'
More from www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com soon.
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Best wishes - and take care to stay out of harm's way!