Crime - and punishment !

It is comforting to know that the people at the core of the riots that saw arson and mayhem descend on London a year ago are now being handed down gaol terms.   Television beamed around the world an almost unbelievable scenario of young men aged between sixteen and twenty-four on a rampage of looting, vicious assaults and the deliberate arson of shops and restaurants    This went far beyond hooliganism.  Unrest delivered opportunity to organised gangs to go on the rampage and deliberately rob ordinary people of things like their wallets - and even intimate items like wedding bands - on the threat of a severe beating for any signs of opposition.

There has been an assumption that they got away with it.  After the riots, the police promised vengeance, but it is only now that the chickens are coming home to roost for these thugs.  The investigators have been  carefully putting together evidence from cctv cameras, witness accounts - and in many cases self incrimination posted on social media - to prove their case and bring the offenders to justice.     All this hard work is delivering gaol terms ranging from three and four year terms for lesser people, to nine years hard labour for the ringleaders.

We are now getting the rewards for the supposed invasion of personal privacy imposed by the growing networks of cctv cameras which watch the street scene in all parts of the world.   Here in Australia that was demonstrated when a young man was senselessly bashed in King's Cross.  It happened in an area not covered by these cameras, but the police were able to view the street scenes in all the immediate vicinities, and by extraordinary use of the evidence available - tracked down the person responsible for this young man's death.

Unfortunately, the cctv network only helps to clear up crimes that have already occurred.  The criminals seem to act first and think later.    Such was the case in London.   The citizens were aware of the cctv network, but the lure of easy money and the chance to wreak retribution for perceived injustices was just too great to miss.   Now - after several deaths and multi million dollar damage has been done - they are paying the price for their greed and stupidity.

If nothing else, the evidence of an advanced cleanup rate should  be a decisive factor when the public consider the bleatings of the " civil liberties " people who oppose any extension to the cctv network.
It may not stop you being mugged in the street - but it certainly improves the chances that the mugger will see the inside of a court as a result !