Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
She won't be inside for 5 months. In all likelihood she will be inside for about 8-9 weeks, then in the care of the probation service, possibly with a tag, for the rest of the time.
That said, I disagree that the sentence is absurd in the context of a riot. Wide-scale disregard for the norms of behaviour in our society that guarantee people can live and work without fear of assault on their person or property is exponentially worse than the activities of individual random teenagers shoplifting for the lulz.
The rioters crossed a big fat red line and the way the courts are giving prominence to the seriousness of the event, rather than the previous good character of some of the participants, is entirely correct IMO. There simply has to be zero tolerance of this sort of behaviour. It cannot become as normal as a drunken fight outside the nightclub on a Friday night.
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Part of the problem as i see it though is that a drunken fight outside a nightclub to use your example has become the norm and are being punished far less severely as my previous link shows .What needs to happen is that consistency of sentencing across the board needs to be looked at not just during times of social unrest because being treated leniently in the past has led to the disrespect and disregard of law and order that we saw in the riots