Posted on 11/21/2004 3:15:05 AM PST by liberallarry
The American 'super-cop' brought in by the Home Office to cut Britain's crime rate warned last night that the nation's binge drinking culture was spiralling out of control and fuelling an epidemic of violence outside pubs and clubs that threatened to overwhelm the police. In his first major interview the former Boston police chief, Paul Evans, described scenes he had witnessed in the early hours of the morning in city centres across Britain as chaos. 'I'm not sure it can get much worse,' he said, in response to police fears that new licensing laws allowing 24-hour drinking would lead to increased violence. As the government prepares to put tackling crime and antisocial behaviour at the heart of this week's Queen's Speech, Evans is now considering new proposals from senior police officers for tough new sanctions against violent drinkers. One measure would see binge drinkers caught fighting in city centres given points on their driving licences. Another would give antisocial behaviour orders to offenders banning them from high-crime nightspots. Evans, appointed last September as the head of the Home Office's police standards unit, will launch a 'Christmas blitz' next month to crack down on alcohol-related offences using on-the-spot penalty fines, sting operations on businesses serving under-age drinkers and closure notices on pubs and clubs associated with violence. 'If you're in the business of fighting crime, then you have to be in the business of dealing with the alcohol issue,' Evans said. 'I have spent an awful lot of Fridays and Saturday nights out there. At one or two o'clock in the morning these places are chaos. Staggering opening hours of pubs might make a difference. 'I'm not sure it can get much worse,' he said. Government research shows that 44 per cent of violent crime is alcohol-related and that 70 per cent of hospital admissions at weekend are associated with drinking. In preparation for the campaign, the Home Office has raised spot fines from £40 to £80 for selling alcohol to under-18s, underage drinking itself, disorderly behaviour while drunk in a public place and public drunkenness. The courts were given the power to issue driving bans for non-traffic offences earlier this year. But Evans has been informed that senior police want beat officers to issue fines much like speeding-tickets, which would attract points on their driving licence. Police officers have complained that on-the-spot fines in themselves do not deter affluent drinkers determined to get into a fight. Other measures under consideration by Evans include a 'three strikes and you're out' system in which persistent offenders would receive an automatic anti-social behaviour order after a third fixed penalty for an alcohol-related offence. Evans also revealed that his unit is now targeting 24 towns and inner city areas that account for a quarter of violent crime. The areas range from northern former industrial towns to south coast tourist resorts. The news comes in advance of Tuesday's Queen's Speech in which the Prime Minister will unveil new measures to crack down on crime. These include curbs on anti-social behaviour, organised crime, illegal immigration and drugs - including plans to force more addicts into detox treatment. New measures to crack down on alcohol-related crime are expected to include sanctions against nightspots consistently associated with violence and under-age drinking as well as drinkers themselves. Muslims who have deserted Labour over the Iraq war will be wooed back with pledges to prosecute people who incite religious hatred - the same safeguard as is currently extended to race hatred - and outlaw discrimination on grounds of faith. David Blunkett will also unveil a Sentencing Bill to slash the number of prisoners in Britain's jails, by diverting them into toughened-up community sentences, or halfway schemes such as weekend jails. This will delight prison reformers - including Cherie Blair, who has campaigned vigorously for fewer women to be jailed - but it is one of few liberal measures in a draconian programme designed to buy it space for more progressive arguments during the election campaign. 'This is about buying the public's permission to move on to talking about our progressive agenda,' said one Whitehall source. 'It's arrogant to say we shouldn't address what the public say their concerns are, the links they see between terrorism, illegal immigration, drugs and organised crime.' With only a few months to go until a likely election, the Government is unlikely to get all the bills on its list onto the statute books. However Downing Street has made clear that four will be prioritised at all costs: the introduction of identity cards; a crackdown on serious and organised crime; sweeping powers to combat anti-social behaviour; and measures to break the link between drugs and crime. Opposition MPs who oppose them will be painted as 'soft on crime' in the election campaign. 'Those will be on the statute book and we will tell the Tories and Liberal Democrats, "Go on, make our day and oppose them",' said the source.
I live in Birmingham, UK, and no, it's not that bad. The REAL problem with the UK at the moment is unwittingly shown up by the following words:
"This is about buying the public's permission to move on to talking about our progressive agenda,"
A progressive agenda would be enough to make me want to drink a lot.
A British hooligan in the streets of Belgium. The typical Briton is polite, witty and phlegmatic, but lacks a certain style and has a dental hygiene issue while having an occasional drinking problem(AFP/EPA/File)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/041116/photos_wl_uk_afp/041116171813_d3cdvupq_photo0&e=4
This seems to a common trait in societies that have turned their back on Christ and turned instead toward socialism.
It's been around since biblical times, see St. Paul's letters to the Corinthians
British engage in several thousand year old shared cultural pastime. Liberals enraged.
The liberals emblem should be a wet blanket.
When it comes down to it, all societal problems are rooted in the spiritual (Christian, NOT Buddhist, Muslim, etc.) decline of that society.
Amen!
As our founding fathers recognized, only a moral society can be trusted with freedom.
you guyswould love the thread on Tammy Bruce....
bump for later
The problem is with an overworked judiciary whose hands are tied by "well meaning" socialist mediocrity.
Yep, the leftists are reaping what they have sown.
This is reminiscent of descriptions of London in the early 19th century. Seems to go in cycles as the early 19th century period of excess was followed by the Victorian era's successful efforts to control this excess which was followed by a reaction to excessive strictness leading to the problems described above.
At my job with often have English and Irish visitors and although I come from a family of two fisted drinkers I've never seen anything to approach the amount alcohol these guys and girls can put away. It's astonishing.
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