Stepping back in time

The reaction of the British government to the present riots and the accompanying looting, with extended powers to the police and encouragement to courts to issue the harshest sentences possible, is in many ways a step back in time to the early 18^th century – a move which civil liberty groups and some senior barristers claim could damage the reputation of the criminal justice system.

Some of the pronouncements that have been coming from the British government, like one by the Home Secretary Theresa May promising to give police tough new powers to create “no go areas” with blanket curfew orders, echoed the so-called Riot Act of 1714.

The act, which came into force in 1715, was formally called  'an act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing of rioters.' It was formulated during a time when the government of the day was fearful of Jacobite mobs who threatened to rise up and overthrow the Hanoverian George I.

The act gave special powers to local magistrates to control unruly citizens and contained a warning that read:

"Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all person being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King."

The punishments for ignoring the act were severe - penal servitude for not less than three years, or imprisonment with hard labour for up to two years.

After the Hanoverians established their power, the Riot Act began to fade into disuse. It was read to a group of demonstrating mill workers at Manchester Town Hall in 1842, but was used with decreasing frequency and had become a rarity by the 20th century. Surprisingly, the act remained on the UK statute books into modern times and was not formally repealed until 1973. It was eventually superseded by the 1986 Public Order Act.

In a clear sign that British society and the government structure feel threatened by angered elements in that society, magistrates in recent days have been told by government ministers that they can ignore sentencing guidelines and hand down more draconian penalties to rioters and looters.

In what smacks of the sort of political interference of which so-called repressive regimes are often accused, courts in the UK are being advised that the scale of recent civil disobedience means that offences committed during the riots should be dealt with more harshly. And, the magistrates seem to have heeded the advice.

A memo by London’s most senior justice clerks to magistrates told them that they could overlook sentencing guidelines to take into account the  exceptional level of the disorder. Figures from the ministry of justice already show that 65% of people charged in connection with the riots and looting have been remanded in custody, compared with 10% for serious offences last year.

But tensions are escalating over the tough justice being handed out to rioters and even seem to risk splitting the coalition government as leading Liberal Democrats were accusing Conservative politicians of cheering on heavy sentences. Some civil liberties groups and senior barristers are being reported as warning of a danger that the public would think politicians were now swaying judges in their sentencing decisions and that there is at present no consistency in the level of punishment being dished out in various centres.

The courts are also said to be bracing themselves for a series of appeals in the coming weeks and months. In one instance two men were sent to jail for four years after using Facebook to incite riots, which never took place. In another a young man who posted messages encouraging people to vandalise a shop, avoided going even to court and was told only to apologise.

Police tensions

In another sign of the tensions presently tearing at the very fabric of British society an almost unprecedented public spat broke out between the government and the police in an ugly display of finger pointing.

Relations between the police and government sank to a new low as senior officers and government officials publicly criticised one another over the riots in an escalating war of words. One chief constable warned the prime minister that he was risking losing the support of the police and others openly questioned the prime minister’s approach to law and order.

Politicians for their part hit back by accusing the police of being out of touch and blaming them for the recent problems while the police are unhappy about plans, as part of wider government so-called austerity measures, to cut police budgets.

Friction followed between the government and police chiefs when prime minister David Cameron appeared to take the credit for the police stepping up their action against rioters, after he had to return early from his summer holiday. London’s acting commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Tim Godwin, complained about criticism from people who were not there and about suggestions his officers were initially too timid, saying it was extremely hurtful and untrue.

In the meantime the prime minister  said in a speech that the riots have been a wake-up call for Britain after decades in which social problems have been allowed to fester. It was the result of a litany of social and cultural problems, he said and blamed irresponsibility and selfishness that led some people to behave “as if your choices have no consequences”.

British society seems destined for a period of deep introspection in the wake of the riots in an attempt at, in the words of Mr. Cameron, “mending a broken society,” and what he called the “slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place” in parts of the country “these past few generations”.