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Hackgate and police corruption lack of arrests
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
The British Riots
You take away from already disadvantaged communities jobs, Benefits, the possibility of a higher education,
Legal Aid and so many other support structures that are being demolished by the ConDem government all laced with
overt police, political and media corruption and you get riots.
The ConDem government is not working.
Will HackGate and its aftermath topple the government?
Snug as a Bug
Gary Barker political cartoon featuring the 'cosy' relationship
between Paul Stephenson of the Metropolitan Police,
Rupert Murdoch and UK Prime Minister David Cameron
Graphic thanks to Private Eye
A new FBI report shows that there is a drug arrest every 19 seconds in the U.S. A group of police and judges who have been campaigning to legalize and regulate drugs pointed to the figures showing more than 1.6 million drug arrests in 2010 as evidence that the “war on drugs” is a failure that can never be won. “Since the declaration of the “War on Drugs” 40 years ago we’ve arrested tens of millions of people in an effort to reduce drug use. The fact that cops had to spend time arresting another 1.6 million of our fellow citizens last year shows that it simply hasn’t worked. In the current economy we simply cannot afford to keep arresting three people every minute in the failed ‘war on drugs,’ said Neill Franklin, a retired Baltimore narcotics cop who now heads the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “If we legalized and taxed drugs, we could not only create new reve nue in addition to the money we’d save from ending the cruel policy of arresting users, but we’d make society safer by bankrupting the cartels and gangs who control the currently illegal marketplace.” The FBI report shows that 81.9 percent of all drug arrests in 2010 were for possession only, and 45.8 percent of all drug arrests were for possession of marijuana.
Mark Perry, Daily Markets
Related Links:
E.D. Kain, Forbes
Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy
Byron E. Price
Many of those responsible for the ballooning prison population are low-level drug offenders. Since the majority of prisoners are characterized as non-violent offenders, critics of drug prohibition assert that because the “war on drugs” has been such a failure and has forced states and the federal government to spend billions of dollars on drug interdiction at the expense of other priorities such as education and infrastructure; the question becomes, why has the government not seriously considered legalizing drugs given the perceived benefits of legalization such as regulating consumption and taxation of the drug economy to name a few? The United States budget deficit was $1.29 trillion for fiscal year 2010. Consider that $48.7 billion in 2008 was the cost of drug prohibition; $6.5 billion spent from 2000-2005 to disrupt international drug trafficking; $6.2 billion in 2007 to imprison drug offenders; $3.4 billion in 2009 spent on drug treatment and treatment research; $2 billion from 2005-2009 spent on counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan; $1.7 billion from 1998-2010 spent to influence adolescents with the media; $268 million in 2007 spent on aviation units in conternarcotics operations; and $74.8 million in 2007 spent on installation of wiretap devices for drug investigations. The above spending illustrates the fiscal commitment made to drug prohibition. If drug were legalized, judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and police officers to name a few groups would potentially lose their jobs. Too many agencies and livelihoods are tied to drug prohibition. Finally, throw in asset forfeiture; the ability of agencies to confiscate assets allegedly acquired as a result of crime and it becomes very obvious that profits from drug prohibition are the most salient reason why drugs have not been legalized.
Byron E. Price, The Atlanta Post
Following on from Obiter J’s guest post, when considering the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s attempt to force a Guardian journalist to disclose her source, it is worth revisiting the seminal case of Shayler, R UKHL 11. The case, which arose shortly after the Human Rights Act came into force, shows how heavily stacked the law is against those accused of causing to leak state secrets, but may also reveal some limited hope for journalists too. The police may well be justified in seeking the disclosure, on the grounds that they need to plug the holes (see Brian Cathcart on Inforrm’s Blog for a post from their perspective). But is it in the public interest that they can use powers under the Official Secrets Act to do so? One Click Note: The sitting room elephant that is so rarely discussed is the stunning lack of police arresting the police in the hackgate scandal. In the article that put proper legs under th e phone hacking scandal in the New Statesman entitled The Bugger, Bugged by actor Hugh Grant, ex News of the World hack Paul McMullan claimed:"20 per cent of the Met [Metropolitan Police] has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms?" With the Met officers numbering in excess of 3,100 this represents at least 630 bent officers. This conservative figure does not include the Met Police's country cousins who are equally adept at culling and selling information in the data age. The major scandal is not the Guardian getting its notebooks felt by the Official Secrets Act, but endemic police corruption. This is the burning issue that the mainstream media are about as keen to investigate as they are at the prospect of having their teeth individually ripped out by red hot pliers.
Adam Wagner, UK Human Rights Blog / The One Click Group
Related Links:
David Leigh, The Guardian
Jonathan Djanogly, Conservative 'justice' minister
The Conservative justice minister piloting controversial plans to cut legal aid and curb payouts that could benefit the insurance industry to the tune of a billion pounds a year will personally profit from the changes. Jonathan Djanogly, the legal services minister, is pushing a bill through parliament which will attempt to slash the budget for legal aid by £350m as well as forcing claimants to pay out of any awarded damages their lawyers' success fees and insurance policies that cover court costs. Experts say this will benefit the insurance industry by at least "hundreds of millions of pounds". Djanogly, who is considered to be one of the 10 richest MPs with interests in a property, a string of stockmarket investments and a Scottish forestry portfolio, also has a personal stake in the insurance industry. He faced calls last year to step down for hiring private investigators to spy on local Conservatives while mired in the parliament ary expenses scandal.
Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian
Related Links:
Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian
Information Release, Black Triangle Campaign
Jonathan Owen & Brian Brady, The Independent
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