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LUDOVIC/REA
ON
PATROL: A French plainclothes police officer cradles a special gun that fires large rubber balls to immobilize people without killing them |
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Posted Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002; 2.02 p.m.
GMT
Whatever ancient freedoms he may be trampling, Sarkozy is
now riding a wave of good stats. His ministry reported a 5%
drop in crime last month over the same period a year ago.
Even better in some ways, the public is feeling more secure:
a September poll showed a 10% drop (to 46%) in the number
of Parisians who say they worry about crime "often"
or "occasionally."
Across the Channel, with his government in midstream, Blunkett
faces a more subtle problem of perception management. Crime
rates are generally down, but in the last year some high-visibility
offenses, such as muggings, appear to have risen. To be "tough
on crime and tough on the causes of crime" was a bedrock
New Labour pledge — but an ICM poll in September found
that 74% of Britons feel it has not been kept.
So it was no surprise when Queen Elizabeth included in her
speech opening Parliament two weeks ago the news that her
government would seek to "reform and rebalance the criminal-justice
system to deliver justice for all and safeguard the interests
of victims, witnesses and communities." The words were
New Labourspeak, but the bill Blunkett introduced shows a
confidence in state power more in keeping with one of the
Queen's early forebears. The "double jeopardy" rule
prohibiting prosecutors from trying the same person twice
for the same offense is to end for 30 categories of crime.
Police will be able to detain people without charge for 36
hours instead of 24. The magistrates who handle low-level
criminal cases will be entrusted with many more, and empowered
to give longer sentences. Juries will be scuttled in complex
fraud cases. And information about a defendant's "bad
character" will now be revealed to the jury — including
both prior convictions and other misconduct never proved in
a court — which detractors say will encourage police
to round up the usual suspects and trust the jury will be
swayed by a smear on whatever defendant they pick.
Critics are fulminating, and seeking allies in the House
of Lords to force amendments. Roger Bingham, communications
director for Liberty, a human-rights advocacy group, says
"there are lots of things you can do for the victims
of crime that do not involve making it easier to lock up the
wrong people" — a problem highlighted last month
with the release after 25 years in prison of Robert Brown,
who was allegedly framed by corrupt police officers for a
murder he did not commit. Since 1997, the Court of Appeals
has quashed as wrongful 75 out of 114 convictions presented
by a panel charged with redressing miscarriages of justice.
"We're all for greater efficiency," says Peter Rook,
head of the Criminal Bar Association, "but this is not
an assembly line. There is a defendant whose liberty is at
stake."
Since over 90% of people who make it to a trial are found
guilty, Bingham argues that crime fighting should focus instead
on the four million crimes each year for which no arrest is
made. "That's what's blighting people's neighborhoods,"
he says. Virtually all sides in British politics agree there's
a good case for more police — in New York, there are
seven crimes for each cop, compared to 41 for each London
bobby. Blunkett is planning to add another 2,500 officers
nationwide — a 2% rise. But a really big increase would
cost actual money instead of "talking tough and reaching
for the statute book," says Bingham.
Blunkett's bill does contain innovations the left has praised.
Short stays in prison will be replaced wholesale with community-based
sentences like electronic tagging, once enough probation officers
can be found to supervise. The bill will expand and simplify
a bevy of programs and court orders to identify repeat offenders,
and direct them into counseling, drug treatment, education
and close supervision — though many more places are
needed than will be funded. Blunkett also plans to borrow
from New York's "zero tolerance" model to permit
on-the-spot fines for "antisocial behavior" like
dumping garbage on vacant lots or playing the lout on the
way home from the pub.
Blunkett is not just talking tough, but acting tough too.
He and Sarkozy both hope their reforms will grab enough headlines
to reassure people about their safety. Despite the critics,
they also think their reforms will work. If they don't, and
crime rises, the worst charge they will be guilty of is giving
the public what it wants.
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