Express & Star comment: Shattered justice is all around
The vicious attack on a 70-year-old woman in her own home is a disgrace on so many levels.
A gang posing as police officers burst into the woman’s home in Willenhall.
While some of them held her down and threatened her, others rifled through her possessions and made off with a substantial amount of cash.
Fortunately, the victim escaped physical injury, although we imagine the mental scars may take some considerable time to heal. With violent crime rising all the time, it is an unfortunate consequence that criminals are becoming more emboldened.
When you have senior officers admitting that they do not have the resources to do their jobs properly, it is only to be expected that crooks will start to believe they have the upper hand.
In this country, we are now in a position where the criminal justice system desperately requires root and branch reform.
On one hand, our police forces are under-funded and over-stretched. They simply don’t have the numbers or the tools to deal with the ever rising tide of crime.
Added to that, there is a complete lack of any sufficient deterrent. People know they can commit crimes with very little fear of being sent to prison.
And if criminals are required to spend some time at her majesty’s pleasure, the sentence will invariably be on the short side.
The result is a broken system in which senior officers are now openly critical of the Government’s lackadaisical approach to law and order.
As Staffordshire Police’s Chief Constable Gareth Morgan says today, yes, police forces can be more effective, and yes, they do need to maximise efficiency.
But Mr Morgan is right to question how on earth are they supposed to do this without the proper resources or funding. Our brave police officers are being tasked with what is fast becoming an impossible job.
Despite some positive news in this week’s Budget, our shattered criminal justice system remains a festering sore on Theresa May’s Tory administration.
As we have said many times on the pages of this newspaper, unless the Government acts quickly to address the needs of this country’s police forces, the Conservatives will pay dearly at the ballot box.
