I promised myself I would leave this topic alone but I am a weak willed begger so here it comes.
If you commit some kind of driving infringement ie, 35mph in a 30 limit or driving around with a rear light out, the law will pull you up on it. Pleading ignorance with remarks like "oh, I am sorry, I didn't realise my speed was that great or oh dear, I didn't realise my back light was out" will bring forth the officers statement, "ignorance is no excuse in law sir, the law is the law and can not be bent or adjusted to suit individuals.. and thats that!" You will then have the penalty of a fine dished out to you and no excuse under the sun will get them to drop it.
So, why in criminal cases such as theft, vandalism, mugging ,murder and rape is there some mouthpiece spouting a load of excuses such as "he comes from a broken home", or "it's the environment he lives in etc etc" or even "he was drunk or drugged at the time M'lud and was not entirely responsible for his actions" Pleading of this nature for even the most violent or obscenely nasty cases goes on every day and it appears to carry some degree of weight and consideration by the courts which can in some cases affect the overall sentencing. Why should the b-sta'rds in our society be given ANY consideration and the poor blighter who crept over the speed limit get absolutely none? As far as I am concerned, it's all down to money since the speeding fine puts money into the coffers and a gaol sentance extracts it.... the system we appear to have running these days is all about money gathering and nothing to do with true justice.
The hands of the Police are tied and they have been turned into revenue collectors in a lot of cases with the knock on effect of being despised by the populace. Underfunding and subsequent undermanning coupled with the rise of public disorder has placed a huge workload on an already stretched force and we as a nation are now seeing the effects of it.
This is why Joe Bloggs on the street gets so ruddy angry and why there are a lot of us out here who would rather see rough justice than the watered down excuse we currently have for a penal system. Don't blame the man in the street for craving the return of capital punishment... blame successive governments for screwing up the law and protecting the human rights of every murderer,rapist,violent mugger and ferrel cretin who stalks our streets!
Rant over, now where's that bluddy rope???