Bash, our local PCSO emailed me a few days ago with a reminder about our next Police and Communities Together meeting, which is taking place at the Royal British Legion on Langworthy Road this Thursday 19th November.

This is a chance for residents of Langworthy to meet your local Police and PCSO’s. The meeting starts at 7pm.

Please attend if you have any issues you wish to raise with the Police or even if you’d just like to meet your local neighbourhood policing team.

PACT meetings have proven successful in other areas of Salford, such as Swinton & Ordsall, where they are always well attended. This is your chance to have a say about Policing in Langworthy.

Hope to see you there!

The Liberal Democrats have often (wrongly) been accused of being soft on crime, but here is a story you won’t find in any mainstream press – so I have to thank David Mitchell (yes, that one!) for pointing this one out to me. I firmly believe that gun and knife crimes are one of the biggest problems we face in Britain today, but I do think that the story of Paul Clarke illustrates that Labour have gone too far by turning our country into a nanny state. Think what the outcome of this story would have been if it had happened 15 years ago, 25 years ago, 35 years ago? The case would not have made it to the courts. The law needs to be tough, but in my opinion we also have a duty to make it sensible.

Guildford, Surrey, November 2009
A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for “doing his duty”.

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five years imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: “I didn’t think for one moment I would be arrested. I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets.”

You can read more about this case here.

In British Law, possessing an unlicensed firearm is one of those “absolute offences” (a bit like speeding), there is no defence – you are either guilty or innocent. There is no excuse. Further, the punishment for possessing an unlicensed firearm leaves no room for doubt nor manoeuvre, the sentence is a minimum of five years imprisonment.

We have created a legal system that is akin to a speeding freight train with no brakes. The Judge directed the Jury to find Paul Clarke guilty (because it’s an absolute offence), so the Jury have no choice. Guilty. So, will the judge now unravel this mess, and sentence Mr Clarke to something proportionate and tolerable: “you will be taken from this place and given tea & biscuits and a lift home” ? He can’t, even if he wants to. British Law dictates that the minimum sentence for this “crime” is five years imprisonment, so the Judge will have no choice on December 11th when Mr Clarke is due to be sentenced.

I often heard the phrase “The Law is an ass” while growing up, without truly understanding it until I was much older. If ever there was a case that defined that phrase, this is it. Yes, Paul Clarke did a stupid thing – carrying a gun through town is not the brightest thing to do. But, when did stupidity become a criminal offence? Since when did being “a bit silly” attract a prison sentence of five years?

Something has gone wrong. Badly wrong. Whether it went wrong at the police station, with the CPS, with the judge, with the jury, with our legal system or somewhere else, it went wrong.

This is not right.

It may have been a headline grabbing attempt to seem tough on crime but Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Gayling’s claim that parts of the UK are like HBO’s series ‘The Wire’, are hardly helpful. The critically acclaimed crime drama (currently showing on BBC2) depicts the problems that many cities across the world have faced, such as gun and drug related problems. Set in Baltimore, USA, it paints a bleak picture of communities where drug dealing and drug addiction are rife and revenge murders are commonplace.

Speaking of a visit he made to South Manchester on June 26, the MP for Epsom and Ewell said: “A few weeks ago, I spent one of the most illuminating evenings that I have had since entering politics out with the specialist police team in Manchester’s Moss Side that works to tackle the gang issues in the area. Even as someone well aware of the gang problem in our society, it was a shocking and enlightening experience.”

Mr Grayling believes that the police are now fighting an “urban war” against gangs and that violence in society has become “a norm and not an exception”. Granted there are some trouble spots within the UK, this isn’t anything new. Some urban areas have significant problems with drugs, violence and guns that this government has failed to eradicate and more does need to be done. But his comments are not backed up by facts.

The chance of being murdered in Baltimore, a city with a population of about 650,000, is one in 2,700. In Britain the chances are one in 85,000. You are also more likely to be robbed in Baltimore than in the UK – the chances being one in 150 compared with one in 1,000. And more likely to become a victim of burglary – one in 80 compared to one in 90.

Julia Goldsworthy, the communities spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, said: “The fact that the Tories can only comprehend the issues real people face through box sets watched in the comfort of their own living rooms only highlights their total detachment from the concerns of Britain’s inner cities. We look forward to Chris Grayling’s reassessment of the devastating impact of Thatcherism on this country once he’s watched series 2.”

I must admit, I’ve watched even less of ‘The Wire’ than Chris Grayling. After my parents (both in their sixties) insisted several times that it was a great series, I settled down to watch an episode. I managed 30 minutes. For someone like me who has been the victim of a couple of armed robberies, Chris Graylings comments are annoying and unfair. I think it’s outrageous that the Shadow Home Secretary abused the hospitality of The Greater Manchester Police so that he could engage in nothing more than a fishing expedition to damage the significant progress that has been made eradicating gun crime in Moss Side and Greater Manchester as a whole.

Perhaps in a few days we will witness another hastily arranged press conference outside David Cameron’s home where he will denounce his Shadow Home Secretary’s comments as “eccentric” and embark on another embarrassing U turn?

I won’t hold my breath.