London's Burning

[CitizenCain]

Also, you need to go and live in a nicer area, mate.

Totally with Steely on this. Move to Colorado. Less lenient judges, beautiful views, beachy summer things right next to winter ski types of activities, and if someone breaks into your home there, you can shoot him 18 times in the skull if you want to.

[RandBlade]

You'd agree that a rape victim suffers worse than a single victim of riot?

It depends. I'm pretty sure the families of those murdered in the riots don't think its trivial. Its worth noting that the average rape sentence is 8 years, while the maximum riot sentence so far is 4 years (and very few have been that high, most much lower). So it doesn't seem like we're trivialising rape at all.

Also, you need to go and live in a nicer area, mate.

Our estate is really nice, but there's a really rough estate just across the road. Only bought it a year ago, never expected all this

[Timbuk2]

You sure have your shit run of luck Rand.

And it's horrible to think you aren't relaxed enough to sleep properly in your new home.

~

Agree completely with your comments on soft sentencing. I think the police, the CPS, and the public all feel frustration with the leniency dished out in UK courts.

[GGT]

Our estate is really nice, but there's a really rough estate just across the road. Only bought it a year ago, never expected all this

Again with British terms like 'estate'. I thought that meant subsidized housing over there.

Sorry to hear your new home (and workplace) are prone to criminal activity, Rand. That really sucks.

I recall suggesting that you check out police reports, property taxes, and quality of local schools when buying your first place. But your system is obviously very different from the US. Seems it's easier to find out if your area has homes losing ambient heat (on a doppler radar web site), than it is to find out if your neighborhood is at risk for crime.

Also not sure what's been going on in your housing or banking sectors, but if it was a "really great deal", something hard to refuse, something that didn't look to have any down sides, buying new or pre-construction (instead of an established neighborhood with older homes, but a known 'history').....maybe there was a reason behind that?

[Steely Glint]

Guardian says sentences were on average 25% longer than normal.

[RandBlade]

Again with British terms like 'estate'. I thought that meant subsidized housing over there.

No, Council Houses are frequently in estates, but estates are not all Council Houses. An estate is an area of houses.

Our estate is a massive new development over what previously had been factories/warehouses etc, etc all demolished. There's only one road into the estate, then loads of side roads, squares etc - its quite nice.

I recall suggesting that you check out police reports, property taxes, and quality of local schools when buying your first place. But your system is obviously very different from the US. Seems it's easier to find out if your area has homes losing ambient heat (on a doppler radar web site), than it is to find out if your neighborhood is at risk for crime.

Bewsey (which is the part of Warrington my home is in) has a not-too-good reputation but that was for the old houses not the new area. It spills over though. Its far from the worst reputation in Warrington though.

Also not sure what's been going on in your housing or banking sectors, but if it was a "really great deal", something hard to refuse, something that didn't look to have any down sides, buying new or pre-construction (instead of an established neighborhood with older homes, but a known 'history').....maybe there was a reason behind that?

New homes are cheaper always - a lot of people don't want to live on a construction estate. There's a variety of reasons for that, I'm frequently woken up at 7am (which is early for me) by the builders, a lot of noise, the area gets dirty quickly (with dust from the JCB diggers), my car needs washing far more regularly due to the dust, the roads constantly having to be repaired due to the JCBs etc, etc, etc - I don't mind any of that, especially when getting our first home. Crime OTOH is not something I want.

[Hazir]

While I sympathize with you wanting to live in security in your own home and otherwise not be subject to random acts of violence, that does not mean that I think that judges who let somebody who beats up somebody off with some community service on the one side and then send another to prison six months for stealing some bottled water got it right with either sentence.

[RandBlade]

While I sympathize with you wanting to live in security in your own home and otherwise not be subject to random acts of violence, that does not mean that I think that judges who let somebody who beats up somebody off with some community service on the one side and then send another to prison six months for stealing some bottled water got it right with either sentence.

I don't think that shooting somebody dead, chopping off their hands or executing someone for stealing is right but I do think one of those sentences was correct.