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The Magistrate's Blog (2005-2012)

This blog has migrated to www.magistratesblog.blogspot.co.uk This blog is anonymous, and Bystander's views are his and his alone. Where his views differ from the letter of the law, he will enforce the letter of the law because that is what he has sworn to do. If you think that you can identify a particular case from one of the posts you are wrong. Enough facts are changed to preserve the truth of the tale but to disguise its exact source.

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Location: Near London, United Kingdom

The blog is written by a retired JP, with over 30 years' experience on the Bench.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A Reasoned View

ObiterJ, who is one of our regular commenters, has posted a first-class summary of the present position regarding the riots that occurred a couple of weeks ago. Order seems to have returned to the streets - in London flooding the place with a reported 16,000 officers seems to have done the trick - and the criminal justice phase has only just started. I share OBJ's curiosity as to the rationale behind, in particular, the draconian attitude to bail, much of it seemingly inconsistent with the provisions of the Bail Act.
Fortunately the system has inbuilt mechanisms to put things right if the heat of the moment led to disposals becoming a little over-enthusiastic, but that will face the higher courts with a very large workload in the coming months.

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