Darren Millar calls for Judge Jeffereys

George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem,  (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "The Hanging Judge"

Tory Clwyd West AM Darren Milla, has claimed that a a four-month sentence on a man who posted an invitation on Facebook to start a riot has been criticised by a Tory assembly member as "too lenient".

David Glyn Jones, 21, of Bangor, Gwynedd, was convicted by Caernarfon magistrates after admitting a charge under the Communications Act.
The court was told that Jones had typed

“Let’s start Bangor riots”. 

I don’t see why everyone’s complaining about the rioters.

“Given the chance I’d love to smash up a police car, wouldn’t you?”

although he removed the posting after 20 minutes, he still received a 4 month sentence, but apparently this was not  enough for Darren Millar,  who said  said he believed Caernarfon magistrates should have been tougher on Jones.

"There needs to be consistency - I don't know why he was charged under a different act," 

"I'm disappointed that he only got four months - I do think the public context overrides other concerns.

Millar seems to believe Jones should have been charged with inciting rioting under the Serious Crime Ac t,which saw  two men from Cheshire jailed for four years at Chester Crown Court.

Lets be clear, David Glyn Jones' posting on Facebook in the midst of the riots that were happening in England was bloody stupid .But did it encite people in Gwynedd to riot? Was anyone incited to join in the riots by text on Blackberries or other social media .Can we really imprison every one who post a stupid remark on the  Social Media?

The mainstream media made much of this even connecting this ti the use of Blackberries  in furthering the spread of the riots portraying it as a perverse form of the alleged use of such media in the dictatorial regimes. But is there any evidence for this? Can you blame 24 hour news instead?

Well just ask yourself how many Rioters had Blackberries or  how many watched 24 hour news and the answer is probably few. although most could have texted .Where is the evidence that people  responded to social media  calls to join in the riots actually did so.

I don't know.But then I don't think anyone else does at the moment. . I do know riots spread well before the onset of Social Media and 24 hour news so I suspect the real influence was less than we are led to believe.

But then is it only those who have called for riots in their area who broke the Communication Act that David Glyn Jones was charged under?  Where there not also calls for vigilante action against those involved in the riots do we prosecute them? The social media including Facebook are full posts that people regret even a few minutes after  pacing them. Are people to be prosecuted just for placing something which they realise not long after was offensive.and remove it and even apologies?

But it is not only the reaction in the social media that could be problematic.

Daily Mail Richard  Littlejohn had written in his column ,,

The police are hamstrung by legislation and terrified of being accused of racism. So it’s hardly surprising that instead of clubbing these looters like baby seals, which is what they deserved, they initially stood back and watched while shops were plundered and homes burned down.

Just wait for the witch hunt against those Manchester officers caught on camera battering a troublemaker to the ground, even though the law-abiding citizens of Manchester and beyond were cheering to the rafters.

Was this not also am incitement to violence in this case by the Police  . Probably not under the Law but it was a dangerous statement which could have provoked people to take out what they saw a summary justice  against the rioters and it  I imagine there were calls for such summery justice on the social media.

Those who were the worst offenders in the Riots rightly should face the full wrath of the Law and  perhaps  thet will in due course but at the moment it does seem that the prosecution are going for the easy to prosecute targets in the initial stages. Could it be that by the time those who had actual instigated the riots are brought to trial the and the public  need  see individuals made examples of. (as Darren Millar called for). would have died down and actual rioters recieve lesser sentances than   David Glyn Jones, who may be an idiot but didn't deseve to be imprisoned.

And we don't need the likes of Darren Millar using the rioters to persue the Tories Hang and Flog them agenda.

When Boris and Cameron didnt know right from wrong.

Above is the infamous photo of the Bullington club  Class of 1987, members of an exclusive dining society whose raison d'être has for more than 150 years been to afford tailcoat-clad aristocrats a termly opportunity to behave very badly indeed. amongst these toffs were current Prime Minister David Cameron  and London Mayor Boris Johnson.

According to the Independent   (13 February 2007)

On the day The club's notorious dinners typically involve members booking a private dining room (under an assumed name) and drinking themselves silly before destroying it elaborately. They wear royal blue tailcoats with ivory lapels, and - having made merry - pride themselves in politely paying the restaurant's owners compensation in high-denomination banknotes. One former Bullingdon member, the journalist Harry Mount, has recalled "being rolled down a hill by a Hungarian count". Boris Johnson once admitted to "dark deeds involving plastic cones and letterboxes".

Yet the "high jinks" that took place on the night the photo was taken (at Canterbury Quad, Christchurch) are up there with the best of them. At some point after the dinner, the group walked through Oxford when one (thought to be Ewen Fergusson, though exact recollections differ) threw a plant pot through the window of a restaurant.

The burglar alarm was activated and police descended with sniffer dogs. Six of the group were collared and spent the night at Cowley police station before being released without charge.

"David Cameron was one of the four people who escaped," a witness says. "If it wasn't for his foresight, he'd have spent a night in the clink. Generally, though, the Bullingdon has been totally misrepresented. We weren't tearaways who did no work. I mean, David Cameron still got his first. Buller was a drinking club. It wasn't about taking drugs. At least not in 1987." And the picture? "A lot of people feel it's frightfully embarrassing. But the more I look at it, the more I start to think it's charming and quaint. We look like schoolchildren. It's like a sort of page out of a high-school yearbook."

You can't compare these actions with the rioting in English cities but illustrates a difference in attitude between the how society  reacts between behavior of the different classes .

If you are rich and behave in the way Cameron and Johnson  did as undergraduates then you just young men up to high jinks and letting of steam  If you area teenager on deprived housing estate and behave in a similar s manner like breaking a window when inebriated  then you are a mindless Yob who doesn't know right from wrong nd whose parents are to blame because they did control you..

There is a huge degree of difference between throwing a plant pot through a window and what has been happening  on our streets . But it shows that all  young people are capable of anti social behavior but in some cases it is written of whilst in others the lives of young people are ruined by a criminal record.


In the last few days after the appalling scenes an in particular the deaths of people who were defending their property there has been a understandable  call from the ordinary member of the public for retribution  and we are seeing swift trials and sentences on those accused in taking part. However we must be careful that this does not become a case where people end up with a criminal record simply because they were on the streets at the time.

It is never easy when faced with what we have been seeing and hearing the sort of behavior on the streets displayed  on our media  not to join in the call for harsh measures to be taken against those involved in the riots and arson. But we must be very careful in taken actions that we may well regret even in a few months time.