Sunday, March 24, 2013

Justice in la France Orange Mécanique

I'm reading La France Orange Mécanique ('Clockwork Orange France') at the moment and I can tell you it makes scary reading. The scariest chapters so far have been the ones on the justice system. Society depends on the rule of law to prevent anarchy, protect its citizens, and dish out appropriate punishment to those who commit crimes.

In France, there are 67000 prisoners overflowing out of prisons designed for 63000. Every year, 75000 rapes are committed. From this statistic alone, it's obvious to all but the blindest liberal bobo that there is a woefully inadequate number of prisons.

Why doesn't France build more prisons? It was on the cards during Sarkozy's presidency but was opposed by socialist senators and deputies. They believe that an increase in prisons would mean admitting that the number of criminals has increased, which it has. But in a socialist 'Bisousnoursland' (Kissyteddyland) paradise, criminals are in fact nothing but victims themselves. According to Sophie Endelys a romance writer and judge, the increase in barbarity of even the most banal crimes such as credit card theft is certainly due to "un déficit de vocabulaire" (a lack of vocabulary)... By not having the words to express their emotions, they have no other answer than aggression and violence. How about buying criminals a dictionary?

Criminals are therefore victims, but what about the real victims of crime? They are of secondary importance. What is important is helping criminals by giving them a second chance, third chance, tenth chance, all the while imposing on the population in general the failed results of this experiment who continue to rape, kill, attack.

The socialist answer to punishing crimes is to opt for 'aménagement de peines' which means reducing the sentence for each crime. They believe that everyone can be saved from him or herself. They believe that criminals just have to understand their crime, make amends honourably and come back into the fold newly awakened as a born again Good Person. Many criminals understand what they have to do to escape punishment. Before the judge, they bow their heads, express sincere regret at what they've done, say they understand that it was wrong. The judge, under obligation to sentence as little as possible either believes or goes along with the lies, supported by the criminal's tales of childhood woe, and administers as little punishment as possible.

What happens now is that certain criminals are just not imprisoned however many crimes they commit. Here's just one example. A man of 18 is condemned to two years in prison for sexual aggression. He has already notched up a total 63 previous convictions. In France, a conviction of under two years is rarely carried out so Selim is free to strike again.

The social contract in France is disintegrating. A sentence of life for the absolute worst criminals - the murderers, serial killers, etc. - means a maximum of 22 years. If they are imprisoned young, they will still be vigorous enough to kill again when they get out. The justice system thus condemns to death a number of innocents because it refuses to lock up the most dangerous killers forever.

The new Garde des Sceaux (Minister of Justice) Christiane Taubira began her tenure by abolishing tribunals for 16-18 year-olds which is a shame because it's an age of high delinquency and crime. What will happen to the 1600 minors accused of rape now?

One way of reducing the prison community, the socialists have decided, is to set free a massive number of prisoners including all those inside for less than six months, plus all those pronounced more than two years ago. But it's not a 'mauvais signal', oh no, some of these criminals will have electronic ankle bracelets.

Mind you, not all prison sentences are even carried out. There were 100,000 criminals waiting to go to prison in 2009, and 82000 simply did not go at all which represents 20% of all firm convictions.

Who are some of the victims of aggression? In 2011, 389 Jews were attacked, representing 0.06% of the Jewish population. In the same year, 180 Muslims were attacked, representing 0.003% of the Muslim population. In 2010, there were 142 attacks witnessed against homosexuals representing 0.0071% of the gay population.

Every year, the official figures in France underestimate the number of those not represented by a vocal lobby being attacked violently as 450,000, or 0.7% of French people who are thus 200 times more likely to be attacked than Muslims, 100 times more than homosexuals and twenty times more than Jews.

Considering how vocal and insistent the associations representing these groups are, it's a shame that there is no association to demand justice for everyone else.

15 comments:

  1. And the press just about united to condemn the book as giving an unfortunate view of France.....

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    1. Yes, the lefty bobo media who represent a few Parisian bobo lefties and not a lot else. They are also slagged off heavily in the book, quite rightly, as being leaders of competitivité moral, the holders of Right over Wrong. I'm not surprised they hate it, it's far too accurate in its description of their complicity with the manipulation of political communication.

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  2. I couldn't believe my eyes last year when a 19 year-old was pulled up in front of the court in Montpellier for the 96th time for burglary. He was told to be a good boy and set free again. The day he's met by someone who grabs their shotgun because he invited himself in, he will probably go down as a victim and his vctim will be done for assault or murder. Welcome to France.....

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    1. It's incredible isn't it? You're right about the householder too. You cannot protect either yourself or your possessions in your own home or you risk being hauled off before the judge. Disgusting.

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    2. Little PS: Thank you :-)

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  3. 75,000 rapes a year??? what?? For some reason I always think of France - and actually most European countries - as much safer than the US, I have no idea why I think this. Here is the US whole town are dedicated to the prison industry. My husband's parents in the pennsylvania are surrounded by whole towns who work in prison. I know when I was studying law, a raft of studies have shown they do no good, but no one wants to pour more money into things that do work - the education system.

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    1. Shocking isn't it? and that's just the tip of the criminal iceberg.

      The thing with prison is that it gets criminals off the streets which is what the rest of the population is really concerned about whilst waiting for the rest to happen.

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  4. This post has explained a longstanding mystery to me, Sarah, which comes from reading the tribunal pages of our local Sud-Manche weekly paper. I've always been amazed at how long cases can take to come to court and how derisory are the punishments then meted out, most of them suspended in any case. Thanks for enlightening me.

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    1. You're welcome! Yes, the system is totally overloaded.

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  5. well I suppose they could always reopen the French Guiana place Sarah

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    1. I think that's where la Taubira comes from and she's got a chip on her shoulder the size of a redwood about it, so I doubt she'd want to do that. Good idea though, it would provide masses of much-needed employment over there!

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  6. Very interesting post, Sarah. To be honest (although I don't have the stats to back this up) I think there is a similar problem in the UK and many people over here feel that pathetic "Community Service" sentences are worse than useless. At least now it is no longer an offence to protect your home and loved ones over here....

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    1. Yes, I think you're right, 'the criminal is a victim' attitude is not confined to France. But at least in the UK you can now defend your own home, property and loved ones. In France the thief has to kill you before anyone cares about the real victim of crime.

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  7. O Sarah, you are a brave woman. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow the movie. It was just too damn weird for me.

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    1. I haven't seen Clockwork Orange the movie either. This French book has borrowed the name to indicate that it is full of social chaos. :(

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Comments are bienvenue.