Summary justice needed to fight crime says Blair

[Guest guest]

" Lori Price " <lrprice

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:55:05 -0700 (PDT)

Summary justice needed to fight crime says Blair

 

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government

12 October 2005

http://www.legitgov.org/

 

 

 

 

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=2075882005

 

Summary justice needed to fight crime says Blair

 

JAMES KIRKUP AND GERRI PEEV

 

TONY Blair yesterday threatened to impose " summary justice " on people

accused of offences including terrorism, organised crime and

neighbourhood yobbery.

 

Claiming that the criminal justice system was " passing through a

watershed, " the Prime Minister suggested a radical and far-reaching

shift in legal practice, hinting that many traditional legal

protections could be swept away.

 

Mr Blair identified terrorism, brutal, violent, organised crime and

antisocial behaviour as " new types of crime " that require new rules.

 

" You can't do it by the rules of the game we have at the moment, you

just can't, " he told a Downing Street press conference.

 

Mr Blair's increasingly hardline stance on legal matters has drawn

criticism from civil rights groups. Yesterday appeared to put the

Prime Minister at odds with Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, over

the new Terrorism Bill which would give police sweeping new powers to

detain suspects.

 

Going beyond that proposal, Mr Blair suggested that police could get

more powers to impose fines on suspected offenders, or expel people

accused of drug crimes from public rented housing. Only after the

penalty had been imposed would the accused have the right to mount a

legal appeal to prove their innocence.

 

" Now that is summary justice, " Mr Blair told journalists in Downing

Street. " It is tough and it is hard, but in my judgment it is the only

way to deal with it, and that comes first. "

 

Hinting at a shift away from the presumption of innocence as the

foundation of the legal code, Mr Blair said: " You have got to put the

ability to protect the law-abiding citizen at the centre of it. "

 

Mr Blair said he had lost patience with the traditional judicial

process, because it made convictions too hard to secure.

 

While Mr Blair gave no details of his plans for organised crime, he

admitted that " some people " will find them " difficult " because they

will change long-established rules.

 

New rules for organised crime and anti-social behaviour will come in

the next few months, but the government's immediate project is the

Terrorism Bill published yesterday.

 

The bill's most contentious clause would allow police to detain

suspects without charge for up to three months.

 

Mr Blair insisted there could be no compromise on that plan, which is

based closely on a request to government from senior police officers.

 

Mr Blair insisted that he was not simply doing everything he was told

by the police. " If they are right, then how can I responsibly refuse

to do something that will actually protect, the most basic civil

liberty, which is the right to life? "

 

The apparent split in the Cabinet over the measure was exposed when

the Prime Minister said there was a " compelling " case for police to be

granted the powers.

 

The detention clause remains the main stumbling block to reaching

cross-party consensus on the Terrorism Bill, and despite Mr Blair's

stance, many MPs expect the government will eventually water down the

proposal.

 

• Mr Blair also signalled that a controversial plan to dock the

housing benefits of so-called neighbours from hell is back on the

government's agenda. The measure, floated and dropped two years ago,

could re-appear in a government paper on welfare reform later this

year, the Prime Minister said.

 

" There's nothing that is ruled out, " he said when asked if the plan

could be resurrected.