A crime is a crime no matter how you categorise it!

Dumbing down crime to try and make some supposedly minor offences sound inconsequential is ruining our country and driving the law abiding mad with anger.

The death of David Askew, a 64 year old man with learning difficulties who was being persecuted in his own home by young thugs, is being talked of as being a result of "anti-social" behaviour.

NO, it is as a result of criminal activity - pure and simple.

No doubt those arrested will be afforded a range of human rights they did not afford to their victim. These people take no responsibility for their actions and yet expect society to bow to them when they demand special treatment. For me, to earn rights in our society you need to take a reasonable amount of responsibility for your actions and this is clearly a principle our authorities have lost complete touch with.

Local Police and Council officials were well aware of the issues faced by Mr Askew but clearly treated them as being a series of minor offences which did not merit intervention. By not treating low level crime as being a precursor to more serious events our authorities let Mr Askew, and all of us, down.

No matter what language you choose to use to describe the events that led to Mr Askew's death our criminal justice system must show no mercy for those neighbours say "tormented" Mr Askew "to death - like bear bating".

The important thing now is to learn the lessons these events teach us and to treat anti-social behaviour as the crime it really is. Mr Askew's memory deserves nothing less.

There are crimes where "life imprisonment" should mean exactly that!

There are times when you watch TV and your blood boils. For me, one such instance occurred today with the news that two men convicted at Edinburgh High Court of the most heinous of paedophile offences may see the light of day as free men despite their headline sentence being "life imprisonment".

These two men have been found guilty of a string of child pornography and abuse crimes, including sexual assault of a three-month old baby. Neil Strachan is to serve a minimum 16-year term and James Rennie a minimum 13-year term before they are eligible to be considered for parole.

I thought long and hard about posting on this issue because it is no longer politically correct to talk about jailing people for life without the possibility of parole. I disagree and it is time we had an open and honest debate about the way sentencing policy in Scotland's courts is failing the test of public opinion.

For me, that our criminal justice system seems incapable of sentencing criminals to prison terms that enjoy public support suggests our legal system has not kept pace with the changing world in which we live. There are some crimes and some criminals for whom life imprisonment should mean they never see the light of day as free men or women again.

Police killers, some murderers, serial rapists and paedophiles capable of this sort of systematic abuse of defenceless children should all know that there crimes could enable Judges to pass down life imprisonment terms that mean they will spend the rest of their lives in jail.

I concede this will not stop the most determined criminal from committing these crimes but it will serve as a deterrent to some and as a guarantee to the rest of our society that once caught the most serious of criminal will never be free to hurt them, their families and their friends, again.

The prosecutors of Strachan and Rennie are to be commended for having successfully convicted these beasts but it beggars belief that they are quoted as saying the "severity" of the sentences would "act as a warning to others" when I believe most ordinary Scots would have hoped they would have been sentenced to life imprisonment without the prospect of parole.

So let's have an open, honest and constructive debate about the failings of our criminal justice system, sentencing policy and when life imprisonment should mean convicts never walk our streets again. In a mature democracy this should be something we do as a matter of course but in today's Britain I fear the human rights of the criminal will be put ahead of those of the victim.

I for one am not prepared to allow this to go unchallenged and I know, from my experience of listening to local people on the doorsteps of East Renfrewshire, so many people feel the same.

Labour lunatics are running the asylum!

I like to think that my style is far more about proposing solutions to problems rather than simply pointing to problems and criticising people or organisations. Tonight, I fear, I will break with tradition!

We have all heard the phrase "the lunatics are running the asylum" or a variation of it, but very rarely do you get tangible examples of it to report. So, if your target is to find examples of lunatics running something you should thank your lucky stars for East Renfrewshire Council.

Only East Renfrewshire Council believe the Land Reform Act, and Right to Roam legislation in particular, should take precedence over action to tackle anti-social behaviour. Now if this was simply an error in interpretation it might be forgivable but in this instance the Scottish Parliament has written to the Council of several occasions telling them to support local residents blighted by youth disorder and not to use "right to roam" as an excuse for doing nothing and yet East Renfrewshire Council continue to stick to their own flawed interpretation of a law they did not create.

And then there is East Renfrewshire Council's prioritisation of spending that does not mirror the priorities of the Council Tax payer. I am inundated by people complaining about the new landscaping and hanging baskets at Eastwood Toll when the money would be better spent on improving local roads or putting more police onto local streets when we need them most. Worse still they wasted a huge amount of money on some cobbles outside shops through Giffnock when local shopkeepers believe they could have spent it better and in a way that increased the number of people actually shopping locally. Possibly the best example of money wasting came recently when during a downpour Council workers were out watering plants in hanging baskets in front of shopkeepers who looked on incredulous to the very public waste of money none of their businesses would dare sustain.

I have numerous other examples of how lunatics are running the East Renfrewshire asylum at Eastwood Park and know people out there have many, many more examples to share. Thankfully, I believe there is a group of people capable of running the asylum sensibly, prudently and with a vision as to how East Renfrewshire Council could better serve local people. That is why I will be doing everything I can to support Councillor Jim Swift and his Conservative Group as they seek to build on their numbers and take control of East Renfrewshire's administration.

When any government body forgets who it serves there is surely cause for concern, but when the same body forgets time and time again it is surely time for, top down, route and branch reform.

Empower local people and they will get on with things and deliver fantastic results for their family, their neighbours and their local communities. Treat them with a lack of respect and they will do nothing for you. It is time for us all to stand up and be counted in the battle for common sense in the running of East Renfrewshire. I have great confidence in the ability of local people to win this fight and deliver a brighter future for us all.

Time to get tough on CRIME!

Our justice system is out of control! Let me tell you why.

1) A man has just been sentenced to two weeks imprisonment for entering a drug dealers home, threatening the drug dealer (who has hooked one of his family members on heroin) and for taking the drug dealers heroin and flushing it down the toilet.

What an outrage! The gentleman in question admits to being no angel but if the police and procurator fiscal are unable to get drug dealers off our streets no one should be surprised if members of the community take matters into their own hands.

2) Sex beast John Cronin absconded from a probation hostel earlier this week and is now in the custody of West Midlands Police on suspicion of fraud. This man was sentenced to (and wait to you hear this) Life Imprisonment in 1992 for attacking a woman in her Edinburgh home, only to be released from prison in 1996. LIFE - someone is having a laugh at the expense on the safety of our public.

Since his release Mr. Cronin has been in custody in Sweden, Ireland and England for a string of offences and he remains a danger to the public wherever he goes. It was the Scottish justice system who let us down first when they released Cronin after just 4 years and it is surely time he was incarcerated for LIFE to protect people all over the world.

The PC Brigade will cry foul and point to the human rights of both the drug dealer and John Cronin. I say that as both have chosen to take NO responsibility for their actions they have no right to expect compassion from society given the threat they pose to us all. It's time to get tough on crime and that means stiffer sentences for those that are the causes of crime!

Tackling The Scourge Of Drugs

Today's announcement that Police in Scotland have seized more than £20 million of drugs over the past 12 months and arrested 49 of our most "serious and dangerous" criminals is most welcome.

Combine the success of our Police with our new drugs strategy based on abstinence, adopted by the Scottish Executive after it was first advocated and then demanded by Annabel Goldie MSP, and you have the start of a process I believe will radically alter the publics perception of politicians attitude to tackling illegal drug use and abuse.

Not before time too. We must be seen to be coming down hard on the criminals who push drugs onto the vulnerable and at the same time to be offering a positive option to those who seek to get themselves off drugs once and for all. With a little bit of luck and faith in our people, I am sure we are about to see an end to the drugs culture in Scotland that has been so damaging to communities over recent years!

Whose To Blame For The Condition Of Scottish Prisons?

Would you believe it!

Having suffered 11 years of Labour blaming their predecessor Conservative administration for absolutely everything that is wrong in Scotland, and across the UK, would you believe it, now the SNP are lining up to do the same.

Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, reckons it is down to the last Conservative government that our jails are in "a dire state". Apparently the Labour government that filled in the gap between Conservative and SNP governance of Scotland are not to blame for failing to invest into prisons during their time in office, or indeed for having stopped Conservative investment plans on coming to power in 1997.

Give us a break Kenny and stop looking for an excuse to point fingers at the Conservatives for spurious reasons. If you're not up to the job of sorting our Scotland's jails let us know and we'll happily take over and show you how its done!

Justice Must Serve Society!

With Barlinnie full to bursting, SNP Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill is suggesting we put prisoners out to work on major infrastructure projects, including build programmes associated with the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Restorative justice is something I would normally support, however I suspect today's announcement has more to do with a complete failure to deal with prisoner numbers and not a tough new approach to what criminals should be required to do to pay for their crimes against society.

I believe criminals should be put to work for the communities they have offended, but nor if this puts people into communities who fear their involvement. Building sites can be dangerous places with dangerous tools and equipment and the thought of letting prisoners out on day release with access to potential weapons is something we need to guard against.

If this proposal is indeed about finding ways to reduce the prison population I have news for Mr MacAskill. The Scottish people want its government to stand up for them and to build new prisons if that is what it takes to make prison a deterrent to crime.

Court sentences should mean what they say! One year should mean you serve one year; Life should mean you serve life etc. And if this means prisoner numbers rise in the short term as we keep dangerous people incarcerated while we educate them not to re-offend then we should build the prisons necessary to keep our law abiding majority safe.

More Violence Disrupts Our Community

It is becoming almost the norm to pick up the Glasgow South & Eastwood Extra and to find yourself confronted by yet another tale of violent crime in once peaceful East Renfrewshire.

This weeks edition, (July 31st 2008), details two serious assaults in the Thornliebank area over the course of the past week. In the more serious of the two incidents the victim remains in a stable condition at the Southern General Hospital and police are asking residents to come forward with information because they "would have heard the disturbance or the car driving off at high speed".

The thing that really strikes me about this report is that police believe local residents have information they are apparently not willing to volunteer. This is something that somehow does not seem surprising in today's society and yet in years gone by the thought of not doing ones public duty, by coming forward to give vital evidence to the police, would have seemed ridiculous.

So, how do we ensure our police and local communities become closer to one another? I believe this is as simple as continuous 'dialogue' and making the Police directly accountable to the communities they serve.

One vital first step toward better communication is getting more "campus cops" into our schools, so that young people grow up both seeing and communicating with police officers. The things you learn in your youth help shape your attitudes in later life and I can't believe our Labour led Council voted down the Conservative 2008 budget amendment that would have put more "campus cops" into East Renfrewshire's schools.

The second thing we should do, to improve society's attitude to helping police, is to make our police far more accountable to the people they serve. I have previously advocated, on this blog site, the election of Chief Constables, citing the experience of communities in the USA in support of this policy. I don't want our police to become politicised but I do want local people to know whether their Chief Constable shares their law and order priorities and I want them to be able to pass judgement on whether they believe their Chief Constable has succeeded in delivering better policing to their local area.

I don't believe local people don't want safer streets, better communities and to feel they are able to help their police. It seems to me our police are simply experiencing a crisis of confidence in their ability to effectively protect those willing to come forward with information and to improve the security of local neighbourhoods. I believe we must start a two way dialogue between police and community at an early age and continue this in later life by making our police accountable to their local communities. After all, we all have a vested interest in the success of our Police Force!

Armed Siege In Newton Mearns Another Sign Of A Changing Area

A few days ago I wrote about the concern of residents in Mearns Village that the potential placement by East Renfrewshire Council of more people with chaotic lifestyles into their community will be detrimental to the well being of their local area.

In recent years Mearns Village residents have witnessed a significant rise in crime and anti-social behaviour as a result of the Council's housing allocation policy and today we hear that this crime wave has reached new heights with a Police siege, including armed officers, of a house on William Mann Drive.

I am sure the full details of this will become available as the Police and Procurator Fiscal proceed with their investigations but from all that neighbours tell me the man arrested was bearing a gun and threatening to use it. It seems that this man is not a local of Mearns Village and another person placed into what was once a harmonious local community by a Council with no idea how to promote social cohesion in their 'Social Housing' allocation policy!

If ever there was a time for the residents of East Renfrewshire to say to their Council that they must review a core policy it is now! Our Council House allocation strategy is a farce that is pitting neighbours against one another and breeding resentment across local communities. I look forward to working with local people to devise a new policy on social housing for East Renfrewshire and will be working in Mearns Village over the next few weeks to make sure we learn the lessons of their local area before addressing their concerns in Council and Parliament.

How Not To Help People With Chaotic Lifestyles!

East Renfrewshire Council's decision to open a hostel for "young people with chaotic lifestyles" in Council owned housing on Anderson Drive, Mearns Village, is now surely doomed to failure following its 100% rejection by local residents.

At a 'Public Meeting' held tonight in the Fairweather Hall around 140 people from the Mearns Village area turned out to voice their complete opposition to Council proposals to refurbish two blocks of housing on Anderson Drive, to install CCTV outside the complex and to put a 24 hour warden service into the buildings because the Council simply have not done anything to reassure local people that the people these blocks will house will not create even greater public disorder than they currently experience.

Councillor Jim Swift, Conservative Group Leader, rightly pointed out to local residents that he proposed extra policing for 'Hot Spots' in the evenings, 7 days a week - 52 weeks of the year, in his Council budget amendment and that this would have been a first step to addressing local concerns on crime, anti-social behaviour and youth disorder. The other three Councillors present tonight who voted against this amendment, without proposing any alternative to crime management, should hold their heads in shame for asking local people to give them suggestions as to what to do about anti-social behaviour emanating from Anderson Drive when they had the power to do something about it only weeks ago by voting for Jim's amendment.

Tonight we saw a exercise in local democracy that proves the people of East Renfrewshire still care about their local area. Well done to the people of Mearns Village - they can be assured of the support of their local Conservatives as they fight a bad plan for the wrong location!

Knife Crime - Get It Off Our Streets!

Knife crime is very much in the news these days. Too many of our young people are being injured, or are dieing, as a result of stabbings and that is because too many of our young people carry knives in the first place!

It appears to have become socially acceptable to teenagers to carry weapons and to wield them with bravado, and yet they join the rest of society in our revulsion whenever one of their friends or family are the victim of knife crime.

Scottish and British society sit today at a crossroads. We either take action to tackle issues like knife crime or we accept them as part of modern day society and allow our way of life to continue to corrode.

I believe this is yet another issue where the answer lies in our approach to policing of our communities. Police Officers serve two purposes - firstly they are there to detect crime and secondly, and possibly most importantly, they are there to deter crime!

It is time to support a national campaign to rid knife crime from our streets! Police Forces across the UK must participate in a national 'stop and search' campaign designed to demonstrate our determination to get knives off our streets and to ensure our young people feel safe in our communities without the need to carry weapons. Once young people know that if they carry a knife there is a definite chance they will be caught in possession of it we have deterrence, and once we have police on our streets for this purpose we will start to catch those carrying and using knives providing us with detection.

In addition to this measure I would give our courts new powers that ensure those committing knife crime are automatically jailed, and for longer terms than at present. Those in possession of knives should also face custodial sentences where there is no good reason to be in possession of an an item that can be used with potentially lethal consequences.

It is time to take action to protect, to detect and to deter. The safety of everyone in our society is an essential element of ensuring better communities and our Police and Courts both have major parts to play in restoring our faith in society!

Crime And REAL Punishment

Not many of us are familiar with the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, Joe Arpaio! But does he have any lessons to teach us about punishing criminals in a way that makes them less likely to reoffend?

Sheriff Arpaio keeps getting elected, over and over again, because he punishes criminal activity in a way that marries with his local public's desire to deter crime and not to have to pay excessively for punishment of criminal activity.

Following his election, Sheriff Arpaio decided not to build another expensive jail complex so created the "tent city jail", (essentially a tented village surrounded by barbed wire). He banned smoking and pornographic magazines in jail and he also took away inmates weightlifting equipment, explaining his reasons by saying: "They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave."

To keep convicted criminals occupied, he started chain gangs to use inmates to do free work on county and city projects - saving taxpayer's money. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only allows the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel, he replied: "So these morons will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs." Coffee is no longer served to prisoners because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them: "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."


When temperatures rose to record levels in Phoenix in June 2007, the Associated Press reported: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed wire surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing pink boxer shorts were overheard chatting in the tents, where temperatures reached 128 degrees. "This is hell. It feels like we live in a furnace," said Ernesto Gonzales, an inmate for 2 years with 10 more to go. "It's inhumane." Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who makes his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. "Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves."

The same day he is reported to have told inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: "It's between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers live in tents, they have to walk all day in the sun wearing full battle gear and they get shot at, and they have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

If all prisons were like Sheriff Joe Arpaio's I wonder whether we might just experience a lot less crime and I am sure we would not be in the current position of running out of prison spaces.

Sheriff Joe is accountable to the residents of Maricopa County and has recently been re-elected for an unprecedented fourth 4 year term. His ethos seems to be that local people want to see criminals punished in a way that deters criminal activity, he does allow political correctness to interfere with his work and he challenges the sort of crazy rules we suffer from as a result of the European Convention on Human Rights. Basically he wants a deal for his law abiding public which is fair on them given they are paying for the criminal activity of others.

I wonder whether the British public would decide to elect people like Joe Arpaio if we allowed to elect our local Chief of Police? It certainly seems to me that we have a lot to learn from people like Sheriff Arpaio and should look to some of his ideas to help redress the balance between taxpayer and criminal.

Thanks Joe, you have given us a lot to consider and shown us we may have a lot to learn!

You can read more about Sheriff Joe Arpaio at: http://www.mcso.org/index.php?a=GetModule&mn=Sheriff_Bio

"Extra" Crime Stats Show A Worrying Picture

When, week after week after week, the Eastwood and Southside Extra leads on violent crime in our local area it is clear we have a problem our political leaders need to do something about!

This week, (5th June 2008), the Extra's lead headline is "Park: Out Of Bounds", following the brutal murder of a local woman in Queen's Park, an area the Extra go on to describe as "still a no-go area a week after the discovery of (the victims) partially-clothed body". Last week, (29th May 2008), the lead headline was "Blade Terror", after an armed robbery at Harvie Avenue Post Office, and a couple of weeks earlier they led with "A Party To Trouble", with the story detailing four assaults on youngsters in Overlee Park, Clarkston.

I know that crime is a local priority because East Renfrewshire Council's own Citizens Panel, (made up of 1,000 local people), say that being free from crime in our communities should be East Renfrewshire's No.1 priority.

So why, you may ask, do so many people believe crime blights our local society when local crime statistics generally indicate a drop in crime? The simple truth is that low level crime, things like graffiti and loutish behaviour by local youths, now go unreported because we all believe our Police are overstretched and will be unable to do anything about it. Oh, and even if someone is actually caught in the act they will have been taught their rights under ECHR at school and will probably use this to get a simple caution and avoid prosecution.

So when it comes to a broken garage window or a scratched car door very few people now report any offence preferring instead to look for an easy life and avoid a whole load of paperwork and just repair any damage so they don't lose their no claims discount.

You can read about Labour's failure to tackle violent in our newspapers and you can see their failure to address low level crime on junction boxes, bus stops and shop fronts every day. Our own MP, Jim Murphy, is happy to be seen in the Extra at any event going, and those he creates to generate a photo opportunity, but where is he when we need a local champion against crime across East Renfrewshire?

Crime costs us all dear, whether this be in terms of increased insurance premiums or the increasing cost to our NHS of treating those injured by violent crime. So, like the good people of East Renfrewshire, crime is my No.1 Priority at every level. The difference is that crime is something I will actually do something about!

Ensuring Crime Does Not Pay

When the public see known criminals and drug dealers touring our streets in fancy cars with private number plates and living lavish lifestyles it is a source of much frustration and they are entitled to think crime really does pay. In recent weeks a number of East Renfrewshire's law abiding citizens have lobbied me with suggestions as to how to ensure crime does not pay, with some very interesting policy ideas having been put forward.

One of the most interesting suggestions arose as a result of one elderly relative having been required to use their assets to help pay for elements of their care. The suggestion put forward is that criminals with assets should pay the State for their board and lodgings while they serve a prison sentence. In other words the law abiding majority should not have to pay to keep a criminal minority who can afford to pay this cost for themselves.

On the basis that with rights we all assume responsibilities, I am minded to support this type of financial penalty on criminals convicted to a prison sentence and intend to pursue this suggestion through our policy development team.

Another East Renfrewshire constituent suggested that any positive equity gained on assets during a prison sentence should be the property of the State. This arose after one criminal could not have the proceeds of their crime taken from them because the police could not prove they were the direct proceeds of the crime for which they were convicted. During their prison stay their house appreciated by more than £60,000 and on their release they sold this asset and benefited financially from their assets increase in value over the period of their prison sentence.

While this is slightly more problematic, I do see the sense in using the prospect of financial loss as a deterrent to criminals and would support moves to ensure criminals are not profiting from their assets while they are serving a custodial sentence.

So, the message I receive from the people of East Renfrewshire is clear - we are sick of the UK being a soft touch on crime, (particularly in terms of punishment), and we are no longer prepared to allow our government to hide behind the European Convention on Human Rights as the reason why they cannot act to hammer those committing crimes in our community. I am determined that East Renfrewshire should have a strong voice in the fight against crime and to ensure there is no hiding place for local and national politicians who cannot be bothered to stand up to those terrorising our communities.

Graffiti - The Fight Back Begins

For so many people who move to East Renfrewshire the prospect of a better, cleaner environment is very often the very reason they aspire to moving to this area. Since Labour took over the administration of our local authority, (13 years ago), our streets have become litter strewn, the fabric of the local area has become unkempt and graffiti has become widespread. My recent canvass and survey returns show graffiti has become a priority for local people and that is why I intend to do something about the aesthetics of our local area.

I am sick and tired of the Council claiming to have graffiti squads touring the area to remove graffiti from junction boxes, post boxes, railings and walls. Everyone I speak to who reports graffiti wait weeks, if not longer, for something to be done to remove these eyesores and that simply is not good enough for local residents who pay the highest average Council Tax in Scotland.

That is why I am writing to all our Utility companies to seek standing order permission to take graffiti off their street furniture. Once this is to hand I look forward to working with local people to identify graffiti locations across East Renfrewshire so we can take graffiti "OFF THE WALL" and send a message to the minority of disrespectful and disruptive youths who are ruining our area.