Picture Exclusive: Town Centre Violence Shocker
03 November, 2006
Under the mask of a free, fair and tolerant society, courts and judges have been replaced by commercial organisations. No this is not the plot of Robocop 4 but actual fact... well according to the local press anyway. It appears that virtually the entire legal system has now been farmed out to local newspapers, who now have the 'powers' to pass judgement upon serious crimes.
This week's Boston Standard invades your eyes with the words "Attempted Murder", relating to a story of a supposed attack on the junction of St Nicholas Road and Mill Road, Boston. The article states: "Police are appealing for witnesses after an attempted murder in Boston", however no trial or convictions have as yet taken place. The piece goes on to inform us "Police exclusively told The Standard they were treating the incident as an attempted murder", but the article fails to point out whether The Standard have been given the 'exclusive' right to try and influence a courts decision.
In ancient times, a court would decide the guilt of accused persons after hearing substantial evidence and legal arguments. Today in modern Britain, justice can be served through a 'trial by press'; where the public 'jury' can be influenced to believe the publishers pre-determined verdict on nothing more than hearsay and conjecture.
The crime of Attempted Murder is committed when a person performs an act with a specific intent to kill. A person's intentions can be difficult to ascertain with the current lack of mind-reading technology. For instance: If I were to try and kill a person by drilling a hole in their head - this would be considered to be attempted murder. However, if my intention was to relieve the persons headache by a process of Trepanation, this would not constitute attempted murder even though the act is still the same. In short, only the offenders themselves are fully aware of their own intentions.
Without access to evidence, interviews or intentions of those accused, the Boston Standard considered it somehow wise to brand an act as 'attempted murder' before any legal court had the chance to do so. It is true that the police are 'treating the incident as attempted murder', but this 'treating' is only to allow the police to decide on the style and scale of investigations. The police will be fully aware that it is not their responsibility to 'judge' but to bring the results of their investigations to court. Unfortunately the local newspapers seem unaware of their own responsibilities.
The purpose of local media is surely to inform the public of local issues, stories and events; to present this information to citizens wanting greater awareness of there surroundings. This service could have been performed better with the insertion of the word 'alleged' in the article, as this would provide a more valid indication of the known truth. However, papers do not sell themselves and a sensationalist headline will always take preference to the dissemination of facts.
Printed next to this article is a small box containing a scant text of limited scope and information. Entitled "Scuffles in the town centre" this piece 'documents' the shocking revelation that... er.... some fights occurred in town on Saturday night! Yes, unlikely as it sounds (?) several drunken revellers took it upon themselves to trade abuse and punches in Boston's market place. For some unexplained reason, this one Saturday night of many has been singled out by the paper to discover a problem that occurs in every town centre, every weekend. An 'eyewitness' states "there was what looked like a serious fight at about 3am on Saturday near The Prospect". However 'The Standard' contacted the manager of The Prospect who informed them that he "was not aware of any trouble then". What The Standard failed to understand is that the manager of The Prospect would not be 'aware' of any fighting in the market place at 3am, because The Prospect is not open at 3am!
Luckily for The Standard, the Police confirmed "there were a series of scuffles on these nights, but they were not serious". As always, the police are prone to downplay town centre disorder to prevent the spread of an already inflated fear of crime. However, further clues to the seriousness of these 'scuffles' COULD have been gained by talking to staff and citizens in Pilgrim Hospital's Accident and Emergency department (suggestion for next week) but this appears not to have been followed up.
Luckily I have a picture exclusive showing the brawling Bostonians in action, but beware, this image could be disturbing for those sensitive to such things (like local newspaper reporters).
This week's Boston Standard invades your eyes with the words "Attempted Murder", relating to a story of a supposed attack on the junction of St Nicholas Road and Mill Road, Boston. The article states: "Police are appealing for witnesses after an attempted murder in Boston", however no trial or convictions have as yet taken place. The piece goes on to inform us "Police exclusively told The Standard they were treating the incident as an attempted murder", but the article fails to point out whether The Standard have been given the 'exclusive' right to try and influence a courts decision.
In ancient times, a court would decide the guilt of accused persons after hearing substantial evidence and legal arguments. Today in modern Britain, justice can be served through a 'trial by press'; where the public 'jury' can be influenced to believe the publishers pre-determined verdict on nothing more than hearsay and conjecture.
The crime of Attempted Murder is committed when a person performs an act with a specific intent to kill. A person's intentions can be difficult to ascertain with the current lack of mind-reading technology. For instance: If I were to try and kill a person by drilling a hole in their head - this would be considered to be attempted murder. However, if my intention was to relieve the persons headache by a process of Trepanation, this would not constitute attempted murder even though the act is still the same. In short, only the offenders themselves are fully aware of their own intentions.
Without access to evidence, interviews or intentions of those accused, the Boston Standard considered it somehow wise to brand an act as 'attempted murder' before any legal court had the chance to do so. It is true that the police are 'treating the incident as attempted murder', but this 'treating' is only to allow the police to decide on the style and scale of investigations. The police will be fully aware that it is not their responsibility to 'judge' but to bring the results of their investigations to court. Unfortunately the local newspapers seem unaware of their own responsibilities.
The purpose of local media is surely to inform the public of local issues, stories and events; to present this information to citizens wanting greater awareness of there surroundings. This service could have been performed better with the insertion of the word 'alleged' in the article, as this would provide a more valid indication of the known truth. However, papers do not sell themselves and a sensationalist headline will always take preference to the dissemination of facts.
Printed next to this article is a small box containing a scant text of limited scope and information. Entitled "Scuffles in the town centre" this piece 'documents' the shocking revelation that... er.... some fights occurred in town on Saturday night! Yes, unlikely as it sounds (?) several drunken revellers took it upon themselves to trade abuse and punches in Boston's market place. For some unexplained reason, this one Saturday night of many has been singled out by the paper to discover a problem that occurs in every town centre, every weekend. An 'eyewitness' states "there was what looked like a serious fight at about 3am on Saturday near The Prospect". However 'The Standard' contacted the manager of The Prospect who informed them that he "was not aware of any trouble then". What The Standard failed to understand is that the manager of The Prospect would not be 'aware' of any fighting in the market place at 3am, because The Prospect is not open at 3am!
Luckily for The Standard, the Police confirmed "there were a series of scuffles on these nights, but they were not serious". As always, the police are prone to downplay town centre disorder to prevent the spread of an already inflated fear of crime. However, further clues to the seriousness of these 'scuffles' COULD have been gained by talking to staff and citizens in Pilgrim Hospital's Accident and Emergency department (suggestion for next week) but this appears not to have been followed up.
Luckily I have a picture exclusive showing the brawling Bostonians in action, but beware, this image could be disturbing for those sensitive to such things (like local newspaper reporters).
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