http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/08_12_09_fo4_forensic.pdf leads to a File on Four transcript on a number of miscarriages of justice.
My view is that there must be many more and we have a serious problem with our investigation procedures. Denning’s refusal to admit to the appalling vista that turned out to be English justice is alive and blighting our country. Not only are cops and others convicting the innocent, they are failing to bring the right prosecutions. My guess is that the basic issue concerns investigation being the critical point and that later review is likely to be based on false observations. We are seeing this from small police investigations through their major enquiries and all similar agencies and on to so-called public enquiries. What reaches review are stories fashioned as ‘credible’ by the parties interested only in conviction. We need harder evidence than this in public scrutiny and also training in recognising just how much conjecture many cases contain.
Allcoppedout's Blog 
I thought you were an ex-copper and an achedemic?
Police don’t convict people… courts do.
Also, since the evidence is obtained from the public… it’s them that are bent, yes?
“…..it’s them that are bent….”
‘Achedemically chalunged’ Shijuro has no excuse for the abuse of, nay the butchering of, elementary English.
Your thesis stands on rock since poor police performance wrongfoots everything that must follow criminal investigations, Allcoppedout.
It’s wider than just cops of course. Shijuro is wrong and his ad hominem is sad – yet the elementary ‘deconstruction’ has some merit. We could do with some fire under the rocks of false assumption.
In many ways, the evidence itself is destroyed as our processes go along. I’ve been trying to incorporate the Nico Bento issues in a novel, finding they are the most apparently fictional part of it! We are all, of course, somewhat subject to the gist of the statement that a judge is merely a law student who can mark her own work.
Nice to read a post of yours Melv (even an insulting one) that I can understand…
200 weeks would smile…
after he kicked your pretentious butt…
Oh BTW… you do know this isn’t a University paper?
I write as I want… twat
Would you like to exchange qualifications?
I have 11-O levels, 2-A levels and an ONC in business studies and a degree in Computer Studies (as it was then).
I am now on my second degree at the OU (BSc Physical Sciences)…
I think people like MTG are basically bullies (trolls) that like to put people down to make themselves feel better.
I suppose the Police are easy targets.
You are somewhat ‘outgunned’ Shijuro – but keep up the good work. Part of the problem is that education in no way seems to equip people the right techniques in collecting evidence and being capable of following where it leads. The academics have largely sold out for much the same reason Gadget is ‘undercover’ – fearing they will not be able to pay mortgages if they come out. If I went back in tenure, they’d let me write of ‘Contemporary Issues in Sociology’ or similar, but not disclose the drop in standards in my own place of work.
The front line is always easy to criticise. I’ve seen colleagues kicking out at almost anything in sight after car chase adrenaline and so on – one even clubbed in plain clothes (personal resolution) – hardly anyone can come up to MTG’s apparent standards, but that doesn’t stop us needing the ideal. There are double standards everywhere.
The real policing problems (which are very complex) are not being addressed at all. It remains too difficult to sort out the trash, yet our general civil rights are still poor. Maybe not as bad as when the Chartists were about, but less than they could and should be.
You have said before (somewhere) we should be looking up the ladder at HRM clowns and so on. My view is we are in the hands of a very complacent evil.
The issue you raise on MTG is ‘projection’ (generally foisting our own worst corners on others. We all do it, but one can learn to spot it coming out of one’s own mouth. If you look at something like special relativity, you’ll find a system bare of common sense, eventually building back into highly trained observations themselves unusual in common experience. We might be able to do something in this mess to work out what the evidence is and see it is very different to that taken up by various factions.
Sorry- I should have explained, that was aimed at MTG…
Gadget is undercover because he would likely be sacked…
As would I…
Its risky… but occasionally necessary.
We know that ShijNGD – IG has to be better than the ACPO politicals – yet we should be able to get these matters out in the open. Your posts end up needing moderation – not down to me, the system does it on autopilot for some reason.
I take IG to be pretty decent – the real concern is with those who actually ignore jobs and are more concerned to keep careers than do what is needed. I suspect this is rife and those uncovered in review are just the tip of an iceberg.
At last something we agree on…