Who judges the judges?
When they dish out punishment-lite sentences and slaps on the wrists to vicious criminals, who are they answerable to?
The answer would appear to be no one and it’s time that changed.
The behaviour of some of those on the judicial bench suggests our police officers need protection from them, as much as from the criminals they face every day.
The same goes for A&E staff, nurses, paramedics, fire-fighters and all the others being assaulted on a daily basis while the courts hand out sentences which the criminals sneer at.
It’s bad enough our emergency services are facing knives and bottles and dangerous folk out of their minds on drink and drugs.
But when they face out-of-touch sheriffs, who seem more sympathetic towards their assailants, it’s time to question the thinking of those dispensing justice on our behalf.
I’m thinking here of Sheriff Alastair Carmichael, who, as the Courier reported on Monday, handed out a derisory six-month curfew to a thug who had broken a police officer’s ankle so badly it was left hanging the wrong way and required emergency surgery.
Attack left police officer off work for months
Despite saying the incident “merited a custodial sentence” when the case called at Dundee Sheriff Court last September, the sheriff gave Forfar thug Connor Collins 180 hours of unpaid work for his brutish attack on PC John Annand.
The injured police officer was off work for months following the attack.
However, sympathies seem to have been with the lawbreaker who did what all members of the criminal fraternity learn to do early in their apprenticeships and “expressed remorse”.
That his supposed regret might outweigh the physical and mental damage done to a police officer is a joke.
But it’s no laughing matter for the officers who have to deal with violent criminals knowing the judiciary are not on their side.
Maybe training for sheriffs should include attending courses to educate them on the work of the police and other services.
Perhaps they should accompany response cops for a month on all three shifts, to get a flavour of the ferocity they face daily.
Jail eventually – but not for attack on police officer
The sheriff told Collins he had to “look at other options” in sentencing.
Having done so, and having arrived at his ridiculously soft decision, perhaps he needs his vision checked.
The irony is that Collins was eventually given a 12-month custodial sentence for breaching his community payback order.
So the punishment for insulting the court is greater than that for the serious assault which left a police officer with an injury which may affect his career and plague him for the rest of his life.
A horrific injury to an officer responding to a domestic disturbance. I just cant square the Sheriff's comments of saying that Collins deserved a custodial sentence with him then not being given one. https://t.co/POI917GhzA
— David Hamilton 🏴🇺🇦 (@DvdHmltn) January 31, 2022
The Scottish Police Federation chairman David Hamilton tweeted at the time: “Is this the protection that Police Officers can expect from the court? Or is it the Government that is preventing appropriate sentencing? Whatever the case, this animal should have been caged”.
999 workers’ families live with the fear
Those with family in the police see them out the door before each shift with the words: “Be safe”. Then spend the rest of the time worrying about them.
They’re only too well aware of the violent realities that officers face every day to keep us safe from hoodlums like Collins.
I suspect the husbands, wives, partners, and parents of sheriffs feel no need to urge them to “Be safe” as they leave for work.
But the police and all emergency service workers are there to protect all of us from harm.
An attack on any one of them is an attack on every one of us.
No one should go to work expecting to be assaulted.
And folk are fed up seeing their cars and bikes stolen, their houses raided, innocent family members assaulted by thugs – and the judiciary dealing with the perpetrators with kid gloves.
Who’s to blame for soft touch sentences?
The Police Federation chief asks a very pertinent question though.
Is it the Scottish Government and its soft touch justice which is responsible for preventing appropriate sentencing?
Because if that’s the case sheriffs should make it clear every time they sentence someone.
There are those in government and academia who are more obsessed with the notion of rehabilitating the vicious and the violent than ensuring the safety of the public.
Police Scotland applicants fall 50% in one year – BBC News https://t.co/c983ioelHI
— ScotsPolFed 🏴🇺🇦 (@ScotsPolFed) July 5, 2022
Perhaps they should sit down and listen to tales of police and emergency service workers who have been assaulted in the course of doing their jobs.
Or seek the views of the many thousands of folk battered by violent partners.
Those who commit violent acts should be way down the list when it comes to justice.
The innocent party should always come first.
And if sheriffs on the bench don’t understand that, perhaps its time they looked for a new career that will give them a better understanding of the world.
I hear there are vacancies in the police force.
No wonder.
