by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 25.
Nov. 2010. – 09:45:38
In various forms domestic
violence appears to have occurred as a primary or secondary topic here on more
occasions than I had anticipated. Perhaps the subject is occupying in general
more column inches or sound bytes [bites?] than other offences dealt with by
magistrates. Perhaps its prevalence is owing to the increasingly authoritarian
and extra judicial disposals applied for by prosecutors eg restraining orders
even where there has been no conviction. Non judicial approaches to unconvicted
suspects in alleged domestic violent incidents have today been reinforced by
additional police powers when investigating such incidents.
In the three designated pilot areas Greater Manchester, Wiltshire and West Mercia police will be empowered to order a suspect to leave the family home for forty eight hours on the say so of an officer of Superintendent rank. It will be commonly called a go order. After that period, for the order to continue the authority must come from the magistrates` court even if there is still no charge.
The underlying consideration for the “battered wife” is commendable. It is the swing of the legal pendulum in action. When a legal or police attitude to a problem has swung so far from an underlying reality it auto reverses in a totally opposite direction and the process is repeated ad infinitum. A couple of decades ago the police and judicial attitude was minimal interference to possibly violent incidents of a “domestic nature”. That approach was eventually and rightly seen as ignoring the real and sometimes murderous attacks carried out usually by men on their wives or female partners. Now it would appear the boot is metaphorically if not in reality on the other foot…..a police officer`s size 12s. Does this initiative come under the term “due process”? I think not.
In the three designated pilot areas Greater Manchester, Wiltshire and West Mercia police will be empowered to order a suspect to leave the family home for forty eight hours on the say so of an officer of Superintendent rank. It will be commonly called a go order. After that period, for the order to continue the authority must come from the magistrates` court even if there is still no charge.
The underlying consideration for the “battered wife” is commendable. It is the swing of the legal pendulum in action. When a legal or police attitude to a problem has swung so far from an underlying reality it auto reverses in a totally opposite direction and the process is repeated ad infinitum. A couple of decades ago the police and judicial attitude was minimal interference to possibly violent incidents of a “domestic nature”. That approach was eventually and rightly seen as ignoring the real and sometimes murderous attacks carried out usually by men on their wives or female partners. Now it would appear the boot is metaphorically if not in reality on the other foot…..a police officer`s size 12s. Does this initiative come under the term “due process”? I think not.
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