Snout has be the master of overstatements."Draconian Penalities?"You've got to be kidding.If our mealy mouthed whimpish judges actually did their jobs,Sydney would not be experiencing the rising levels of violence and crime that is occurring now.

The major problem is that the most of the judges have been oppointed over the last ten years by a left leaning Govt and it's bureauracy.We need an American system whereby judges can be elected by the public,and not a bunch of do gooding academics.

Arjay,

I used “draconian” in a comparative rather than absolute sense (that’s what “more” means). However, hypothetically speaking, I’d consider jailing a man who was innocently walking down the street with a branch in his hand draconian in an absolute sense. However, if police chose to lock up someone in the cells for a few hours who was drunk, out of control, armed and hell bent on mayhem I’d consider this good policing. Depends on your point of view, I guess.

I think you’ve been listening to too much shock jock radio if you think judges are wimpy or mealy mouthed in their sentencing. Interesting study in the Age today. A Melbourne University study of 475 people in Melbourne and regional Victoria found that on average they would pass significantly lower sentences for a variety of actual crimes than the judges did, once the study participants were fully aware of the circumstances of the crime and the offender. I can’t find a link to this yet, but I’ll post one when I can. I’m sure Alan Jones, Derryn Hinch and others of their tabloid ilk would foam at the mouth at this, but I’ll let you into a little secret: they’re not paid to be balanced: they’re paid to get ratings, and getting people hot under the collar is a good way of achieving this.

Over the past few years I’ve assessed about a thousand or so freshly sentenced young men coming into custody. I don't think I'm a bleeding heart. Occasionally I’ve thought “what the..?” but generally on knowing the circumstances of the crime and the offender I reckon judges and magistrates get it pretty right most of the time.

You are out of touch with the real world Snout.We lost the discipline in our schools in the late 70's.The nanny state removed the responsibility from todays parents to do what their grandparents considered basic and essential behaviour.Now we have the selfish,egocentric generation who know more about their rights than responsibilities,thanks to our decadent legal system.

Our society lacks discipline,and the judiciary are the harbinger for our demise.

Dear Snout and Ranier

My only point is 'consistency'.

I'm drawing a contrast between the extreme heavy handedness meted out to a bloke with a branch, (Arrested, convicted, Jailed on the same day) with 'community service' after a CONVICTION for a far worse offense.

That is a key point. "Worse"..... but lesser punishment.

Now.. given that the evidence against Osman was perhaps not as compelling as one would like, (i.e. the veracity of the identification) if there was doubt there should have been an acquittal.
But there was not. He was actually convicted, so the evidence must have been sufficient.

Given that "bloke with branch"= 4 months jail
and
"bloke guilty of assault in company"= lecture and community service.

Should raise questions in all our minds. The branch bloke had not hit,struck or in any way endangered a single person. Yet he was jailed.
Others, Leb Muslims carrying Baseball bats.. same offense, different (but more effective) weapon get 'spoken to by police and let go'
Doesnt that raise questions to you ? It sure does to me.

Ranier.. my point about the law is that it SHOULD be implemented.
FYI the issue in Queensland with that Policeman who beat up the Aborigine on Palm Island..looks like a cover up/favoritism to me, I say throw the book at his white ass.

BOAZ,

I regularly hear complaints of unfair and heavy handed treatment by the police and the courts. While there’s sometimes an element of truth to complaints of excessive force used by police (and the Palm Island case seems like an extreme example of this, going on the coroner’s findings) I’ve learned that such complaints can sometimes be slanted, or tell only part of the story.

I don’t know the full story about the guy jailed for four months the day he was picked up, but my guess is it sounds like he was breached for violating his parole. In other words he was already sentenced for another offence. That’s the only way I could understand him being jailed again so quickly. Parole is part of your sentence, and if you offend during it, my experience is that parole boards tend to come down very heavily on you. No doubt young Osman is going to have to watch himself over the next few months as well, because I’m sure corrections will be keeping a very close eye on him, too.

I’m certainly not defending the behavior of the Lebbo thugs any more than that of the Anglo thugs. I reckon you could say that both sides were young and stupid and intoxicated with tribal self righteousness (or just plain intoxicated). My concern is with the older men (and it’s mostly men) standing at the sidelines razzing up the kids. Hopefully the police will have done a bit of strategic planning since last year to try to avoid a repeat of the violence. But we don’t make their job any easier by fuelling the fire.

I reckon all the imams, including Imam Jones and his mates, need to take a good hard look at the messages they’re preaching, and what the effects are of their brand of sanctimonious tribalism. A good start would be not undermining the work of the police and the courts by spurious claims of systemic partisanship, fed by half truths.

Here's that link I mentioned a few posts back.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/public-softer-on-crime-than-judges-study-finds/2006/09/29/1159337341315.html