Crime and Punishment

It's sad that in Bramley - where I live - the Parish Council has spent a considerable amount of taxpayer's money renewing the lampposts in the village only for them to be repeatedly vandalised. Six of them have been vandalised again, and again, and again. Every time they are repaired, they are vandalised again.

The parish has a population of several thousand. The police know that it's a tiny number of people - perhaps 10 to 15 - that are guilty of the vandalism. They know where they live. They know who they are. But they are powerless without staking out the area or installing CCTV, which they do not have the resources to do. Even if the criminals were caught, the current justice system would hardly deter them.

What is the answer? Bramley can't be the only village where 0.1% of the population, a known 0.1%,  seeks to make life that bit more unpleasant for the 99.99% by mindless vandalism. In many countries in the world, the criminals would simply be rounded up without evidence and would  disappear. How lucky the Bramley criminals are to live in a free and fair society which they try in their own petty way to destroy. I wish I knew what to do about it.