English courts hand down tough sentences to rioters

English courts have reacted quickly to hand down tough sentences to defendants found guilty in connection with the riots which hit London and other British cities last week. The tough sentences are designed to set an example of the authorities' anger at the wave of looting, arson, mugging and even murder which swept across London for three nights and spread to other cities including Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Gloucester on the third and fourth nights. A mother in Manchester was jailed for five months after she was given a pair of shorts which had been stolen, while a student was jailed for six months in London for stealing a box of bottled water worth 3.5 pounds (about 4.4 U.S. dollars). The riots were sometimes instigated and guided by messages on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. In the north west of England, one man from the town of Northwich was jailed for four years earlier this week for posting a message on Facebook telling people to meet at a specific time and place to start a riot in the town. When he turned up, the only other people there were the police who arrested him. Another man also got a four-year jail term for trying to organize a riot via Facebook in the nearby town of Warrington. Courts are also remanding defendants in custody until their case is ready to be dealt with. In 65 percent of riot cases, defendants have been remanded in custody, against the average of 10 percent of cases. UK Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the tough sentencing for the two men. He said, "What happened on our streets was absolutely appalling behavior and to send a very clear message that it's wrong and won't be tolerated is what the criminal justice system should be doing. They decided in that court to send a tough sentence, send a tough message and I think it's very good that courts are able to do that." However, the tough sentencing by courts across the country and Cameron's visible support for it, has not met the approval of his coalition government partners. Members of the junior party in the government, the left-of-center Liberal Democrat party, are unhappy with the courts sentencing. They are also unhappy with the prime minister's public calls for tough sentencing, and similar calls from other members of his party, the right-of-center Conservative party, which has traditionally had a sterner attitude to law and order than the Liberal Democrats. In the English legal system, politicians do not have direct control over sentencing, although they do create the laws. Elder statesman and former leader of the party Sir Menzies Campbell was critical of Cameron. He said, "With all due deference to the prime minister, politicians should not be either cheering nor booing in the matter of sentencing. It is an important part of our constitutional principles that political influence is not directed at the judicial system." There was criticism from within the government as well. The Liberal Democrat peer Lord McNally, who is a justice minister, said, "It's dangerous when politicians try to do the sentencing." The courts have been extremely busy in riot-hit areas and, in many cases, they have worked around the clock, even staying open on Sunday in order to deal with the huge number of people charged by police. In London, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said it had made just over 1,700 arrests and that 1,010 people had been charged in connection with the riots. The Metropolitan Police expected to secure about 3,000 convictions when its investigations are completed. Across the country, about 1,277 people have appeared before the courts, with most of the cases involving burglary, theft and handling stolen goods, violence and violent disorder.