Did the riots provide a much-needed PR win for the justice system?
’Tis, it seems, the season for swift justice. As the nation tentatively emerges from yet another national emergency, I had to remind myself of two things last week. Silly season was not but a dream and the backlog of criminal court cases is still a national crisis.
August used to be the time to ponder upon the invasion of killer chipmunks, the revelation that John had found Jesus in his toast, and of course, why exactly that woman put a cat in the bin.
Historically, it is not the month in which the legal system can expect to ramp up some much-needed positive PR.
But with years of discontent echoed across public perception and the legal industry alike, have the riots of 2024 provided a much-needed legal PR win for the justice system?
Since the rioting started on 30 July, following the devastating murders of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elise Dot Stancombe, 7 and Bebe King, 6, at a Taylor Swift dance class, more than 1,100 people have been arrested and 575 charged. Most were charged with racially motivated attacks against Muslims and migrants, violent behaviour, arson or looting until a 15-year-old boy became the first in England to be charged with rioting, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years. If they can find room for such a stretch at the inn of His Majesty’s pleasure.
Friends of mine from multiple industries, including community and public safety, voiced how impressed they were with the response and how pleasing it was to see the British justice system working like a well-oiled machine. So far, although too soon to tell, it would appear public perception is much the same.
The rapid mobilisation of all entities of the criminal justice system following the violence, which was incited by the racially motivated spread of misinformation online, felt like the rocket booster we have but longed for. One man was jailed within 24 hours of posting racially aggravated, offensive content online and a “violent racist” received more than a three-year sentence less than two weeks after punching and kicking a black man in the face, in Manchester.
A stark contrast to the 683 days that the average Crown Court case takes from offence to case completion.
Analysis by the Financial Times shows that judges have already sentenced 30 people via fast-track Crown Court hearings, with many being streamed live via multiple news outlets so the public can view the ‘deterrent’ sentences play out in real-time.
Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, depending on your stance, there are no official figures to prove how many people are actively tuning into the live sentencing initiative that marked its first anniversary last month but a quick scan of YouTube shows that at least 300,000 people have so far watched judges handing down this month’s swift justice. This suggests, at the very least, that the public is watching.
It appears that Kier Starmer’s promise of tough sentences and thousands of anti-fascist protestors taking to the streets has stopped the onslaught in its tracks.
The re-activation of 24-hour courts also used after the 2011 riots, along with more police and prosecutors working on these cases, has demonstrated what a resource-heavy system could look like.
But as the disorder dies down, how long can this golden glow of a fully functioning legal system last? Will the positive legal PR remain? Every legal professional knows the colossal difference between the case length of guilty pleas and non-guilty pleas and is faced with the daily, debilitating reality that the Ministry of Justice’s ambition to reduce the backlog of 53,000 cases by March 2025 is, according to the National Audit Office, no longer achievable.
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said in The Observer: “The impact of these days of disorder will be felt for months and years to come. They make the job of rebuilding the justice system harder.”
As the country now appears to be calm and the court cases continue to roll on, it’s likely thoughts will turn to whether this will be remembered as a criminal justice success story or if the slice of light is just too weak to bear the statistical darkness of a fractured system.
