Not the JEP

Not the JEP.

This page is mainly, as the title may give a clue, to those matters not published in the JEP – or, more specifically, those letters I sent to them for publication and which were ignored. There will be the odd comment too where I can’t be bothered to send to the JEP because they’re not likely to publish anyway. For clarity, those which were ignored are preceeded by ‘Dear Sir’.
 
Oct 31st.
I see in tonight’s JEP that our ex-police chief is, as usual, blaming everyone but himself for the expensive fiasco that was the child-abuse inquiry. Lenny Harper – Jersey’s version of Tommy Cooper – was about the most un-professional copper I’ve ever seen. His job was to find evidence, not be a media PR man – and, to maker matters much worse, he didn’t even stick to that – he embellished everything to suit his egotistical nature. Remember some years back when he coverd the front page of the JEP and alarmed the public with nonsense about ‘machine guns’ in Jersey?  One was, according to him, a ’single shot machine gun’. For thosde not familiar with guns, google ‘machine gun definition’ and you’ll see what an idiot he was.
Anyway, Lenny Henry was running the investigation and was completely out of control. But he had a superior officer – a certain Mr Power – whose duty it was to keep Harper under control. He failed. So it’s no use blaming others, Mr Power – it was YOU who failed – and cost taxpayers a fortune. You should at least have the decency to shut up.

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Oct 26th 2011
(They published this on Nov 1st)
Dear Sir,
I was somewhat alarmed to read your front page headlines of Oct 26^th which clearly infers that anyone found in possession of a knife in a public place would go to prison.
My first inclination was that the magistrate had taken leave of her senses, but, on further analysis it appears that the case in question revolved around the possession of a knife in a situation whereby it came into the category of ‘offensive weapon’.

I feel that your article failed to make that distinction clearly enough. It is not a criminal offence to have a knife in one’s possession – it is what it is used for that matters. Many people carry knives daily for legitimate purposes – which is why there was so much fuss when a Proposition in the States some time ago tried to make the carrying of knives and all pointed articles (screwdrivers, scissors etc) an offence. That would make virtually every person at one time or another in a public place (a very wide ranging definition) liable to arrest at the whim of a police officer.

After all, a restaurant is a public place – would clients be locked up for holding a knife there?
As for street crime with knives – fortunately not prevalent here as in the UK – surely the problem is being tackled the wrong way around. Sadly, the Human Rights legislation and other problems visited upon us by do-gooder liberals (such as removing corporal and capital punishment) has removed not only an effective deterrent, but created a society where parents and schools are prevented from addressing inappropriate behaviour at an early age. The result is a whole generation without respect for authority, elders or society in general. Tackling symptoms instead of addressing the root cause will merely criminalise decent citizens whilst allowing society to degenerate even further.

 Yours sincerely,

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Oct 6th 2011
Dear Sir,
given that the argument surrounding the Portelet development appears to hinge on the claim that what is there is an improvement on what had previously been approved, would it be possible to publish a comparison – ie an artist’s impression of the previous design compared with what has been built? It does seem to me that not only is the mass and outline of the present structure inappropriate for the area, but the overall design too, insomuch as it would be quite at home as a Benidorm beachfront hotel but is hopelessly out of character in the Portlet rural /  marine environment.