Day Off Week 25 2023

This week's day off was unusual in that it started very early. It must have been around 5 am when we heard noises outside. It turned out to be a police raid. Someone has been growng cannabis a few doors up. After the commotion I wasalready to go and so I went down for devotions and to read. I did go back to bed for a while, however, I confess. I spent much of the day reading this book one of my sons gave me on Hitler and art by Charlie English. Very interesting and written with a firm grasp of the subject. I also spoke to my financial adviser and did some painting as can be seen. At some point I was out for a coffee and to buy cheese - Red Leicester, which I then added to a small and quite basic blog. See here.

Criminal justice system

One of my sons and I had another chance to see the criminal justice system up close again yesterday. This is following he theft of an i-pod last bonfire night at Primrose Hill. The two suspects decided for trial and so we had to get ourselves down to Highbury Magistrates Court. Security is rightly tight and airport style. having got through that we were shown the court where the trial was to take place. We were then put into a private room with other witnesses (it was quite a crime spree that night). As it turned out the ring leader decided to plead guilty in the end and so my son didn't have to go into the court, which he was pleased about. I think the others did testify but we did not hang around to see that (in a youth court there is no access for the general public). This ring leader, despite hissize, turned out to be only 15. He owned up to more than one charge and asked for others to be taken into account. Of course, turning up and being willing to testify was important even though it didn't go that far. it's hard work catching criminals and presoecuting them but it is done fairly and efficiently and that is something to be thankful for. Let's just hope that this young man will learn his lesson and somehow make a freh start. I'm sure it won't be easy.

Out and about 01

I was at a police I D suite the other day. Obviously, I can say very little about it but it is all done with video these days.

They show nine individuals one after the other on a computer screen. They appear silently against a uniform green background for about a minute, turning their heads (presumably at a command). They show you all nine twice and no-one says anything then if you have anything to say you do and they record it. The whole procedure itself is videoed. This obviously beats the old live method by a mile, scoring well on many counts such as cost, accuracy, fairness, safety, etc. I understand that they can choose the control likenesses from a bank of about 25,000 images.

What struck me is that these images were clearly all of different people but so close in look that if I described any one of them I'd describe the others, lacking the vocabulary to distinguish very easily beyond the obvious. It looks like a good, fair system and the officers involved were all careful not to create difficulties by discussing the case, etc. There's a lot more about it here.

What a day may bring

The above picture shows the sheltered housing complex Garth House next to the church here in Childs Hill. A fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning and more than 30 mostly elderly people, including a member of our own congregation, have been made homeless by the devastation. It was a fierce fire around 20 or so fire vehicles were involved in dealing with the blaze. The fire appears to have started in the roof and thankfully there were no injuries as far as we know. Some people will have lost everything, however, as most of the top floor has been badly affected. The firemen and policemen seemed to do their job well although a little officiously at times, turning some people away from church at times and making others take circuitous routes. Barnet seemed to be very well organised in looking after those affected. We are all praying for them.