There was a horrible story about a special-needs teacher this month who was subject to a campaign of violence and intimidation from local youths. The police ignored her repeated requests for action and in desperation, when she again saw her car being vandalised, she ran out brandishing an air-pistol to scare the yobs off. She was promptly arrested and sentenced to six months in prison. This was a woman who had served the community faultlessly and selflessly all her life and was pushed beyond endurance. And when she tried to solve the problem herself the system came down on her like a ton of bricks.
Justice in this country is really going to the dogs, with the courts and police system going after easy targets rather than the real criminals. If you are prepared to put your hands up and admit to doing something you shouldn't have then you are doomed, they throw the book at you. But if you are a hardened criminal then all you have to do is lie - 'weren't me Guv', and the system is powerless and you get off.
Soon the prisons will be full of people who forgot to recycle their glass bottles while the serial muggers will be roaming the streets unafraid of the law.