Summary Justice Now - Blair

FMNN: Tony Blair has reportedly threatened to impose summary justice "on people accused of offenses including terrorism, organized crime and neighbourhood 'yobbery'." The reason, according to the Scotsman which reported on the Prime Minister's statement: "The criminal justice system was 'passing through a watershed' that might see many traditional legal protections swept away." Blair apparently identified terrorism, brutal, violent, organized crime and antisocial behaviour as new types of crime that require new rules and was quoted as telling a Downing Street press conference that "You can't do it by the rules of the game we have at the moment, you just can't." And in a further justification, Blair is quoted as saying, "You have got to put the ability to protect the law-abiding citizen at the center of it."

Blair indicated he was frustrated with the British system of justice because of the time it took to generate convictions and admitted that some might find his suggestions for how to deal with organized crime "difficult" because they would reconfigure the way the country had approached the problem in the past. These rules will be offered in time, but Blair indicated that the new Terrorism Bill would be his immediate focus.

The clause allowing law enforcement to keep suspects locked up for three months without a charge has come under a great deal of criticism, but at the press conference, Blair apparently stood firm, citing "senior police" as advisors on the matter. Link