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11 MAY 1973 STAR (late brual)
MIXED REACTION TO CRIME LAWS
OMMUNITY leaders today welcomed the tough now crime laws. But members of the legal profession condemned them as "short-sighted" and "retrograde".
It is believed the Bar Association's Com- mittee on Crime and Punishment will. publish a report on every provision of the new laws within a few days.
The Committee is believed to have decided to condemn the laws as "myopic".
But Legislative Coucillor Wilfred Wong was one who welcomed the tough new stand on crime, especially, preventive detention of hardened criminals.
"If they are locked up, they can't rob people and rape women," he said.
"I am absolutely in favour of such a law,” he said.
"It is designed only to affect those receiving their fourth conviction and I am satisfied that the courts will administer it fairly.”
Kaifong leader Mr Yan Chi-kit said the laws should cut the crime rate and make Hongkong safer.
I am sure all members of the public will #ppreciate this," he said.
Mr Yan said the new laws signalled the start of a tough Government drive against crime.
14 years
Tough criminals may be locked up for as 'long as 14 years under the new laws.
Details of the massive Government plan to beat crime are revealed in today's Govern-
ment Gazette.
And in other new moves:
Courts are to be given new powers to pass longer jail tarms, and
Courts will be able to order caning for
young people convicted of carrying offensive weapons.
The new moves are contained in a series of anti-crime bills. timed to coincide with the opening of the massive anti-crime campaign later this year.
Toughest of the new bills is the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance which means hardened criminals considered a menace to society may be locked up for between five and 14 years as "preventive detention."
Previous
It will apply to a lawbreaker over 25 and with at least four previous convictions. -
The Supreme Court and District Courts will be empowered to sentence an offender to preventive detention in addition to the sentence for crime he has just committed.
But the Court must be satisfied that:
The offender gets a jail term of at least two years.
He has three previous convictions since he was 17.
He was sentenced to a "custodial sentence" on at least two previous occasions, and
He has been sentenced to, a two-year term at least once before.
To sentence an offender to preventive detention, the Attorney General will have to make an application within 30 days after conviction of the present offence.
Suitability reports from the Commissioner of Prisons on an offender's physical and mental condition are to be considered before. a court sentences an offender to ppreventive detention.
Desperate
1.1 MAY 1973 C
to get it'
IT'S TWO weeks to D-Day and one question is racing through the Secretariat for Home Affairs: Will we get it?
D-Day is of course June 1. start of the anti-crime campaign, and what the SHA is hoping for by then is approval of a request for extra staff and money to handle the anticipated onslaught of work.
It is believed the request. submitted to the Colonial Secretariat last week, asked for a considerable number of
¡ additional posts, plus extra cash in the region of $2 $3
million.
VITAL
Some posts at executive level have been asked for, but the majority are part-time staff whose main duties would be to liaise with area committees and whip up community involvement for the campaign.
Most desperately short-staffed are the City District Offices. whose communications role between Government and people is regarded as vital for the forthcoming campaign.
"We stand a good chance of getting the posts we've asked for. but getting the bodies to fill them is a different kettle of fish." according to one senior officer.
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