:
Litton slams crime campaign hysterial
The Chairman of the Bar "Association, Mr Henry Litton, yesterday accused organisers of the Fight Violent Crime Campaign of using "hysteria" tactics instead of normal debate.
He said: "It is not a question of whether one believes or does not believe in the Fight Violent Crime Campaign. This polarisation of the argument, to me, smacks of intolerance.
"It reminds me of the era of political repression in America back in the early '50s, when Senator McCarthy was allowed to run rampant and people were being required to sign pledges of loyalty and support. Liberal opinion was stifled as being un- American."
In a luncheon address to the Lions Club of Bayview at the Mandarin Hotel, Mr Litton said that in some ways the Government's spokesmen have been responsible for the heat and clarnour generated from the debate on crime and punishment.
A few weeks ago a high- ranking police officer referred to the Government's critics as
"professional police-baiters" and "professional police- bashers . . . who see nothing right in anything done by the Government or the police."
Mr Litton said: "It is a pity that the debate should at times Idegenerate to such low levels. Surely, in any healthy community, there is room for strong differences of opinion on .subjects of common interest.
"I can understand the man of .action, at times of stress, being impatient with arm-chair critics. I can, understand the
JUN 1977 S.CAP
MR LITTON
annoyance of the front-line soldier who feels he is not being backed up from the rear.
2
**But it becomes manifestation of hysteria when responsible and constructive criticism is brushed aside as 'police baiting' and *police bashing."
Mr Litton said the anti-crime campaign might have had a better chance of success if the root causes of crime had been tackled first, "and not in the spirit of a publicity stunt."
The fields that needed tackling were the education gap, the lack of recreational facilities. open space "and many such matters which the Government recognises call for improvement."
He added: "It is also my submission that, however laudable the Government's overall aims might be, the Government was wrong to have introduced the laws to cut down trial by jury in Hongkong in spearheading the Fight Violent Crime Campaign,
"In the first place I cannot
see how it assists the campaign object, the rule of law in by tinkering with the machinery Hongkong has to be attacked of criminal justice in the
by the Government." courts."
The new laws involved increasing the summary jurisdiction of the district courts to seven years' imprisonment. and Mr Litton said that when a 'man. has powers of imprisonment of up to seven years, it could not be said that this was the exercise of summary justice.
"We are supposed in Hongkong to have a scrupulously fair judicial system which is the envy of most countries in the Far East. It is one of the reasons why, despite our delicate political position, we have been able to inspire such confidence ftom abroad.
"And yet the Government, along with the rock-and-roll jingles and the fanfares and the trumpets, is quite prepared to undermine one of the foundations of the common law system of criminal justice namely trial by jury. And this in the teeth of the strongest protests from the ex-Chief Justice, Sir Ivo Rigby."
The Government had confused two things: the trial process and the sentencing of convicted criminals, he said.
Not everyone brought up for trial is necessarily guilty, for the police, however weil- intentioned, sometimes make
mistakes.
I
Mr Litton said: "I can understand the Government · and the community wishing to be tough on convicted criminals. I cannot, however. see why in achieving that
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Mr Litton agreed that there had been an alarming increase in the number of robbery cases from 1,600 in 1969 to 5,391 in 1972 and therefore a corresponding increase in the number of victims.
But it should not be forgotten that there has been an equally dramatic increase in the number of casualties of other
sorts.
In the same period workmen injury claims increased from 9,421 to 26,800, ` deaths through fire increased from 28 to 99 and fire damage increased from $20 million to: $85 million.
Mr Litton asked if this meant that the community in those three years had become three times more indifferent to the safety of workmen at work and, four times more careless in fire prevention.
The leaders of the community who demand
treatment draconian
for robbers and thugs seem, only too ready to condone white- collar middle-class crime.
"For instance, in the latest report of the Inland Revenue Department, the Commissioner alleged that the understated · for the past year totailed $71 profits and salaries tax returns
million. That is more than the
combined total spent on social welfare and housing services.
"Is there an outcry against that? Is there a campaign?" he asked.
Crowded living
breeding, crime'
High-density living - often in most unsatisfactory conditions - is the most important way of breeding crime and violence, said the Chairman of the Urban Council, Mr A. de O. Sales, yesterday at a Rotary Club luncheon.
Mr Sales said that the rising crime rate was more a universal trend than a unique Hongkong problem "but what worries the citizens is the fact that never before has Ilongkong experienced such lawlessness as at present.'
Mr Sales said the real cure
for the problem rested not so much
on the physical repression of crimes but on a reconstruction of society, its attitudes and beliefs.
He said that inadequate space for family warmth and a lack of privacy would cause the breakdown of traditional family solidarity.
hung heavily on their hands.
Further encouraged by the easy success of crimes and pressured by bullies and gangsters. these young people would begin to break the law. Mr Sales said.
"The basic needs of the community must have priority for Government action,” Mr Sales said, "and better housing in good environmental conditions should be provided."
Mr Sales urged the Government to provide more schooling, job-training anc employment opportunities offering reasonable returns.
He suggested that freely available leisure-time activities and cultural programmes should be instituted to encourage the community to
Inadequate provision of educational facilities and job- training opportunities, Mr Sales said, might create a crop of young people drifting into practices harmful to the "identification" and to instil in community just because time all a sense of belonging.
move
towards a n
Another problem, Mr Sales said. was the refugee
those who generation" scraped a bare existence among the squatters on the hillsides and would probably end up as criminals.
Mr Sales said he regarded these people 3 S the responsibility of the community which had not "given these young people a fair chance.'
According to Mr Sales, Hongkong is a "brilliant example" of material success which has, unfortunately, blurred the other necessities of society - the moral and human conditions upon which a contented and responsible society rests.
Mr Sales said that law and order, social equality and progress are the goals towards which Hongkong must now
move.
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