It's a pity that Sir Ian Blair hasn't managed to breathe life into his plans to give the police Judge Dredd style powers of instant justice - with enormous green knee pads and a bloody big golden lion on their shoulder they'd stand out a mile trying to hide in the shadows waiting to hit unsuspecting teenagers with hockey sticks.
It's an odd crime. Former Met PC Paul Turpin saw red when he learned his teenage daughter had friends over and first made an anonymous call to the local police claiming there were burglars at the house before getting all St Trinians on the 19 year old.
There may have been an instant sense of satisfaction for Turpin when he felt Thomas Hasler-Watts' leg break under the blow, but we bet that seemed like a very small thing when the judge banged him up today for five years with the words:
"Those who arm themselves with weapons and lay in wait at night commit a serious crime"
Nothing gets past our judicial system. Sharp as foxes those chaps in the silly wigs.
