Dogwash

A post at Casuals United relays the good news that the ridiculous "hatred" prosecution against a man for, er, aggressively deploying a St George's flag in front of an incomplete mosque to the dismay of Muslims who were put to the trouble of leaving a local café in order to come and be offended, has been dismissed out of hand by the court. Which, as Casuals United subseqently muses, does rather beg the question why the CPS insists on bringing totally hopeless cases of this sort. I was under the impression that part of the task of the CPS was to filter cases submitted to it by the police and to proceed only with those in which there was a realistic probability of successful prosecution.

No decent, upstanding person would, of course, read anything into the apparent preponderance of South Asian names in the CPS hierarchy, as exemplified by the CU post and indeed suggested anecdotally by my wider reading. I am, however, minded of this organization, the National Black Crown Prosecution Association, an officially recognized representative body, among whose aims are

WE SEEK TO:

• Challenge racism within the CPS and wider Criminal Justice System (CJS)
  
• Educate on issues of racism, and
  
• Change the culture of the CPS and the wider CJS for the benefit of the communities we serve

Hmm.

"We seek to change the culture of the Crown Prosecution Service and the wider Criminal Justice System for the benefit of the communities we serve."

I'm speechless.