WHAT ARE A FEW BROKEN WINDOWS....:

50 crimes a day 'too trivial' to prosecute (MICHAEL HOWIE, 8/24/06, The Scotsman)

MORE than 50 offences a day reported by police to prosecutors are going unpunished because they are judged to be "too trivial", new figures have revealed.

A report published today shows more than 19,000 incidents were discarded by prosecutors in 2004-5 because further action would be "disproportionate".

The BBC recently contacted us to see if we'd be willing to ask Ian Rankin a question on an upcoming Book Club program. So we submitted the following: "From an American perspective Scotland seems to be a nation in precipitous moral decline, prey to a whole host of social pathologies, and Inspector Rebus seems like the last Calvinist, willing to judge that society and fight the rot--is that how you see him?"

They called and asked if we could edit the question so their world audience would appreciate it and it was a bit shorter. So we dropped the opening clause. The producer said: "No, keep that--we love the moral decline stuff...."

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 24, 2006 8:15 AM