Thursday 22 January 2009

Aberdeen: Paradise On Earth…?

Well, it must be, if Grampian Police have nothing better to do than this:
Police have spent £170,000 of public money trying to prosecute a strippergram for playing an officer as part of his act.

Stuart Kennedy, who performs under the stage name of Sergeant Eros, was last week cleared in court for the 22nd time.

The case collapsed after the Crown Office dropped the charges against him.
Boy, there must be no burglaries, thefts, assaults, hell, even jaywalking, in Aberdeen.

Or perhaps it’s just that the police there are inordinately thick, as they seem impervious to gentle hints even after six bites at the same cherry:
Since March 2007, the 25-year-old genetics student from Aberdeen University has been arrested six times and spent 123 hours in custody, without police securing a single conviction.

Grampian Police have incurred the wrath of the public over the accumulated police, court and legal aid costs now mounting to an estimated £170,000.
Why is someone high up in Grampian Police not calling his senior officers on the carpet and telling them to cut this out? If not for the sake of natural justice, then for the sake of their budget?

Oh, I forgot - we are paying that, aren’t we? And so there’s no comebacks – at least, no financial ones – for making your police force farce a laughing stock.

But then, they seem to take their cue from the elected politicians:
Richard Baker, Labour's Justice spokesman, said locals were growing sick of the Eros saga.

'I don't see this as serving effectively as a deterrent and people regard this more as ludicrous than as a serious matter,' he told the Independent.
A what….? A ‘deterrent’ to whom, exactly? The young lad trying to earn a bit of cash in a perfectly legal manner and being harassed by the police?

Why, exactly, should he be deterred?
Assistant Chief Constable of Grampian Police, Colin Menzies, said his force had a duty to investigate all reports of alleged criminal behaviour.
What ‘alleged criminal behaviour’? Just what is he supposed to be doing?

Certainly not ‘bringing the police into disrepute’. Your officers are doing that quite nicely all by themselves….

6 comments:

AntiCitizenOne said...

Maybe as part of his act he burnt tenners and flushed them down the toilet.

That would be impersonating the police.

DavidNcl said...

Quite.

The police are not being brought into disrepute, they are actually disreputable.

Their reputation is that they taser or pepper spray old folks, beat rural citizens defending they're traditions, let Hamas thugs riot and smash shops, persecute motorists, throw people defending themselves in jail and ignore actual crimes.

The more the public realise the cops aren't on their side and have been turned into a sort of cuddly (for now) Stasi the better.

Anonymous said...

"Reports of alleged criminal behaviour"?

Do you think anyone actually did "report" this? I suspect the senior plod is telling porkies. At least I hope so, the idea that there are people out there who would "report this alleged criminal behaviour" is pretty worrying.

patently said...

If people are actually reporting this, why are they not being prosecuted for wasting police time?

After all, they claim to have "a duty to investigate all reports of alleged criminal behaviour"..

Anonymous said...

"his force had a duty to investigate all reports of alleged criminal behaviour."

The most egregious and common lie told by the police these days. It's bollocks.

JuliaM said...

"Do you think anyone actually did "report" this?"

I wouldn't be at all surprised, frankly.

Just as not all of the notable police cock-ups are entirely down to the higher grades imposing insane orders while the lower grades are helpless puppets, so there are plenty of members of the public who'd be only too happy to inform on their fellow citizen...