Sunday 1 November 2009

Well, Sgt Dan Smith, I'm Sure That's True...

...but that isn't the job of the police, now, is it?
Sgt Dan Smith of Great Yarmouth police said: ‘If you can divert a section of society to do something constructive for the day – and enjoy themselves at the same time – it benefits us and society as a whole.’
And just what is 'constructive' about enjoying a day out paid for by the proceeds of crime confiscated by the state?

And how, exactly, does it 'benefit us' to have a bunch of youths realise that the best way to get a free trip to Alton Towers is to become a menace?

3 comments:

MTG said...

Hold it. A precedent can be found in the luxury Safari hols for yobs (courtesy of taxpayers.) That taught them all a sharp lesson didn't it? No, wait....

In January 1994 Mark Hook appeared at Gloucester Crown Court for 34 offences including burglary and taking a car without consent and was given a year's supervision order.

Three weeks later he was back, admitting burglary with intent and getting a further 12 months' supervision. In July he was sentenced to six months' youth detention for burglary and two months later was given a further nine months for handling stolen property and driving while disqualified.

AND THAT WAS AFTER the 88-day African safari at taxpayers' expense that was meant to turn him into a responsible member of society.

Safari Boy - as he was nicknamed when his "character-building" holiday first made outraged headlines in 1993 - spent much of another snapshot year giving the courts the runaround.

Thus in January 2001 he admitted sending a forged doctor's note to court so he could spend Christmas at home. By August he was back in court for sentencing, having failed to answer for bail four times etc, etc, etc, etc....

The public may have forgotten just how successful the Safari scheme was, so many thanks to Sgt Dan Smith for a timely resurrection.

David Gillies said...

The police as a body are now no more than the paramilitary wing of New Labour.

At the other ranks, NCO and junior officer level (i.e. PC to Chief Inspector), they are still sound and trying to do their jobs. It gets iffy above that. By the time you're talking about ACC's and the like, they have been so irretrievably corrupted by the Gramscians that they need purging en masse. On my first day as Home Secretary, I would have one of my Civil Service underlings go through the rolls of the ACPO, and send each name on it a P45. Then I'd outlaw the organisation. The senior ranks of the police force (never 'service') have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in lockstep Harmanesque grovelling that there is no salvation. As a counter, those that are promoted to fill the ranks of the departed must be so terrified of deviation from robust law-and-order policing (which is 100% consonant with a libertarian political system, indeed is mandated by it) that nothing of the like ever happens again.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath.

JuliaM said...

"Hold it. A precedent can be found in the luxury Safari hols for yobs (courtesy of taxpayers.) That taught them all a sharp lesson didn't it? No, wait...."

Ah, yes. 'Safari Boy', now all grown up. Perhaps the problem there was providing him with a guide on his trip into the bush?

"The senior ranks of the police force (never 'service') have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in lockstep Harmanesque grovelling that there is no salvation."

The problem being, who would succeed them? A lot of our best candidates seem to be leaving these shores in droves for Canada, New Zealand, etc...