Wednesday 22 December 2010

Vigilantism II

A ‘supermum’ turned detective to track down her daughter’s muggers after becoming frustrated with the police’s response.

And it is believed Kelly Scott’s efforts have led to two teenage girls being charged with a string of other offences.
Oh?

Sounds promising!
Ms Scott, of Bromley Road, Downham, said she was forced to act after 12-year-old daughter Blue (Ed: !!!) had her phone stolen at knifepoint in New Cross Gate bus station.
Ah. Ummm…
She said: “The police stuck us in the car, and drove us around for five minutes looking for them before they got bored of it.
OK, ‘supermum’, first, it’s ‘bored with it’ and secondly, how much time do you think they can spare, knowing that the perpetrators are likely to have gone to ground?
Ms Scott claims Blue was left traumatised by the incident and calls to police from her and ward councillor Duwayne Brooks were getting nowhere.
Duwayne Brooks, eh? That name seems a bit famil…

Oh. Right.
She said: “I felt pretty hopeless as a mother. ”
SNORK! No comment…
She quickly found out the girls’ names and one of their numbers from a shared friend and got contacts in the area to ask around, including her sister who works at a nearby beauty salon.

The 33-year-old amateur detective picked up leads taking her to Hilly Fields and a hostel, all while “terrorising” one of the girls with calls and texts.
Hmmm, I’m beginning to wonder why ‘supermum’ isn’t being charged with something…
"I said ‘I’m not a mum to be messed about with. I’m not going to let you upset my daughter’s life.’

“I said ‘this is the wrong family to be messing with.’
Sounds like a bit of a threat.
"I told her she was going to prison and pretended I’d been to prison myself and it wasn’t a very nice place. "
You were plainly quite convincing…

But this and the last post (should that turn out to be connected to the drug death, and not simply a drug-dealer dispute) show a worrying lack of interest in the established legal system and it's ability to mediate disputes, don't they?

And as Richard at 'Going Fast, Getting Nowhere' points out, this waning support for the law has the potential to put us all on a very, very slippery slope indeed...

8 comments:

Old BE said...

There is nothing wrong with the name "Blue" but it is usually given to boys rather than girls.

Captain Haddock said...

Blue Eyes said...

"There is nothing wrong with the name "Blue" but it is usually given to boys rather than girls" ...

Or Dogs .. a friend of mine has a Spaniel called "Blue" because that best describes the colour of his coat ..

Wonder what Ms Scott's excuse is ?

Timdog said...

Good for her I say, if a scrote steals your kid's phone you're within your rights to try and get it back.

The police are either incompetent or drowning in targets (depending who you believe), and it's pretty clear that this would be yet another unsolved crime without her efforts.

Harassing the girl might seem a bit rough but if you don't like it, don't steal a phone from a 12-year-old using a knife. At least this woman cares about her daughter, and it would seem she didn't use sticks and stones, just words, which I recall you saying many times shouldn't hurt you (and I agree by the way).

I agree about the slippery slope, but what do you expect? Should she have just taken it, and put her faith in the police, or worse the CPS? Not sure I would. If there is waning support for the law, it's because the law is an ass, especially when it comes to sentencing. This is the inevitable outcome.

banned said...

Some decades ago my car radio got stolen; it wasn't worth anything being a clunck clicky model deliberatly to deter theives. That fact and various other things indicated that whover had similarly robbed several of my neighbours radios were not 'the usual suspects'.
The Police recovered my piece of junk from under a hedge the following day, mentioning in passing enough information about two juveniles they had in custody (2 girls one black one white) for aquaintences of mine togive them a visit,I got fifty quid for my quarterlight.

DJ said...

Depends which way round you think the slippery slope is a-sloping.

Back in the day a police officer was just a citizen paid to do full-time what other citizens were meant to do as and when. Ditto, judges were meant to reflect the common morality, not what the morality of a tiny sliver of incestuous self-coddlers.

blueknight said...

The Police who try to operate the system would be the first ones to admit that it has broken....

JuliaM said...

"There is nothing wrong with the name "Blue" but it is usually given to boys rather than girls."

And, as the Captain pointed out, the family pet! :)

"Good for her I say, if a scrote steals your kid's phone you're within your rights to try and get it back. "

Well, yes. But aren't we supposed to have laws in this country, so that we don't have to?

My fear is that we will see more and more of this, and justice will begin to look a lot like something from a Wild West frontier town; available to the strong and the violent only.

"Back in the day a police officer was just a citizen paid to do full-time what other citizens were meant to do as and when."

True enough. But has that balance now tipped too far?

Timdog said...

At the moment justice isn't available to a lot of people anyway, Harman's equal rights and the disgusting sentencing that lets repeat offenders off with fines and community orders time and time again.

I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure what you are suggesting as the solution. Should this woman have taken it on the chin? If she broke the law, she should be prosecuted, otherwise what she did is legal and therefore fine.