Saturday 19 January 2013

No Wonder You Can't Find Anyone Walking The Beat In London At Night...

One of Brick Lane’s biggest and longest-running nightclubs faces closure after a police raid involving 175 officers led to the arrest of two suspected drug dealers.
And it now faces closure...why, exactly? The drug dealers weren't employed by the club! They were, presumably, just customers.

We don't force Virgin to stop flying from Heathrow because a passenger gets rowdy on duty-free plonk. Police don't impound the Stena Line ferry to Calais if a hen party gets out of hand. Why should this be any different?
The raid on 93 Feet East was the single largest of Operation Condor with dramatic video footage of police storming the Brick Lane venue uploaded on to YouTube by the Metropolitan Police.
Policing as entertainment/advertising now?

Oh, well, the scourge of drugs is off our street and the evildoers have been punished, at lea...

Oh.
Nine people were arrested at the venue including two on suspicion of drug dealing and five for possession of drugs. Police were unable to confirm whether any subsequent action was taken against those arrested.
/facepalm
Cllr Ahmed, deputy mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “The decision on 93 Feet East’s licence demonstrates that we are prepared to take swift and decisive action if bars are found to be allowing drug dealing and drug misuse.
“Through continued partnership working between the council and police, including the dealer a day initiative, we will continue to go the extra mile to tackle drug dealing in our community.”
Wait, did you say...Tower Hamlets? Hmmmm...

Are the police sure just who it is they are getting into bed with here? And that Cllr Ahmed might have a different idea of what constitutes 'community' than they do?

13 comments:

Lynne at Counting Cats said...

And so the Islamification of Tower Hamlets continues apace...with the help of some useful, taxpayer funded, public service idiots.

Dr Cromarty said...

It'll be a mosque in six months.

Blue Eyes said...

175 officers? 2 arrests? That is some serious public sector productivity.

Tower Hamlets is a seriously corrupt place now - there should be a mechanism for the central government to run councils which go wrong like this.

Dr Cromarty said...

Hey, anyway, the streets are safe thanks to Muslim Patrol, innit, Insh'allah.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure there's a nice big box been ticked ona few supervising officer's CV's ready for that next job application/promotion........when they start again in 30 years time.

Anonymous said...

I would like to make several points before I get shouted down.
Firstly I have been on a few of these raids.It's almost impossible to make arrests and get the charges to stick.175 police burst in and the floor is covered in drugs.
Secondly the club is responsible for the actions of its customers under licencing laws,unlike your examples of airlines etc.They have to "police" themselves in a way.
Thirdly these raids are made as a deterrent and they always use overwhelming manpower,rightly or wrongly.
As for the Tower Hamlets angle,I can't possibly comment.
Jaded

Anonymous said...

Tower Hamlets today, your town today or tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Stonyground says:
It never seems to occurr to the powers that be, that enforcing the laws on drugs is completely futile. If they could round up, convict and imprison every drug dealer in the country today. By tommorrow there would be a whole new batch and it would be business as usual. The fact is, if there is a demand for something, then there is money to be made from it. If there is money to be made from it then people will make money out of it. Making drugs illegal is effectively saying to the criminals, "we hereby grant you a tax exempt monopoly on this area of business".

blueknight said...

What Jaded said, been there too. But I do think that the Police are in a weakened state, what with cuts, short staffing (and the recruitment freeze,the imposition of PCCs and the spectre of institutional racism looming means that if a Local Councillor/MP identifies a 'problem that need sorting' the Police seem powerless to say 'No'

JuliaM said...

"And so the Islamification of Tower Hamlets continues apace..."

Indeed. As Blue Eyes notes, there should be some sort of oversight for rogue councils..

"I'm sure there's a nice big box been ticked ona few supervising officer's CV's ready for that next job application/promotion.."

I wouldn't be a bit surprised!

"It's almost impossible to make arrests and get the charges to stick.175 police burst in and the floor is covered in drugs."

Then why do them? Other than as a photo-opportunity?

"Secondly the club is responsible for the actions of its customers under licencing laws,unlike your examples of airlines etc.They have to "police" themselves in a way."

So do the police. Can we shut THEM down when we catch a few taking bribes, etc? Or is it only nightclubs that must be perfect?

The Cowboy Online said...

That's a good comment / question made by JuliaM;

"So do the police. Can we shut THEM down when we catch a few taking bribes, etc? Or is it only nightclubs that must be perfect?"

The police, much like politicians, are in a position to demand that everyone's house be "in order" while seemingly being exempt from the same requirement.

Anonymous said...

Close the police down? Good luck with that. You know it's the Tories long-term plan anyway.
Jaded

JuliaM said...

"The police, much like politicians, are in a position to demand that everyone's house be "in order" while seemingly being exempt from the same requirement"

See also - teachers threatening dire consequences for unauthorised absence, then pulling a snow day at the drop of a flake...