Friday 11 January 2013

You Might Be Putting Your Faith In The Wrong People...

Mr Miller wants people to report any unsavoury activity to the trust so he can build up a database of incidents and pass the information to the police.
"We may find it happens at certain times of the day," he said. "I'm hearing all these things anecdotally as I'm working but the police can't do much about it unless they catch someone in the act."
Why expect them to do anything at all? They don't seem to see it as part of their job...

What they do see as part of their job is something the public would never imagine:
At 10.30pm that night, while her boyfriend Ricky Strachan was still scouring the streets, two police officers knocked on the door.
Had they found the car? No, they had come to give her ‘words of advice’ about the way she was ‘handling things on Facebook’.
Lesley said: ‘They were all over my laptop taking screen grabs. The female officer wrote something in her notebook and made me sign it.
‘I asked them to clarify that I was still the victim here and not the criminal. She just said: “We’ve got to make sure we’ve got everything covered.”
It's hard not to disagree that this is 'typical of the way in which the modern police ‘service’ find investigating exciting new ‘crimes’ much more to their taste than actually going out on the streets catching old- fashioned criminals', isn't it..?

11 comments:

Hogdayafternoon said...

True dat. The squad being set up to investigate the complaint of racism made by the brother of the late Stephen Lawrence will no doubt draw officers from catching burglars or terrorists - but please, NOBODY PHONE THE PRESS, OK?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stephen-lawrences-brother-to-sue-met-for-discrimination-8444082.html

Fahrenheit211 said...

I don't often gratuitiously swear on the web, the same as I wouldn't gratuitiously swear on the radio waves, but I've got to say this.

FUCK THE LAWRENCES.

Yes they had a tragedy, yes the police buggered up, yes the police may have behaved in a racist manner. But the Lawrences have not only had more than their day in court, they also managed to get one of the major protections against multiple malicious prosecution removed from the statute book. By doing away with the protection from being tried twice for the same crime, the Lawrences have selfishly condemned future generations to having the threat of being tried again for offences for which a jury has cleared them of.

I think the Lawrences should have got compensation, they should have got a re investigation but they should not have been allowed by the last Labour govt, to whine their way in to getting a significant change in the law.

What worries me is what would some future oppressive government make of the ability to try people multiple times until the jury gave what the government considered the 'correct result'.

I say it again, Fuck the Lawrences.

The Meissen Bison said...

The iPlod seems to be the new must-have accessory

Wildgoose said...

I just want to endorse Fahrenheit211's comment.

Double jeopardy is a crucial civil right that desperately needs restoring. And if that racist bigot Mrs Lawrence doesn't like it, she's welcome to emigrate.

John Tee said...

Lesley said: ‘They were all over my laptop taking screen grabs. The female officer wrote something in her notebook and made me sign it.

Um .... Lesley, why did you let the police anywhere near your laptop? And why did you sign "something" without reading it?

Anonymous said...

Bunny + 1 to Mr Fahrenheit's comments.

Umbongo said...

The reason the "double jeopardy" defence was abolished was because the Lawrences were persuaded by civil rights lawyer Michael Mansfield to launch a private prosecution of the alleged perps. This prosecution predictably failed: according to the judge there was no reasonable evidence available and thus no case to answer.

Is it just coincidence that the government which changed the law was headed by the husband of Michael Mansfield's co-tenant at Matrix Chambers, Cherie Blair? The subsequent second prosecution and conviction of the perps saved Mansfield's blushes but, as F211 writes, at tremendous cost to justice for the rest of us.

John Pickworth said...

I'm at one with F211...

Doreen Lawrence: In the aftermath of the inquiry, Lawrence continued to campaign for justice for her son as well as for other victims of racist crime. She has worked to secure further [b]reforms of the police[/b] service. In 2003 she was awarded [b]an OBE[/b] for services to community relations.

She founded the [b]Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust[/b] to promote a positive community legacy in her son's name. Lawrence has been selected to [b]sit on panels within the Home Office and the Police Service[/b], and she is a member of both the board and the [b]council of Liberty[/b], the human rights organisation, as well as being a patron of hate crime charity [b]Stop Hate UK[/b].

On 27 July 2012, Lawrence took part in the [b]2012 Olympic opening ceremony[/b], holding the Olympic flag with Ban Ki Moon, Shami Chakrabarti and others.

In October 2012, she received a [b]Lifetime Achievement Award[/b] at the 14th Pride of Britain Awards

(Credit / Wikipedia)

Nice work if you can get it?

As for the other thing... iPlod, great term by the way, about sums up what gets the cops out of bed in the mornings now days.

Fahrenheit211 said...

I've blogged on the Lawrence case in more detail over at my place.

http://www.fahrenheit211.net/2013/01/11/will-doreen-lawrence-and-her-whining-brood-please-fk-off/

JuliaM said...

"The squad being set up to investigate the complaint of racism..."

A squad?! A whole squad?!! *hurls PC across room*

"...but they should not have been allowed by the last Labour govt, to whine their way in to getting a significant change in the law."

I'm fully expecting a demand for a similar law change over the Savile debacle - to allow guilt to be officially registered against the deceased!

"The iPlod seems to be the new must-have accessory"

*chuckles*

"Um .... Lesley, why did you let the police anywhere near your laptop? And why did you sign "something" without reading it?"

Because people who think the modern Police Farce are on their side do. Smart people know better. Repeat after me: 'Certainly, Officer, but I'll need to see your search warrant first. Not got one? Oh dear. Well, there's the door..'

JuliaM said...

"Is it just coincidence that the government which changed the law was headed by the husband of Michael Mansfield's co-tenant at Matrix Chambers, Cherie Blair?"

Quite!