Essex Police have said they are "disappointed" with criticism after they allowed an illegal horse trotting event to take place at the weekend.
...though let's face it, none of us are remotely
surprised.
The force had initially planned to use powers granted under a dispersal order to prevent the event taking place at The Manorway, in Corringham.
But, due to the large amount of people who attended, police decided it would be a risk to public safety to enforce the order.
Pathetic. And sending a damned dangerous message.
"An enforced banning of the event would have resulted in its being held elsewhere which would have increased the risk to public safety."
Doesn't seem that that's
much of a concern when you
happily apply bans to other events though....
6 comments:
We all know that if Plod can't overwhelm people with force at about 20 to 1 or they are 100% sure that the target will obey orders, even unlawful ones, they will simply stand by and do nothing.
What a Force, sorry, farce. They need to go back to what they were intended to do. Enforce the law regardless of who it is doing the illegal activity.
Exactly, Lord T. And WPC Jaded will be along shortly to prove your point in her unremarkable langage ordurier style.
Melv,
When were you elevated to the peerage? Must have missed it in my copy of the LG. Having been involved in stopping such an event when the participants used a dual carriageway with supporters driving slowly behind the pony and traps to block traffic (we drove up the carriageway the 'wrong way' using blues and twos which caused the horses to veer away and stop). The threatened riot ended when an armed response unit followed us and suggested the horses be shot to avoid the possible trauma they may be facing. The fact that the organisers of the race lost several thousand pounds in forfeited bets (also illegal but we didn't pursue that) meant they didn't run any more races in our patch. Sometimes, a form of summary justice can work wonders.
Penseivat
@ Penise
It must be assumed there was a productive period in your working life when you were better able to review a plethora of information in order to create a limited list of suspects. I am not Lord T, and if it relieves your mental condition, I do not express critical views of plodwork under a million other aliases.
"What a Force, sorry, farce."
Yup! Though I do have a post praising them coming up tomorrow. I must be mellowing.. ;)
"The threatened riot ended when an armed response unit followed us and suggested the horses be shot to avoid the possible trauma they may be facing."
Excellent! More like this, and they'd get the message.
Sorry, but what actual harm was done in Corringham? Sure harm was possible, but did it happen? If not the ban was needless. If so the harm justified intervention regardless of any ban.
Surely we should encourage people who like pony and trap racing (and cruising) to do it in place and manner that doesn't inconvenience others and discourage them when it does.
Post a Comment