Wednesday, 1 October 2008

Mealy-Mouthed Platitudes

Regarding the banker kicked to death by mob-handed drunken scum in Norwich for intervening to assist a homeless man:
Detective Superintendent Chris Hobley of Norfolk Police said Mr McGarahan had not physically tried to break-up the fight but had merely ' had words' with the gang.

The tragedy has highlighted the dangers of going to someone's aid and Mr Hobley said: 'He has clearly taken a view on somebody suffering an assault and that view is understandable. I don't think he would have expected this outcome.'
Is it me, or does that lack the ringing condemnation of this brutal and criminal act that we should expect from the (supposed) forces of law and order? In fact, it sounds pretty much like the kind of long-winded, sounding-important-but-saying-nothing-of-value statement that you'd expect from a middle-management business trainee.

And on the topic of the man marched through the streets by his employer for theft, he now claims, in a whinging, self-pitying whine to the ‘Mail’, that the police were eager to advise him of his ‘rights’:
'It was almost a relief when I saw the police station was in sight rather than a remote field.'

There, officers told him: 'You've got a bigger case against them.'
I guess, like the council staff in the last post, they’ve pretty much given up now too…

4 comments:

Bill Quango MP said...

Tough on ignoring crime, tough on the reporting of our ignoring of crime.

Mark Wadsworth said...

"I don't think he would have expected this outcome."

Is it just me, or does that sound a bit like "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition"?

"Officer, Officer! I've just had my wallet stolen!"

"Yes sir. To help me fill in the form, could you rate on scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being inconceivable and 10 being absolutely certain, what your own assessment of the likelihood of this happening was at the time you left home this morning?"

Anonymous said...

Feel like going absolutely postal on this useless b@stard of a copper but will restrain myself to posting a link to a brilliant comment by one 'Laxness' on the issue on today's CiF.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/communities.britishidentity?commentid=637d6ebe-299a-4c60-bf4f-a6bc7ac434c9

PS: Does the police response not remind you of the Croydon 'litter rage' incident a while back where they refused to use the word 'mob'?

Anonymous said...

Yes. Now that you mention it, yes, it does.

No doubt 'Detective Superintendent' Hobley went to the same PR-spek seminar...