Wednesday 23 June 2010

Another Day, Another Call For A Register...

A senior police officer today called for the naming and shaming of a vicious thug who attacked seven different girlfriends in just two years.
He didn't stand up and name him himself, oh, no. He just 'called for it'...

But he has a bigger agenda:
The Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police, Brian Moore, wants to see the introduction of a domestic abuse register to identify yobs who beat their partners.
Fantastic! Who'd administer it, I wonder..?

And what use would it be put to?
Citing the case of the offender who beat seven partners, Mr Moore said: 'Shouldn't the public have a right to know when such information is in our possession?

'Then victim number eight can ensure she is not a victim.'
Can't victim number eight do that by, well, being a bit more choosy who she sleeps with?

I mean, unless this chap is moving from town to town, chances are good he's fishing in a local pool, so to speak. What are the odds that victims 2 - 7 didn't know anything about his history?

Maybe they simply thought it wouldn't happen to them.

And if Moore has his way, the police will be a lot busier in future:
Mr Moore, who did not name the offender, said that each police force should compile a list of the 'top 10' possible victims of domestic violence - and visit them every day to make sure they are safe if they are living with a known offender.
Won't that leave them no time to do anything else? What about all the other sorts of cri...

Oh:
The chief constable also said that police forces around the UK should focus less on robberies and thefts and target the estimated 25,000 serial domestic abusers in the UK.
Well, that's going to go down well with the locals, isn't it?

"What's that, Mr Jones? A burglary in progress? Well, we would come out, but you see, we have these priorities. By the way, are you beating your wife?"
He said that he wanted to see domestic crime take priority over other crimes such as theft, adding: 'We have to cut some slack about chasing numbers around acquisitive crime.

'I am saying that we crush this thing (domestic violence) and if it is to the detriment of other things, then so be it - this is saving people's lives and saving them from untold misery.'
This man's insane. He actually believes he can 'crush' domestic violence. That's about as impossible as Save The Children's pledge to 'stop violence against children'.

And the phrasing! If you want to 'save people', perhaps you should have taken up the priesthood?

Or, hey, maybe you should put on a mask and become a night-time vigilante, DV Man, perhaps?

Don't these people have a duty to maybe help themselves?
One officer from Kent Police said one of the main problems was that victims of domestic abuse often do not press charges against their attacker - leaving them free to attack their next partner and continue the cycle of violence.

He said: 'A lot of the calls we have to deal with are domestic violence incidents and more often than not charges are not supported by the victim or it is simply not reported to us.

'We need to make a stand to stop this cycle of violence among the men - and occasionally women - who think they can go from relationship to relationship abusing their partners.'
Looks like Moore has a lot of converts in his nick. Perhaps they could get tax-exempt stature like other religious cults...

14 comments:

patently said...

a domestic abuse register

But we already have one of those. In fact, the one we have is even better - it lists all crimes, not just domestic abuse.

It's called the Police National Computer. So how about putting it online in a searchable format? That way, I could put my postcode in and see who lives near me that I should avoid for any reason, not just for fear of domestic abuse.

Oh, wait - I forgot. That would be too easy. Just doing that would not need an army of civil servants to maintain a new register and hold enquiries concluding that it had unaccountably failed to include details of xyz on this particular instance but that lessons would be learned. It would also mean people might be wary of committing crime for fear of what people would do or say if the information was published.

No, we had better protect the criminals and create the bureaucracy. Much better...

MTG said...

This most senior of Human Rights haters, cites an extreme case for the purpose of massaging the politics of citizen control.

Yet the suggested domestic abuse register is small potatoes. ACPO have already considered all the police power benefits of a National Register of Citizens.

Whilst the water is tested with throwaways, the main proposal has inevitability stamped on its 'not for public consumption' front page.

How grateful I am to live a true democracy where I will never have reason to oppose a machine gun armed State with sticks and harsh language.

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

"attacked seven different girlfriends in just two years"

Then why isn't the fucker in prison?

Anonymous said...

Serves the bitches right for going out with such morons.

Angry Exile said...

Translation: burglars and robbers urgently wanted in Wiltshire - the police won't stay stupid forever and we need help carting all this off while they're busy asking everyone with a penis when he last hit his wife.

dickiebo said...

'Moore has a lot of converts at his nick!'
Or, perhaps, some who wish to join the promotion ladder?

Chuckles said...

A register? No, I suspect a 'league table' might be more appropriate, given the propensities of the perps, and the achievements and abilities of the plod.

Anonymous said...

I groaned when I read this dickhead's comments and proposals. What is the point of it. The sex offenders register and paedophile monitoring idn't really workable so why this. The rest of his statement is illuminating and shows us a man who really doesn't expect there to be much change in the policing agenda, more wooly bollocks. Lets hope he gets the metaphorical kicking he deserves.

I thought a few years ago the law was changed to allow the CPS to charge serial abusers even if the 'victim' didn't substantiate the allegations? I can only suppose that in reality it proved too difficult, time consuming and expensive to bother with.

microdave said...

IF victim number eight ensures she is not a victim, she WOULDN'T BE VICTIM NUMBER EIGHT.....

Don't you just love "Police Speak"

blueknight said...

attacked seven different girlfriends in just two years"
Then why isn't the fucker in prison?

Because there was not enough evidence for Court?

The vast majority of partners withdraw their statements.
It is dispiriting for an Officer who has spent the whole shift getting statements and arranging medical evidence only to see the victim and offender walking down the street arm and arm. Because he knows it was all in vain, that the case will be dropped and that after more beer/drugs there will be another argument and the cycle will begin all over again.

Or because he was charged with minor offences such as common assault?

CPS always drop the charges down.

And did you know that most of the Public Order Act laws, - threatening abusive behavior etc, does not apply inside a dwelling so it can rarely be used in domestic abuse cases.

Female. "He threatened me"
Officer "No offence"

selsey.steve said...

I agree with Blue Knight. I've got over 30 years experience in the Police and the worst case you can get is a Domestic.
You know for sure when the call comes in that you are going to waste at least two shifts of work-time and end up with nothing.
I'd like to know how many late turns the "Senior" officer who came out with this garbage has done in his career. I suspect that he's never even been involved in a real criminal case and had to have given evidence in Court. Just like very many other "Senior" officers.

JuliaM said...

"So how about putting it online in a searchable format? "

I shudder to think what it would reveal in some ares!

"Then why isn't the fucker in prison?"

Good point. Because the ladies in quetion refused to press charges, perhaps?

Although, like Ranter, I thought the law had been changed to ensure that abusers couldn't use that get-out clause?

JuliaM said...

"And did you know that most of the Public Order Act laws, - threatening abusive behavior etc, does not apply inside a dwelling so it can rarely be used in domestic abuse cases."

I did not know that, no.

"...the worst case you can get is a Domestic. "

Indeed, I can imaging nothing worse that a victim complicit in her or his own crime...

Mike said...

while there are legal definition and biologically mechanical reasons for rape to be a distinctly male perpetrator and female victim crime domestic violence I believe is not. The opinions applied to the identification of likely future offenders without a public register are already distorted enough. Facts about historic vrimes distributed to the public has rarely sought to bring opinion in line with the actual situation in our homes or on the street and has in many cases only served to fuel the fire of misdirected prejudice and violent vigilante actions on innocents.

Where someone has been assaulted or harassed then the law applies regardless of the relationship between the victim and the accused or the location the crime is alleged to have happened.

If and when the police and the vast majority of the public can be trusted with information regarding historic personal details concerning crimes of the person then we might be advised to allow then access to use this information wisely. The risk attached considering obvious inaccuracies in social beliefs surrounding the crimes of men against women leads me to think the public and most of the police cannot be trusted to act appropriately with this information available to them.

If I had a child and I wanted them to grow up with the tools to reduce the risk of them becoming a victim of domestic violence or rape I certainly would not encourage them to trawl through information held on the PNC or publicly held registers. I would hope I could give them the ability to identify potential situations and individuals capable of producing a violent or distressing event and strategies to avoid and escape these situations. If my child grew up failing to develop these abilities and strategies I would ensure either myself or someone who has proven they can be trusted would keep an eye on them. I would not rely on the police who routinely even with access to historic personal details of incidents of crime and criminals fail to identify the bleeding obvious.

So lazy drunk fat bitch lashing out at average Joe and Joe using reasonable force to defend himself does not equal man on woman domestic violence. In just the same way that if you come to my house with a weapon to rob me, I will kill you, and I probably go to prison for it.