…Stephen West was astonished to find himself on the wrong side of the law after he pruned a honeysuckle overhanging from next door and threw away the cuttings.Incredibly, this time, the PCSO was correct:
The 54-year-old electrician received a police caution - and a criminal record - after a Police Community Support Officer came to question him about the ‘theft’ when his neighbour complained.
He was told it was perfectly legal to snip the parts of plant on his side of the boundary wall behind his flat in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, but that he had broken the law by disposing of them in his bin instead of returning them to the owner.But a reminder of this wouldn’t suffice, oh no. Not in the days of target-driven insanity…
The PCSO then told him he faced prosecution unless he accepted a caution.At this point, anyone with a shred of nous (or who had read the late lamented Nightjack’s code of conduct for dealing with the police) would have laughed and slammed the door in the officious little twerp’s face.
Mr West - who was also told he would have to give fingerprints - reluctantly signed the documentation and now has a criminal record for the first time in his life.It's his own fault, though:
He said he agreed to the caution ‘because I’ve got better things to do with my time than take on the law’.I can sort of understand this. But, sadly, he's wrong.
'I want people to realise the absurdity of the law, the waste of police time and the stupidity of my neighbour.’They might do, they might do indeed. They might just look at you as a complete fool for accepting your fate so meekly...
The incident followed a long-running row with neighbour Michael Lawrence over access to the back of their properties.Well, that's no surprise, is it? More and more, it seems that the police get tied up in these sort of things by people who have refused to grow up and sort out their own lives , preferring instead to call the authorities to sort it out.
Once, this would fall to the police. Now, it falls to their second-class replacements...
Mr West said he had received eight visits from PCSOs in the past year over ‘trivial’ complaints.*sigh*
What are the chances that they would have tried to do him for littering if he had thrown the cuttings back over the wall?
ReplyDeleteSounds like his neighbour is a petty minded tool and if plastic plod had any sense they would have laughed at him rather than taking him seriously.
Eight visits? If people had been throwing stones at his house or pissing through his letterbox he'd have had precisely eight fewer visits.
ReplyDeleteThe Police - a paramilitary predatory force out to screw the easiest targets to meet their targets.
He said he agreed to the caution ‘because I’ve got better things to do with my time than take on the law’.
ReplyDeleteBah! All he had to do was keep his mouth shut. Instead he spent time explaining his position to the C3PO.
Look where that got him.
Best advice is to say nothing to the police ... period!
I don't understand how a PCSO can adminster a formal caution. If this chap had been cautioned it would have to be sanctioned by an inspector (or a sergeant in certain circumstances), the man would have had to have had his fingerprints and DNA taken. The causion is then logged on the PNC for three years. As I read it he never went anywhere near a police station or was subject to any of these proceedings or a proper recorded interview. PCSO's also cannot make any kind of decision regarding prosecution or charge. To have had a formal caution and therefore a kind of criminal record he would have had to eb arrested and PCSO's can't do that. He certainly has been subject to harassment by these idiots but a proper caution he ain't got. It wasn't so long ago that the complainant or 'victim' in this load of bollocks would have been told to get a life or consider civil remedies. This has fuck all to do with the police and how these idiot PCSO's got involved is a testament to the confusion, chaos and lack of commons ense that seems to exist in the Uk police service today as well as overshadowing the undoubted sheer hard work and bravery displayed everyday by real police officers dealing with real scumbags and criminals. Not a song title in sight in that lot....I hope!
ReplyDeleteI can believe it. In my Village, PCSO's are an absolute nuisance with minor crime invention. In bygone times, the main risk associated with hedge cutting was falling from the ladder but our new Idiots have introduced complications.
ReplyDelete'Brandishing sharp tools adjacent the public highway' is the Summer madness here. A cooperative Villager went as far as surrendering his shears after being subjugated by dubious legal opinion and intimidated with veiled threats.
I recommend ignoring these jobsworths whilst gardening. When compelled to engage them in conversation a simple "Buzz off" is well understood and it works fine for me.
Very sad. Our PCSO was a nice chap who helped young turds with their homework. Ranter has it right. If PCSOs do anything other than blunt Melvin's shears they should be horsewhipped.
ReplyDeleteReading between the lines and having read tabloid-watch and understood how the Daily Mail write their stories it sounds like Mr West has only been cautioned at the most. The stuff about criminal records is just the usual nonsense from a churnalist. He might well have just signed the PCSO's notebook which the churnalist's skill in writing has exaggerated to the point of making the story a total fiction with the barest smidgen of truth in it.
ReplyDelete"If PCSOs do anything other than blunt Melvin's shears they should be horsewhipped."
ReplyDeleteYou are far too soft, ACO. I would make them read your blog - twice.
I agree with Ranter. I was in the Police for 30 yrs and I do not understand what is going on now. In my opinion it is not 'dishonest appropiation' and therefore not theft if the gardener reasonably believed that the hedge owner would not have wanted the cuttings back.
ReplyDeleteNot a song title in sight, a couple of groups though, including The Police, Man and Testament
"What are the chances that they would have tried to do him for littering if he had thrown the cuttings back over the wall?"
ReplyDeletePretty good! It does rather sound as if someone's decided 'enough is enough' at Police HQ. Can't blame them, but why pick up the one, and not the other?
"Eight visits? If people had been throwing stones at his house or pissing through his letterbox he'd have had precisely eight fewer visits."
Indeed!
"Best advice is to say nothing to the police ... period!"
Until they abolished the right not to have inferences drawn from silence...
"I don't understand how a PCSO can adminster a formal caution."
Me neither.
"'Brandishing sharp tools adjacent the public highway' is the Summer madness here. A cooperative Villager went as far as surrendering his shears..."
/facepalm
"...it sounds like Mr West has only been cautioned at the most. The stuff about criminal records is just the usual nonsense from a churnalist. He might well have just signed the PCSO's notebook..."
Well, he does mention having his fingerprints taken. I can't, for the life of me, see how that would be possible unless he'd been arrested.
"Not a song title in sight, a couple of groups though, including The Police, Man and Testament"
ReplyDeleteIt would seem - pace the latest 'shock, horror, songs in evidence!' story that if you look hard enough, and don't insist on too literal a linking, you can find song titles in anything... :)
Must've called in Special Branch to deal with this heinous crime...
ReplyDelete