A minibus driver was taken away for a "mental health assessment" after police stopped him as he ferried vulnerable passengers through Brentwood.Whoops!
The Community Link bus, run by Essex County Council and which transports adults needing social care, was pulled over in Western Road, near its junction with William Hunter Way, and later driven away by officers – with passengers still on board and passers-by looking on.Curious indeed.
The county council has confirmed the driver was provided through another company, Capita Resourcing, which arranges temporary staff, but failed to give public reassurances that there would not be a repeat of the police intervention, on Monday last week.Why would they need to do so? Surely this man won’t be driving for them again?
And why did this arise? Did a passenger or a member of the public raise concerns?
It seems not:
A police spokesman said: "We were called by the Metropolitan Police shortly before 3.30pm on Monday, January 16, following concerns for a 47-year-old man from East London who was driving a minibus.Even curiouser…
"Essex police officers located the minibus in Western Road, took the driver into police custody and he was later taken to a mental health assessment centre."
Neither the county council or police revealed what sparked the concerns.Which doesn’t help. Because now everyone’s free to draw their own (possibly erroneous) conclusions.
10 comments:
Was he an off duty copper moonlighting?
I suspect the bus driver was behaving strangely and someone called the cops.
Under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 if they spot someone "a bit mental" (not a technical term, you understand). They can remove them to be seen by the headshrinks.
Quite a sensible piece of legislation. Even the cops can spot a nutter sometimes and it allows them to be quietly taken away to the Men In White Coats (though they don't wear white coats these days -who does, except maybe the women on the Clinique counter in John Lewis?)
They even drove the minibus to its destination.
Nutter taken away. Bus driven to destination. Horses not frightened. No-one shot or tazered.
Good job.
I can only assume he was a patient under section who had wandered out of his secure unit and in the days following had got himself a job as a bus driver - his occupation before being sectioned - on a temp basis. He had then been traced and scooped up!
If he had been behaving like a real loon surely the article would have mentioned it.
Saying that any distinction between the genuinely mentally ill and most of the chavistocarcy is really difficult to make these days.
Hmmmm.
Missed the bit about being alerted by the Met. Puzzling indeed.
Still probably used Section 136.
Melvin's gonna love this one ..
Bet he'll thrap himself into a froth .. ;-)
I saw that Nicholson film, Ranter.
"Was he an off duty copper moonlighting?"
:D
"...and in the days following had got himself a job as a bus driver.."
It would explain a lot. A lot about the standards of public transport, that it!
Julia M,
You should be taken away in a white van. Mental health would have a field day with someone so obsessive as you.
It's not that I don't sympathise with some of what you say. It's not even that I have very strong views.
However, I read the stuff that you churn out, and it is so negative, so hateful, that it loses any credibility.
Obviously, you are a popular blogger. You have fans, and people who hang on your every word.
But, you are so negative. You rake up dirt and present it as the norm.
I live in England. I believe in people, and humanity in general. I fail to see why you pursue every small story, every incident to create a vision of a divided country.
I don't know where you get these extreme stories from and I'm not suggesting that they're not true but they are not representative. You are just being sensationalist. Most people are sane.
You are divisive. Because you want to be. I don't think you should be encouraged because we are all better than that.
Do you have any idea how depressing your posts are? It's the consistent misery, outrage and pessimism, that is hard to take.
IRL, does anybody listen to you?
Anon @ 08:34
Radiator-hugger in uniform?
I am no gambler but £50 says you are.
"I don't know where you get these extreme stories from"
Dear Anon 08:34, if actually looked at the links provided you will see that these cases, far from being unusual cases that make the national press, are in fact often from the local press, and happen so often they no longer make the nationals. Cases as detailed by JuliaM are happening up and down the country, on a daily basis. They are reality for a broad swathe of the UK today.
In my personal experience for example, a shop (not a Post Office) was recently robbed in a small quiet village close to me, firearms were used, and they got £150 and some fags. That only made the inside of the local rag. Another case - a woman I know is a foster carer. A while back she was caring for several children that were the result of a long running child abuse case, the father having impregnated the daughter several times. I have personal experience of this stuff, and I live in middle class rural England, so if you went to your local sink council estate you'd hear ten times more. A good proportion of the population, 25-30% at a guess, live lives of Hobbesian brutality, that is well documented in the cases JuliaM links to.
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