“It was 9.30am when I got a call from police telling me that they’d had to break into my unit so they could get upstairs.
"My immediate worry was that the unit was open, so I phoned my wife and rushed down there as quickly as I could.
“I honestly could’ve cried when I saw it. They had cut a square out of our roller shutter, smashed the glass of my door and then when they realised they were in the wrong place they cut their way into the upstairs unit.
“They told me I had to clean up and pay to reinstate the roller shutter and door, before posting on Facebook about how successful the raid was with footage of them breaking into my unit.
“It’s pretty obvious that it’s us they’re breaking into, we’re on the same industrial estate and the only ones with a board over their shutter. You can’t even get upstairs through our business, the units are separate.”
Yes, it's Essex Police. Quelle surprise...
"To pay for all the materials will be about £1,200. Apparently they’re going to now look at my damage claim, but will be speaking with the legal team.
“Of course mistakes happen, but all I want is an apology.
“I support Essex Police and all that they do, including tackling this drug operation. But not to ruin me, my business and my employees’ livelihood.”
Are they apologetic? Well....ha ha ha ha! Of course not!
An Essex Police spokesman, said: “Our enquiries into the discovery of 700 cannabis plants at an industrial unit in Canvey are continuing.
"On the morning of the warrant, Monday July 27, the officers involved were given a full briefing, which included both information and intelligence.
"Warrants are fast moving exercises and when we arrived, we discovered the building had multiple units and officers initially forced entry to a business in an adjoining unit.
"This was prior to finding the offending unit in a separate part of the building."
See? An innocent mistake any bungling gang of incompetents could make!
"We would like to thank the business for their co-operation and their support and make clear that this business is not involved in our investigation in any other way."
Then pay their claim immediately and make good the damage you caused without this doublespeak and prevaricating.
I've just been watching the latest series of Line of Duty, where the cops break into a flat and kill the man - even though it's the wrong flat. This is a case of truth being, if not stranger than fiction, sort of paralleling it.
ReplyDeleteShould be thankful they didn't shoot you. Which of course they will do to the innocent, but not to those caught redhanded.
Lions led by donkeys? My arse. Scum led by morons.
It is the behaviour like this by police, arrogant and thoughtless behaviour it needs to be said, which is causing many more normal everyday, law abiding, man on the Clapham omnibus to see and refer to the police as 'filth'.
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me that Essex Police would be damned less enthusiastic about kicking down doors and doing horrendous amounts of damage to property if the complaint was not about a weed farm, but about an Islamic Rape Gang.
Modern policing you guys!
ReplyDeleteCompare and contrast this case with the Dawn Butler cringefest. Some race hustler does a dying swan act and gets the full Lewinsky, but an actual decent member of the public gets trashed - literally and metaphorically - by a bunch of illiterate idiots and they don't give a toss.
Aside from anything else, in so far as the Filth were happy to issue footage of them 'storming a drugs farm' that they knew full well was not a drugs farm thereby sliming an innocent man, why on earth would anyone on a jury trust police evidence?
Every Police force has insurance cover for accidental damages caused during Police operations. However, like all publicly funded organisations, they have budgetary controls and will try and get the owner of the property to pay for the damage. If the Force (or the insurance company) refuses to pay, may I suggest that a small claims court summons be issued against the Chief Constable on the grounds that nothing is done without the implied knowledge and permission of the person holding that office. The subsequent publicity alone will make someone dig into their pockets.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
That's the trouble with Essex police, WC Jaded...you never please a soul.
ReplyDeleteTake some tips from Cardiff. WC 'Swallow' Dicks is notoriously keen to get to grips with all those hard tasks in the back office.
I assume the business owner was not black and didn't make the incident race-related...
ReplyDeleteShould have claimed to be gay
DeleteThose plants must have said something mean online.
ReplyDeleteAnd why do the police even post on Facebook? Is it simply to remind us they exist; a deterrent? Narcissism?
Independent thinkers should make an intensive effort to praise the disaster which is plod.
ReplyDeleteIt's so vulgar to go with the crowd but the reality of finding anything decent to say about our corrupt and murderous police 'service' is a huge challenge. Give me a week and I will get back to you, JuliaM.
"This is a case of truth being, if not stranger than fiction, sort of paralleling it."
ReplyDeleteI can believe accidents happen. It's how you address them when they do that matters.
"...which is causing many more normal everyday, law abiding, man on the Clapham omnibus to see and refer to the police as 'filth'."
Yup!
"...why on earth would anyone on a jury trust police evidence?"
Good point!
"Every Police force has insurance cover for accidental damages caused during Police operations. However, like all publicly funded organisations, they have budgetary controls..."
Except when it comes to employing a huge amount of identity politics-related stuff, of course!
"I assume the business owner was not black and didn't make the incident race-related..."
It would have been delicious if he had been!