You Might Be Putting Your Faith In The Wrong People...

Mr Miller wants people to report any unsavoury activity to the trust so he can build up a database of incidents and pass the information to the police.

"We may find it happens at certain times of the day," he said. "I'm hearing all these things anecdotally as I'm working but the police can't do much about it unless they catch someone in the act."

Why expect them to do anything at all? They don't seem to see it as part of their job...

What they do see as part of their job is something the public would never imagine:

At 10.30pm that night, while her boyfriend Ricky Strachan was still scouring the streets, two police officers knocked on the door.

Had they found the car? No, they had come to give her ‘words of advice’ about the way she was ‘handling things on Facebook’.

Lesley said: ‘They were all over my laptop taking screen grabs. The female officer wrote something in her notebook and made me sign it.

‘I asked them to clarify that I was still the victim here and not the criminal. She just said: “We’ve got to make sure we’ve got everything covered.”’

It's hard not to disagree that this is 'typical of the way in which the modern police ‘service’ find investigating exciting new ‘crimes’ much more to their taste than actually going out on the streets catching old- fashioned criminals', isn't it..?

Never Mind The Horses On The Pitch...

...what about the elephant in the room?

York cricketers have been left on a sticky wicket due to horses invading their pitch. Hopgrove Playing Fields, in Malton Road, are in danger of being seriously damaged by stray horses regularly getting on to the pitches, churning up the ground and leaving piles of manure, it has been claimed.

Richard Kerrison, chairman of Stockton and Hopgrove Cricket Club, said he feared the playing fields would become unusable if nothing was done to address the problem.

Now, why would 'nothing be done'?

“We have rung the council and the police and they seem to say there’s nothing we can do. It’s ruining peoples’ enjoyment.”

Gosh. It's a mystery. Who could these horses possibly belong to?

Will This Get Logan Smith Shunned By The Progressives?

In a column raging about Twitter's 'I'm not racist but...' meme, he notes:

The most disturbing thing about @YesYoureRacist isn’t the racism itself. It’s that the people I retweet - the vast majority of which appear to be teenagers - genuinely don’t understand whether they’re being racist. It’s a generation that never had to grow up during the times of Jim Crow, civil rights marches or apartheid, and has never been confronted by the institutional racism that older generations saw on a daily basis. As a result, many teens seem to think racism simply means active hatred of another race, and not the apparent prejudices and stereotypes displayed by the people I retweet.

Good grief, Logan! Are you really saying that institutional racism is no longer a problem?

Wow! Some real heavy-hitters are going to be gunning for you...

The New 'We're Just Standing Around With Our Thumbs Up Our Arses'...

Insp Brad Dickel, of Leigh police, invited the resident to call him directly with any information.

He added: “It’s something we are aware of, we’ve used a multi-agency approach and a number of enquries are ongoing.”

That's nice for you. Mind how you go, officer. Watch out for reports about lions!

" They come here because it is so colourful, exciting and lively..."

"..., but when they’ve been here for a bit they want to make it just like back home."

No, no. It's not what you think!

Stereotypically, they are hard workers, miserly, and fastidious doorstep polishers, and they have flooded the trendiest part of Berlin with yuppie residents since the fall of the city’s infamous Wall over two decades ago.

The newcomers hail from a wealthy region in Germany’s south-west called Swabia. But their presence in the capital has now provoked a furious outburst from one of the country’s leading politicians, who has accused them of importing nauseating provincialism to metropolitan Berlin.

Quite a turn-up for the books, eh?

Well, They've At Least Learnt Not To Use The Phrase 'Learning Lessons'...

Paul Dyson, independent chair of Hull's safeguarding children board, said: "The board takes extremely seriously cases which result in injuries of this kind to children. The board is aware of this case and, now that the criminal case is concluding, will consider whether any further learning is required."

Because that's always a dead giveaway...

As is the fact that - despite concerns - there was no official record:

Jon Plant, city safeguarding children manager, said: "The child was not previously on an 'at risk' register or child protection plan with Hull children's services.

"Following the incident, immediate steps were taken by professionals to remove the child and ensure their long-term wellbeing and to ensure that those responsible for causing the injuries were brought to justice."

Yes, you were very prompt after the baby was scalded with the bathwater. Pity you didn't do something before...

Health visitors and social services are understood to have had concerns about the baby in the months before it happened and had failed to gain access to see her on 12 separate occasions.

And yet, the squalor in which an inadequate young couple were bringing up a child provoked no urgency:

The Mail can reveal the authorities failed to gain access to the Bransholme house the couple were living in, despite warning signs such as 20 bags of rubbish and hundreds of soiled nappies piled high outside.

If that's 'taking cases extremely seriously', one can only wonder how they deal with the rest...

Exercise In Futility...

Cawthray, who has twice been jailed for rape, was locked up for life in 2002 after kidnapping a 14-year-old girl.

He grabbed the schoolgirl at a bus stop near Leeds and was dragging her towards a brook when he was disturbed and ran off.

A judge imposed an indeterminate sentence with a minimum recommendation of five years because of the risk Cawthray posed to young women. He was told he would not be released by the Parole Board until it was satisfied he no longer posed a risk and would then be on licence for life.

It didn't take them long to 'satisfy themselves' of his low risk potential, as he was moved to an open prison.

And....

Sean Cawthray, 41, was last seen at the prison at 5.30pm on Sunday and is believed to have absconded before 8.30pm.

Shocker, I'm sure you'll agree.

Detective Inspector Dominic Graham, of South Gloucestershire CID, said: "We are committed to locating, returning to custody and charging anyone unlawfully at large.

"Officers work closely with HMP Leyhill and other police forces to track down absconders promptly and keep any potential risk to the public to a minimum."

I guess you get a lot of practice?

It's Quite Simple, Harker: I Don't Want To Pay For You To Have Kids...

At a time of austerity, there was little sympathy for those who could be called better off, and polls showed that 85% of voters were in favour. I have five kids myself, and when I wrote that £43k is not a lot of money when you have a lot of mouths to feed, it's fair to say that I didn't get a lot of love in return.

...no, not just you personally (though I don't think we need more of you, frankly, but there's always the slim chance the kids will turn out not to be race-hustling socialists with enormous chips on their shoulders).

I don't want to pay - via tax - huge sums in child benefit to large families wherever they are and whatever they do. Simples!

And I don't want to pay for small ones either. Like this one:

I'm one of the people that will be affected by the child benefit cuts, because I earn more than £50,000 a year. I know this might sound like a large salary on its own but that is without context, and that is what this argument is missing – context. I'm a single mother and I work full-time, meaning that I am reliant on childcare. My son has Asperger's syndrome and getting him the care he needs is costly; little support is available via the NHS. In order to achieve that salary I have to live in one of the most expensive areas of the country and therefore pay a significantly high rent (buying a house is an unachievable dream).

You see, she just has to live in a nice area in London. And I just have to be taxed to pay for it.

No more. The money tap's being turned off. It's about bloody time.

No-One's Asking You To 'Speculate', Claire...

Avon and Somerset Police spokeswoman Claire Stanley said: "A thorough investigation is under way and we are exploring various lines of enquiry. However, at this stage it is too early to speculate about a possible motive for the graffiti."

Really? Even though the local 'anarchist' idiots have confessed?

In a note posted online, the anonymous group admitted targeting the front entrance, smashing windows and daubing "liberate" in graffiti on an adjacent wall.

...

The group went on to criticise the "hypocritical mind set" of zoos which "put themselves forward as champions of conservation".

*sighs*

Next Time, She Might Go Before She Leaves Home..?

Natalie Turner, of Kirkby Drive, Ripon, was travelling on the 36 bus from Ripon to Harrogate to visit a friend on December 13, when she had to get off the bus for medical reasons.

Miss Turner explained she was ill to the driver and needed to leave the bus in Ripley to use the public toilet.

Despite holding a valid £4.80 bus ticket, the bus driver told her she would not be allowed back on the bus or on the next bus if she left to use the toilet –so the 19-year-old student had no choice but to walk along the dark rural route to Harrogate in minus two degrees.

 And mum is, of course, furious. And does, of course, charge straight into the fray in the local newspaper:

Miss Turner’s mum Vikki, 46, said she is “appalled at the blatant disregard for a young girl, travelling alone, in extreme temperatures in the dark along a lonely road.”

Mrs Turner, a nurse for a GP practice in Ripon, told the Gazette: “Natalie didn’t have any cash on her and was only wearing a short skirt with tights and a leather jacket instead of a coat.”

Bit hard to see how that's something that's the fault of the bus company.

H/T: APILN