The Zohan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/ma...ce-swoop-poole

Uniformed officers in squad car dispatched to confront family in Dorset after tip-off about actions of girls aged four and six

Surly a waste of police time and money!

dpb

I think iv found the informant

http://www.eyeonspain.com/images/blo...tormeldrew.jpg

Maz

iTrader: (34)

Morning Paul. It's a sad state of affairs isn't it?

legb4rsk

I think the parents of 4 & 6 year old girls should keep a closer eye on their kids. To not be aware of what they are doing every minute they are in a public park is negligent.

MrJim

just what is this country coming to pity the old bill havent got something better to do

ScoobyWon't

I can't see a four and six year old setting up a stall to sell the flowers.

The Zohan

Agreed, no common sense used at all and not a good PR day for the police either!

ScoobyWon't

It's not the bad PR, it's the fact that it's not an offence, nor could a four or six year old be criminally responsible.

Whoever phoned it in needs a slap on the wrist for wasting police time and the numptie who took the call and graded it needs retraining.

TinyTim

iTrader: (3)

Local story.

All the trolls that frequent the local paper's website pointed their fingers at the parents.

TinyTim

iTrader: (3)

The numpty that phoned it in happens to be a local councellor... say no more

ChefDude

i read that the girls weren't just picking a few, they were ripping them up.

in my experience, the parents would have told the groundsman to **** off. i can see why the police got involved. pure vandalism and the fault of the parents.

The Zohan

Yup, daff's often lead on to alcohol and drug abuse, those girls may end up selling themselves in front of the local florist for a bunch of flowers and a bottle of Bacardi Breezer!

I just hope the police can round up this bunch of reprobates, lock them up and throw away the key http://www.parliament.uk/business/ne...-school-visit/

boomer

I think that the significant part of the "Act" is "from a plant growing wild on any land".

Seeing as this is a council owned park, one would expect that the daffodils would have been planted at council-tax payers expense - so are not wild.

Nevertheless, it sounds like a poorly handled situation - should have just got the Parky to turn a hose on the little girls

mb

Scooby Soon!

what's the difference between pulling flowers up in the park or pulling flowers up in your front garden?

ask your self this... if some kids walked past your house and pulled out 20 or 30 flowers each from your front garden would you be happy?

My daughter would never pull up 20 or 30 flowers from anywhere and she is only 3 and half years old, I would imagine if anyone had said to the bloke do your know your kids are pulling up all the flowers he would have said "my kids can do what ever they want" followed by "im gonna ****ing stab you" etc etc

stilover

I must say, I do agree.

The flowers are there for everyone to enjoy. If everyone picked the flowers, there would be none left.

I was going to say, maybe a Council Gardener should have been dispatched to ask the Parents to prevent the children picking the flowers. But this would, as Scooby Soon says, involved the dad becoming all agressive.

speedking

If the plants are considered wild then you can pick flowers but not take the entire plant:

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

It was witnessed by a local councillor.

Should he have confronted the girls? No, they were too young, may have been frightened, may have run home to parents with a story of a man telling them off, parents go mad, OR, they tell him to fek off and what does he do then?

Should he follow them home in order to speak to parents?

NO way: "this man has followed us home daddy." Wack!
It's a no-win situaution these days with someone else's kids

So does he ignore it?

What, and risk someone ELSE having seen it and, worse, seen that HE saw it? No chance.

He did the right thing.

The police did the right thing in seeing the parents: the children WERE stealing council property. They may not have known any better....but they do now;(

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

Couple of years ago, I was out walking with my daughter (then aged 4 or 5 years) near our in-laws. Country roads etc, and along an embankment was huge long line of daffs. Not on anyone's lands, so no doubt the council owned this. I doubt they had planted these as it was the middle of the country and not a park with a flower bed or anything. I would think the most the council did to maintain that verge was to send a tractor with one of those mower/strimmer articulated things every couple of years.

She wanted a couple of the flowers and picked them. I didn't object and she did ask me that time. But she's known for picking flowers regardless and gets told off regularly for it (eg walking down the road and picking overhanging flowers). Malicious? No, she genuinely likes them and they used to get put in her room in a small vase with water (until that was knocked over).

Get back to the in-laws and the f-in-law says how there was a sign up, non official, just a small wooden board put there by someone in the village, saying don't pick the flowers.

Right or wrong? Dunno, but clearly the inbred villagers didn't like people picking them.

Spoon

Apparently it is illegal to pick cultivated plants in this country. It was discussed on the Wright Stuff this morning.

The little búggers are clearly being brought up in an incorrect manner and something needed to be done to hopefully educate them where their thick parents are failing.

As said by Alcazar, approaching them yourselves would be risky given what you could be accused of. Approaching the parent/s directly would be the way for some, but not all, again given the possibilities of an unfavourable outcome.

Phoning the Police was the option chosen by the witness and clearly it worked. Yes it might appear over the top but the Police responded and sorted it. That can't be a bad thing if it means informing somebody right from wrong and indeed what is against the law.

Chip

If they were little pikeys they would.

Chip

Spoon

Regardless, Chip, it's a mute point. The flowers weren't wild as our resident plod suggested from his copy and paste.

boomer

According to the Mirror...

...which is vandalism rather than Mumsies (she owns a property maintenance business, dontcha-know) innocent "went to play in the daffodils." explanation.

Yup, hose the lot of 'em

mb

jonc

The witness called expecting PSCO to deal with it, but instead 2 constables turned up. Hopefully those kids will grow up with more respect for authorities. It's just typical of some people for not taking responsiblity of the action of their kids and rather than admitting blame to divert it from themselves.

The otherside of the story:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/gu...ng-daffodils/#

In the comments:
"Did anybody listen to Mr Adams on Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2? He stated that a member of his family spoke to the Errington-Marengos, but they were told where to go in direct terms (I think we can all guess the language used). The family continued to pick the flowers, at which point the police were called."

Leslie

I can only think that they have a special target to tick for people picking wild flowers so no wonder they rushed out there in a squad car. Of course when you think about it, it was a fairly safe "crime" for them to attend, not much chance of a couple of little girls attacking them.

Maybe next time they will do the job properly and call out the armed section to defend them as they nick the children.

I really hope they get the maximum publicity for such nonsense and that their embarrassment is total!

They really seem to have lost their way when it comes to dealing with the public these days!

Les

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Wild? They were absolutely livid!

ScoobyWon't

Well if they tell him to **** off, plod can lift them for disorder (S.5). The kids still are too young to be nicked for criminal damage.

mattvortex

I think the parents should have got a bollocking for not stopping the kids from doing this.
Iam a head gardener in a public park and this time of year, we always get problems with kids just tearing the flower heads off the daffs- some years, what would have been a great display, is just green stalks, due to mainly brain dead teenagers getting kicks from pulling the flower heads off and then throwing them in the stream or on the grass

Maybe not the crime of the century but, its annoying for the staff and the general public to be deprived of what would have been a great display.

Just this morning, i went in to find the Marie Currie Daffs that were planted by family of cancer sufferers, torn to pieces by some lowlife. If the families who planted these for there loved ones, found the vandals who did this, i would completely understand if they beat the living daylights out of the ***** who did this.

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

Isn't this exactly the kind of low level antisocial behaviour which the police are all to often criticised for not dealing with?

Leslie

Do you mean picking flowers?

Les

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

Or ripping up flower beds in a public park, depending whcih side of the story you believe!