22BUK

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times:

When the police in Lincolnshire were informed last week that a cow was wandering freely around the town of Grantham and had taken up residence in a local authority car park without paying, this is what they did.

First, they evacuated a nearby school, moving the pupils to a safe distance; a safe distance from the cow. Because you can’t be sure with cows, can you? Strange and dangerous creatures.

Then they imposed a Total Security Zone around the cow, much as we imposed on Iraq prior to invasion. Then they brought in the sharpshooters, the armed response unit. These brave men crouched, quite near the cow, with high-velocity rifles and, after taking careful aim, they fired and allegedly missed. They deny this. Maybe it was a small cow, I don’t know. It was a belgian blue, if that means anything to anyone.

But, reader, they persevered! “Eat lead,” they may or may not have shouted as the next fusillade rang out, bringing the cow to its knees and then onto its side, mooing plaintively. Problem solved. No more Rogue Cow In Grantham misery. Instead: dead cow. You don’t mess with the Lincolnshire police, OK? Moo.

The police have two modes of approach these days. There is either complete inaction — such as when you have been burgled, or your son has been relieved of his iPad by a knife-wielding yoof, or when local ethnic-minority people are suspected of having groomed and raped young girls and the police don’t want to be accused of cultural insensitivity.

Then there is the other approach, which switches on immediately they think they’re being watched by the rest of us and that there’s the chance for a bit of grandstanding. Then, in that case, it’s overkill, a costly overreaction.

Take, as an example, the portentously named Operation Yewtree, the police attempt to round up every BBC light entertainer from the 1970s who wasn’t already dead, on suspicion of some sort of historic noncing of (largely) young women or girls. Beaming with salacious pride, some senior copper would announce to the press that very soon they would be arresting some extremely famous people over undisclosed alleged crimes.

And so they did — Jim Davidson, Dave Lee Travis, Freddie Starr — and another famous entertainer who has yet to be named — and so on. All subjected to that familiar and humiliating business of the Old Bill arriving at six in the morning and carrying personal belongings away in black bin liners with looks of grave seriousness. The slebs distraught, pleading innocence to the press. A plea that, in the main, would seem to be entirely justified, as the overwhelming majority of people arrested via Operation Yewtree are not, it seems, to face charges of any kind.

In other words, they could be quite innocent, even if they are now fixed in the public mind as being some sort of sex criminal . . . no smoke without fire, y’know. All this because the police didn’t bother to investigate Jimmy Savile and now feel the spotlight is shining down upon them.

The same is true, to a slightly less spectacular degree, with their arrests of journalists who were suspected of hacking people’s phones, or passing a few quid to the police for information. Loads of arrests and few charges. The police feel the heat of public scrutiny and seem to go doolally, losing sight of the point.

It’s not just the cows that cop it when the police forget why they’re really there.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/...cle1238199.ece

Sti Addict

All you ever do is post a crap thread then disappear.

Pr1ck.

RA Dunk

Well if you know he posts crap then don't read them....

duhhhh

urban

iTrader: (1)

Tidgy

wish pissy ps lewis would do that,,,, hahahaha

Graz

Bit harsh isn't it, are you a police officer perchance?

Sti Addict

Well if you hate scoobynet so much what are you doing here? duhhhh

RA Dunk

Who says I hate it? you been on the crack today or something?

CrisPDuk

You must be dibble

Personally I would say it's a pretty accurate summing up of the public's perception of the police 'service' these days

22BUK

So would I, which is why I posted it.

Felix.

Yes, blame the police for it all going wrong a naming and shaming.

The press having nothing to do with it. The police kind of force them to write front page articles to ‘name and shame’ even before the investigation begins.

And selling papers and making money off the back of it all has nothing to do with it – no no, the press are providing a valuable service...........

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

The police have a public relations problem because most of them are tossers who speak to all but their own like they are something they've stepped in.

Then their perception of themselves is that they are all tip top they all do a hard but fantastic job.

The ones I have had dealings with of late have been complete *******. No grey area, full on *******. All with dreadful attitudes. Innocent until proven guilty seems to be a thing of the past with these clowns.

Bring back the old school bobby.

CrisPDuk

Nobody is saying the press aren't as bad, if not worse, but surely you aren't defending all the coppers taking backhanders from and tipping off journalists

Felix.

Not at all, they are greedy people in walks of life. But are you saying that the press don’t not need to have any form of moral obligation not to vilify people (celebrities) at the very beginning of an investigation

Felix.

As in Gene Hunt style......

CrisPDuk

I absolutely believe the press must have some form of moral code imposed upon them, by statute preferably, since they (like several other supposedly respectable professions these days) have proven beyond all doubt to not be in possession of their own

Luan Pra bang

Back to the point why shot the cow instead of putting it in the back of a livestock truck and returning it to its owner ?

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Indeed, we had a virtually identical incident just a few months ago, barely half a mile from where I live, and they managed to catch the beast no problem.

The ironic part of course is that once recaptured it was led straight back to the abattoir it had escaped from in the first place, and in all likelihood turned into burger by sundown the next day

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19703645

Leslie

I find it very hard to believe that they were such a load of murdering plonkers that they felt they had to shoot the poor cow instead of getting hold of a farmer to load it up and keep it safe until the owner turned up.

How could they possibly feel proud of getting a squad with high powered rifles to shoot when it was only standing in the car park? The poor creature did not even die instantly but was obviously in pain while they were shooting at it incompetently!

They deserve the strongest possible castigation for their particularly stupid actions.

Les

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

I agree

I got pulled yesterday on the M62 / M60 for going past a cop car at 71mph I kid you not. On the outside, not cutting in and out of traffic etc. He actually said to me that it would not stand up in court I was speechless

Leslie

I reckon the best description is "jumped up"! Or even "drest in brief authority"

Les