If you think that the US has a bad time keeping some of their police in check I wouldn’t worry too much about it - send them to the UK, the government positively advocates the police harassing people!
Jubilation for the right-wing? You would think so, but this is from a left-wing (snigger) home secretary!
Youths who persistently misbehave and intimidate others in their communities should be “harassed themselves”, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said.
She said she wanted police in England and Wales to “turn the tables” on those who would not “live by the rules”.
So she will simply say that it’s OK for the police to clip the little buggers around the ear and give them a telling off?
Don’t be silly!
Ms Smith, speaking in Westminster to an audience of professionals who deal with anti-social behaviour, announced £250,000 to fund an “action squad” which will encourage areas to better use such measures.
There could be “no excuse for inaction” while people lived in fear, she added.
Give me a break!
All Images designed by Alison Rhodes (LastingExpressions)
5 responses so far ↓
thebeadden // May 8, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I don’t know. Some of these kids are little buggers. I don’t want to lump every young adult/teen into the same mold. There are plenty more good than bad out there.
But we’ve had some bad apples in our area. The adults hands are tied. The police can only do so much. These children know it. And use it to the full extent.
What do we do about the ones that continue on the same path? Wait until they grow out of it? Wait until they do something so horrible that they finally get locked up?
I don’t have any answers. But I think if there is no harm being done to them physically, maybe harassing them back isn’t such a bad thing.
I’m no expert on children though
steve // May 8, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Haven’t the police been targeted recently in Philly? They are really pissed off no doubt.
Stonehead // May 9, 2008 at 5:01 am
Unfortunately, the British populace loathe and detest anyone under the age of 21—unless of course it’s their own little darlings who are then completely above reproach. The middle classes are the worst, but are by no means alone.
So, if children hang about aimlessly as they are prone to do, they “must be up to something”, “they’re anti-social”, society is about to collapse, and something “must be done”.
We had a ludicrous story recently about a senior police officer who said he’d been forced to move house because of anti-social youths in his street and because he felt unable to do anything about them. Never mind that the worst thing they did was sit on the fence in front of his house, and never mind that he was a police officer.
But while the Government directs police to tackle this sort of “anti-social behaviour”, its stupid targets force police to ignore genuine crime or reclassify it to non-crimes (so a ram-raid becomes a road traffic collision). At the same time, the Government’s “efficiency measures” and reallocation of resources to pet schemes and squads mean you sometimes can’t get the response you need when you need it.
I was at a play park in London when a group of youths turned up and started comparing knives. One of them upped the ante by pulling out what looked like an old but genuine Tokarev automatic pistol, loading and unloading it, pointing it at his mates, etc. I retired to a safe distance, called the police and waited, and waited, and waited. The youths eventually left and armed police arrived about five minutes later.
Police had not attended earlier as an armed response vehicle had not been available, making it unsafe for other officers to attend. Never mind the danger to the public.
This latest crackdown on “anti-social” youth is simply the desperate failings of a naked emperor trying to cover his nudity—not realising that all it does is draw attention to his bloated gut, ponderous buttocks with a serious wind problem, and a total lack of bollocks.
Stonehead // May 9, 2008 at 5:01 am
That should have been “desperate flailings”.
Will Rhodes // May 9, 2008 at 10:28 am
Health & Safety control how the police respond to people with guns and knives, Stoney. LOL
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