Great Britain's Police: Government is 'criminalising middle England'

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | May 14, 2007 | John Steele

[Stoat]

Government is 'criminalising middle England'

By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
 

Last Updated: 5:21pm BST 14/05/2007

 

 

 

Rank and file police leaders have criticised the Government for imposing a target-driven culture on officers which has led to "ludicrous" decisions, such as arresting a child for throwing cream buns at a bus.

The Police Federation of England and Wales said judging officers on the number of arrests, cautions and fines they achieved was causing them to "criminalise middle England", by taking action on minor behaviour which would have been dealt with by discretion and common sense a decade ago.

On the eve of its annual conference in Blackpool, the chairman of the Federation, Jan Berry, released a dossier of absurd cases.

These include:

• A Cheshire man who was cautioned by police for being "found in possession of an egg with intent to throw"
• A child in Kent who removed a slice of cucumber from a tuna mayonnaise sandwich and threw it at another youngster was arrested because the other child’s parents claimed it was an assault
• A woman in the West Midlands arrested on her wedding day for criminal damage to a car park barrier when her foot slipped on her accelerator pedal
• The child in Kent who was arrested for throwing buns at a bus
• A 70-year-old Cheshire pensioner - who had never been in trouble with the law - who was arrested for criminal damage after cutting back a neighbour’s conifers too vigorously
• Two Manchester children who were arrested under firearms laws for being in possession of a plastic toy pistol

  A major theme of the conference will be whether judging officers on arrests, cautions or on-the-spot fines is undermining the criminal justice system and taking the focus off more serious, less easily-solved crime.

  A spokesman for the Federation, which represents 130,000 rank-and-file officers, said the power to use discretion should be returned to the officer on the beat.

  "We have got into the situation where everyone is so busy chasing targets and securing ticks in boxes we are on the verge of distancing ourselves from middle England."

  Ms Berry added: "We have police officers who are considering leaving the service over this because it is not the job they signed up to do. These examples we have compiled are ludicrous but when people are being pushed to show results they will use anything they can to demonstrate they are doing a good job."

  "Just talking to people and giving them a few words of advice cannot be counted as easily as a ticket can be. But sometimes it is just as effective as taking someone to court."

  She will raise the issue with the outgoing Home Secretary, John Reid, when he attends the conference on Wednesday.

  The conference will also hear a withering attack on the senior management of the police service from a newly-elected woman leader of the Federation’s 108,000-strong constables section.

  Julie Nesbit, an officer in South Yorkshire, will say: "The police service lacks proper leadership and direction from the Association of Chief Officers (Acpo), to such an extent that the service is facing a slow and painful melt down. It is astonishing that our police chiefs are in such disarray and the general public will be the victim."

  She predicts "more undetected crime, fewer calls answered and communities who will increasingly point the finger of blame at my members. The public see fewer constables on the streets today even though the Government claims that numbers are up."

  Miss Nesbit will ask whether the public realises "that, in the detection of crime, it is planned that detective constables will be asked to manage a much bigger caseload by instructing civilian staff to carry out the spadework both in the office and on the ground?  

  "This plan is a charter for criminals across the nation to run rings round inexperienced 'Hercule Poirots’ without having to face the prospect of meeting a genuine police detective."

  There are also fears among rank and file officers that there is a significant loss of experience in the modern police service.

  A study by the magazine Police Review, published at the weekend, shows that more than 40,000 officers in the 43 forces in England and Wales– almost one third - have less than five years’ service.

[Stoat]

From the article:

 

• A Cheshire man who was cautioned by police for being "found in possession of an egg with intent to throw"
• A child in Kent who removed a slice of cucumber from a tuna mayonnaise sandwich and threw it at another youngster was arrested because the other child’s parents claimed it was an assault
• A woman in the West Midlands arrested on her wedding day for criminal damage to a car park barrier when her foot slipped on her accelerator pedal
• The child in Kent who was arrested for throwing buns at a bus
• A 70-year-old Cheshire pensioner - who had never been in trouble with the law - who was arrested for criminal damage after cutting back a neighbour’s conifers too vigorously
• Two Manchester children who were arrested under firearms laws for being in possession of a plastic toy pistol

(snip)

 

"We have got into the situation where everyone is so busy chasing targets and securing ticks in boxes we are on the verge of distancing ourselves from middle England."

(snip)

Julie Nesbit, an officer in South Yorkshire, will say: "The police service lacks proper leadership and direction from the Association of Chief Officers (Acpo), to such an extent that the service is facing a slow and painful melt down. It is astonishing that our police chiefs are in such disarray and the general public will be the victim."

**************************************************************

I would suggest that their Socialist Overseers have merely done what Socialists do best, which is micromanaging populations from afar without any particular understanding of the dynamics of the populations,

Hopefully these problems can be addressed before there is a massive public backlash.

[VaBthang4]

"The Police Federation of England and Wales said judging officers on the number of arrests, cautions and fines they achieved was causing them to "criminalise middle England", by taking action on minor behaviour which would have been dealt with by discretion and common sense a decade ago. "

Liberalism...coming to a street near you.

[Vaquero]

the same crap is happening here in the good old US of A.

in the words of Jack Nicholson as the Joker.

“This town needs an enema”

[Stoat]

"The Police Federation of England and Wales said judging officers on the number of arrests, cautions and fines they achieved was causing them to "criminalise middle England", by taking action on minor behaviour which would have been dealt with by discretion and common sense a decade ago. "

Liberalism...coming to a street near you.

The Left looks at these concerns and wonders what the problem is, other than not enough boxes to tick and ludicrous arrests being made.

"The Police Federation of England and Wales said judging officers on the number of arrests, cautions and fines they achieved was causing them to "criminalise middle England", by taking action on minor behaviour which would have been dealt with by discretion and common sense a decade ago. "

Liberalism...coming to a street near you.

[VaBthang4]

"the same crap is happening here in the good old US of A."

Oh no it isnt you dummy.

But once the control freak, do gooder Liberals get a lock on power...slowly but surely, then it will be.

[2banana]

How did England get to this point?

“Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace - and I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live. At least awhile. And, dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
—Mel Gibson as William Wallace, speaking to the Scots - outnumbered three to one - on the battlefield at Stirling Bridge, A.D. 1297. (Braveheart, 1995)

[Bigh4u2]

“Oh no it isnt you dummy”

Really?

“9-year-old arrested for waving toy gun”

http://www.zwire.com/site/10419957.html

[Bigh4u2]

How about this one?

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/638643/posts

[Stoat]

How did England get to this point?

Putting the Left into positions of power provides this sort of result (and oftentimes much worse) wherever it's done.

[Oberon]

Power is not a means, it's an end.

-- O'Brien, 1984

[riverdawg]

“the same crap is happening in the good old US of A”

“On no it isnt you dummy.”

Alas, it has been here for 20+ years. Conduct, especially by boys, that in the not-so-distant past would have been given a stern reprimand by teachers or the police (or a good, old-fashioned parental butt whipping) a generation or two ago is now more often adjudicated in the juvenile justice system. Unfortunately, there is not a clean ideological divide on this; politically correct liberals and law n’ order conservatives have formed an unholy alliance to criminalize trivial incidents.

[agere_contra]

How did England get to this point?

As you no doubt know, England is ruled by socialists solely because of the votes of the Scots, tied to England's coat-tails by James II (IIRC). So the quote from Braveheart is a masterpiece of irony :0)

[Bigh4u2]

“13-Year-Old Arrested In School For Writing On Desk”

http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/schools_13_yr_old_arrested_for_writing_on_desk.htm

Really ‘hardened criminal’ there./sarc

And there’s a lot more. Just google it.

[rednesss]

Sadly I would have to say it is the zero-tolerance conservative whitey-tighty crowd that is pushing this. The “we need to get tough on crime” crowd is a card carrying member of the RNC. Remember it’s the liberals that want to let everyone out of prison or so I’ve heard.

[rod1]

Is Middle England anything like Middle Earth?

If the Walsings are criminalized at the drop of a hat, I would hate to think how they must treat the Niberlungens.

[Dead Corpse]

Oh no it isnt you dummy.

Yes, it is you microcephalic moron. Ever hear of "zero tolerance" policies? Kids arrested for having plastic 1" toy guns on their keychains? Kids arrested for bringing a nail file/clippers to school? Women being forced to drink their own breast milk before boarding a plane?

You obviously haven't been paying attention...

[Vaquero]

he pal Up-yours.

Every time time a kid gets suspended or expelled from school because he makes his fingers into a gun and goes bang.

Every time someone is arrested and/or convicted of a hate crime.
(read that as a thought crime).

Ever time someone is kicked out of school on gay appreciation day because they are wearing a traditional family T-shirt.

Every time a border guard gets a prison sentence for shooting and armed drug smuggler.

it is more than just the harbinger of the beginning of the crap that goes on in Britain, it is the same thing.

Look around you at all the illegals mexicans, and the legal/illegal islamofacists surrounding us and if you were to do something to correct any one of thousands of injustices that they perpetrate upon this nation, it would be you that would be in the slammer, not them.

[JamesP81]

Unfortunately, there is not a clean ideological divide on this; politically correct liberals and law n’ order conservatives have formed an unholy alliance to criminalize trivial incidents.

Sad but true. From what I've seen right here on FR, 'law and order conservative' is a nice term for 'nanny/police statist'.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I would suggest that their Socialist Overseers have merely done what Socialists do best, which is micromanaging populations from afar without any particular understanding of the dynamics of the populations,..

Very untrue. Socialists manage populations knowing the law abiding compliant citizen will put up with this crap. They also know not to try and enforced it on Blacks and Muslims because of the reaction and noise it generates. The natural outcome is to enforced petty stuff against the compliant citizen and turn the other way so as not to cause a disturbance or face danger enforcing real crime. The socialists know this. They do it with the idea of they, the socialists, will garner greater political power which leads to payoffs, pensions, and graft. They do it for themselves.

The cure, create bigger disturbances than the Blacks and Muslims.

[JamesP81]

microcephalic moron

I need a new keyboard.

I have to remember that one.