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.

[rednesss]

Not French, but if you’d bother to read the post that I was responding to, it was in regards to the situation deteriorating here in the U.S. where we do have an RNC. Try reading, it works every time.

[rednesss]

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. - Frank Herbert

[subterfuge]

Clam down and stop balming whitey.

[rednesss]

"Clam down and stop balming whitey."

??????

[subterfuge]

Where is the pic of a clam?

Clam down, get it?

You self-loathing whites are something else.

[rednesss]

"Clam down and stop balming whitey."

?????????

[CaptRon]

securing ticks in boxes

Well, I suppose I can see how that could take some time if I knew what the heck he was talking about.

[rednesss]

There. Happy????

[subterfuge]

Thank you.

[rednesss]

Happy to oblige.

[AngryJawa]

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

And risk being labeled a angry white reactionary racist militant?[/s]

You're absolutely right, of course. But this foolishness hasn't yet reached a tipping point in relation to the average American's daily life - yet.

The left surely knows the benefits of boiling the frog slowly.

[rednesss]

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

[AngryJawa]

I seem to remember reading that same passage in some dusty old history book...8^)

[Stoat]

securing ticks in boxes

Well, I suppose I can see how that could take some time if I knew what the heck he was talking about.
 

I'm pretty confident that in this case what is NOT being referred to is the collection of the vile insect that is popularly known as a 'tick' and placing it into a box, ostensibly for etymological study.

Rather, I am virtually confident that what is being discussed is a (mainly British) colloquialism for what we in the USA might refer to as "a check-mark in a check-box" , popular among Socialist paper-pushers who make long lists of irrelevancies for others to fill out mainly in order to justify their jobs.

It's oftentimes expressed thusly or with some artistic variation:

 

"a tick secured in a box"

securing ticks in boxes

Well, I suppose I can see how that could take some time if I knew what the heck he was talking about.
 

[Stoat]

etymological study.

Correction, should be entomological study.

[CaptRon]

Thanks! I hate it when I don’t get those colloquialisms! (Every time I think I’m educated I learn something else. Keeps me pretty busy).

[fortunecookie]

Conservatives want real crime punished—things like drug pushing, rape, murder, and being a leftist—while at the same time returning authority to parents and teachers to discipline juvenile acting out appropriately.

Well said, dsc! BTTT!

And lefties want to feel good about getting tough on crime, and that means creating the appearance that they are tough on something, sadly, just not 'real' crime. Too many lefties feel for the real criminals, they feel sorry for the rapist, the arsonist, the drug pusher, that they must have had a tough life and need compassion. Of course compassion for the real victim is not in their realm of feel-goodness.

[fortunecookie]

Record numbers on anti-depressants (Great Britian)

Could there be a connection? It would be depressing to watch the bad guys go free and the misdemeanor behaviors criminalized...

[Stoat]

Thanks! I hate it when I don’t get those colloquialisms! (Every time I think I’m educated I learn something else. Keeps me pretty busy).

You're quite welcome and I'm delighted to have been of some help.  I agree about learning....at the point when I decide that I've learned everything I hope that there are enough caring people around me who will shoot me and put me out of my arrogant misery   :-)

Re British slang, there are a number of GREAT specialty dictionaries for that on the internet that may be worth bookmarking.  Some of my favorites are:

BBC America - British American Dictionary

Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK

Be warned, however, that there will be many bawdy and off-color terms and expressions dealt with on these pages and so they may not be suitable for children and those faint of heart (not meaning to imply that you would fall into such a category, of course)

Slang dictionaries exist for many other variations as well, including but not limited to Australian, Irish, etc.

You can find a boatload of them by searching with such keyword phrases as "Australian slang dictionary", "British slang dictionary" etc.

[CaptRon]

Funny you should mention British slang books. I have one I bought years ago, but I doubt this would be in it. I actually bought it to write a book about an episode in American history (still in the planning stages after 30 years) which was close enough to the Revolution that I thought it would be relevant!