Here Come The Cavalry!
I was surprised to see this phalanx of Police motor-cyclists today at the Angel.
Here Come The Cavalry!
I assume they were trainees or on some sort of exercise, as there didn’t seem to be much crime about.
The Long And Short Arms Of The Law
I suspect this picture shown in the Mirror and The Times, will make its way round the world.
The story is already in the Australian under the headline, “Big Police Guard Over Queen” and on this other Australian site with a picture.
I’m even a couple of centimetres or so taller than the shorter policeman. And I’m not that tall!
I suppose though the story is one of those classic page fillers with a good feel and an excellent picture, for which newspapers and web sites are always looking.
Children In Trouble
I’m just watching a recording of the BBC documentary; The Railway.
In one section, they have to go and tell a mother, that her son has been hit by a train and killed.
I might not have been a saint, but one incident in my life made my mother think the worst.
I’d been driving back to Liverpool University in my faithful Morris Minor; VKX 156, when just before Peterborough, a guy in the slow lane of the northbound A1, decided he needed to turn right. But he missed the turn and was hit fair and square by the car in front of me. I would have gone right into him, but for the quick thinking of another driver in an Austin 1800 in the slow lane, who slowed and waved me through in front of him. I then pulled directly on to the verge as I thought things would now go seriously wrong. They did, but not around me, as the car that caused the accident bounced across the central reservation of the dual carriageway and then hit someone going south.
The Police turned up some minutes later and I gave a detailed statement about what had happened.
Nothing further happened until that summer, when I was on a boating holiday on the Thames, when a Police Sergeant turned up at our house around midnight and said I was wanted in Court in the morning to give evidence about the accident.
Seeing him there, had given her an awful fright, as she thought I’d fallen in the Thames or a lot worse.
Obviously, that hadn’t happened, but it does show the sort of reaction expected, when something serious happens.
I know the heartbreak of losing a child, so we should all take care.
I certainly do, as best as I can, after all I’ve been through in the last few years.
It’s A Pig Of A Job, But Someone’s Got To Do It
I saw this story about a pig being used to train firefighters, in The Times, but it is also here in the Daily Mail.
I’m reminded of the time C and myself caught an escaped pony and Suffolk Police turned up as they had had reports of damage to flower beds being caused by the escapee. At the time, the police used Escort vans for local officers and we almost convinced him to put it in the back to take it to the station.
So perhaps, animal training is something that is now more common with the Fire and Police Services.
A Korean Police Car
There was a time, when the Police always had British made vehicles.
A Korean Police Car
Not any more! But then a trip to Seoul is much more interesting than one to Ellesmere Port to see them being made.
This Policeman Isn’t Fat!
This policeman, who the Mail claims is at the heart of the Plebgate affair, was virtually told he was fat on Radio 5 this morning in the Double Take program.
If I were to be his size, I’d consider myself obese. No wonder he has to carry a gun in his job. He wouldn’t be able to run after the average criminal. Even in my state, I might even be able to outrun him over a hundred metres.
David Mellor On Plebgate
There was an interesting non-meeting of minds on Double Take this morning, when David Mellor and a representative of the Police Federation clashed. Perhaps the most interesting part was when Ken Macdonald, a former DPP and probably not a Conservative supporter, was quoted as saying that the Police were the last unreformed public service.
The Police needs to sort itself out and top of the list are these questions of mine.
1. Why do the Police not have to go through annual medicals to see that they are fit for the job?
2. Why are the Police involved in incidents such as shootings, not cross-examined by lawyers for others involved?
3. Why do we have so many ranks? Especially, as various reports have recommended simplification?
4. Why do Police officers always seem to be rushing around in cars, making a lot of noise?
5. Why in Lancashire, when I ask directions of an officer, they inevitably say, they are not from round these parts.
6. Why when any reform is suggested, do the Police always say no?
I could add a lot more, but I don’t want to spend time, assembling the evidence. Or is it making the evidence up?
On the subject of Plebgate, I asked a human rights lawyer, who is not a supporter of any political party, what they thought about the affair. They just shrugged their shoulders and indicated these sort of cases go on all the time.
Were The Pigs Telling Porkies?
In the case of Plebgate, it certainly seems that some are being economical with the truth, just as the police were after Hillsborough.
We will probably never learn the truth about this. I just suspect that both parties might have been tired after a hard day and something said out of turn by one side just escalated.
I’m lucky in that I’ve never had a confrontation with the police and have only been threatened with arrest once. That was incidentally, when I was about eighteen and I was hitching home with a bag with my clothes in it. I was having bad luck with lifts and was walking through Elstree about two in the morning. A beat officer wanted to check my bag and initially I said no. Only when I was threatened with arrest did he get a look at the dirty washing, I was taking home to my mother.
A Bank Robber Stuck In A Groove
Apparently, the same bank robber has robbed the same bank twice in five days. It’s here in the Manchester Evening News. this is a paragraph.
Detective Constable Jeanette Lamb, of Stockport CID, said: “The offender has struck at almost the same time of the morning, using a strikingly similar method and wearing an identical outfit so obviously we believe the same person to be responsible for both robberies.
He certainly seems to have found a modus operandi that works.
More Savile and Fallout On The Phone-In
I’m getting sick to death with the problems of an eccentric and the troubles he left behind.
Usually, I listen to the phone in on Radio 5. But today, I’ll do my shopping early and have a coffee.
On another subject, my father was abused by the Police in the Battle of Cable Street. Who do I complain to?
Some things are better forgotten. We should pass on after making absolutely sure they won’t happen again!
The Anonymous Widower 