Vocal Voices

The attacker in the Arndale centre stabbings has been detained under the mental health act.
Call me cynical, but I did roll my eyes at the news.
They've been doing this for a while in Germany. Every attack there has been put down to the attacker having mental health issues. In some ways it's probably right; would you run around stabbing people if you were sane?
But I do think it is a tactic that is being deployed to downplay the issue and to divert attention from the fact that we do have quite a lot of people in this country who don't like us overly much.
Its not an "Isl*m*c terrorism lone wolf attack" it's someone with mental health issues. We've had no background on the attacker; no ethnicity, religion, length of residency in the country etc. I wonder if we ever will?

Another cynic here.

There are mixed messages coming from Greater Manchester Police, "We do not know the motivation for this terrible attack. It appears random..."

OK, so why was he arrested on suspicion of assault and then re-arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of an act of terrorism and later detained under the Mental Health Act following an assessment "by specialist doctors".

Belt and braces or deflection? Then we get: "At this time we do not believe that there is anyone else involved in this attack but we will be constantly keeping this under review."

"We'll have increased patrols, including armed patrols, in the city centre this weekend."

It is all very wishy-washy and confused.

The police are probably just covering all the bases. All that can be read from that, I suspect, is that whoever he was, he wasn't on anybody's radar …...

I just think it's an easy option to use in a lot of cases altho some are genuinely right
Terrible world and not safe

saundra wrote:I just think it's an easy option to use in a lot of cases
although some are genuinely right. Terrible world and not safe

I think that things have always been like this, although the trouble is that they are now getting worse
because we do not now give adequate punishments to wrong doers. A staggering number of prison
inmates have served previous prison sentences, which, surely, is proof that prison life is now not severe
enough to deter ex-prisoners from reoffending.

Things will never improve until we stop listening to "do-gooders" who have turned prisons into the likes
of Holiday Camps.

I certainly think that there is an element of that, Aggers, along with weak and minimal sentencing.

And I also think that the police are focusing too much on 'soft' crime such as spats and baseless threats on (un)social media. I can remember being in places where people squaring up for a fight would say things like "I'm going to kill you" or "I'll kick your head in" and I can't recall the police ever turning up to arrest the utterers of such phrases.

Mind you the police are under great pressure from the social media obsessed 'news' media. There was a time when it would be reported that someone "said" something. Nowadays they Tweeted or were on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp or wherever and we don't just get what they said, we also get a little graphic of the words used.


See what I did there?

The other day a lead news story on websites, papers, TV and radio was about the unknown wife of someone called Rooney (footballer, allegedly) arguing on Twitter with another unknown wife of someone called Vardy (also a footballer, allegedly) over something of no consequence to anybody. It's a good job neither threatened to "punch your face in" or there would have been dozens of cops in stab vests and carrying tasers round 'toot sweet'.

I do agree about twittercrime and the hurty feelings brigade.
Also many of the Police and Crime Commissioners in charge of Police Forces are politicians, in most cases ex-councillors. There is one called Ron H.ogg in charge of Durham police.
He has called for the decriminalisation of possession of drugs and told Durham police not to pursue cannabis users or small scale cannabis growers.
So what we have here is a politician deciding what laws the police are going to enforce and which they aren't.
Can we choose which laws we obey and which we don't?

Then you look at the Extinction Rebellion protest in Leeds in which some bridges were blocked for days on end. The police referred to this as a "climate event" rather than a protest obstructing the highway.
If the English Defence league had blocked any bridges for a week they would have been arrested and banged up, no question.
So what West orkshire police were deciding here is who is going to be prosecuted and who isn't; and in my view there is a lot of political calculation in that which comes directly from the fact that they are controlled by a politician, an ex-Labour Councillor called Mark B.urns-W.illiamson.

The Wilts Police/Crime Commissioner has steadfastly refused to hold any sort of enquiry into Operation Conifer (2015-2017, costing over £1m), during which a police chief publicly said that he believed child abuse allegations against Edward Heath were "120% genuine". Those allegations were false, and the police chief was "moved on" (and later forced to resign from his new posting over an entirely different matter).

If ever there was a case for getting rid of Police/Crime Commissioners, this is it. (As it was, he got an MBE for his services in 2017. Says it all, really.)

Unfortunately the actions down the years of some police forces / areas (now services) meant that they were no longer fit for purpose and change was inevitable.

The Yorkshire Ripper inquiry, corruption of the Flying Squad, the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad tampering with evidence, Stephen Lawrence and the MacPherson report, problems with and replacement of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, they all spring to mind.

Because of those various Acts swung the pendulum away from the police and they were further weakened with the introduction of plastic Bobbies or PCSOs (2003/4?) the work was completed when the powers of Chief Constables were removed and replaced by the introduction of political Police and Crime Commissioners.

Welcome to the world of police social services.