Children Arrested, DNA Tested, Interrogated for Playing in a Tree

**caravel** · 08-02-2006, 17:08

Allow me to wave my rolled up Daily Mail repeatedly while gurning somewhat menacingly...

Yea, seriously it is a stupid overreaction, but then if it was kids breaking the trees, and nothing was done, you'd have a whole lot of similar people complaining that "vandals" were getting off scot free...

The coppers probably went after an easy target, as usual, such as picking on drivers with dirty numberplates etc, etc.

**InsaneApache** · 08-02-2006, 17:14

Well plod will have a lot of time on his hands, what, with not being allowed to chase theives, muggers et al in case one of the little dears hurts himself whilst running/riding away.

My veiws on Bliar and his repressive government are well known in the backroom. Suffice to say, now that the chickens are coming home to roost, the mask has slipped. But hey, the Yanks love him. One can only hope the swine buggers off to the USA when he is prised out of power.

**Don Corleone** · 08-02-2006, 17:16

Not for nothing, but what does Tony Blair have to do with a small town police department? Don't you have local councils that see to that sort of thing?

**English assassin** · 08-02-2006, 17:45

Originally Posted by Don Corleone

Not for nothing, but what does Tony Blair have to do with a small town police department? Don't you have local councils that see to that sort of thing?

We have police authorities (West Midlands is pretty big though, it includes Birmingham) but they are not directly elected. And police forces have all sorts of perfomance indicators set centrally. What gets measured gets done. So you have the ridiculous situation where some poor lad gets the book thrown at him because his next door neighbour saw him using an air pistol in his own back garden, because thats a "firearms incident", looks good on the figures, and is a damn sight easier than catching a real gun toting criminal.

Hence the enthusiasm for a caution. That means not only did the police investigate criminal damage in this case, they got a result too. Score one for the clear up rate in the West Midlands. Citizens of Britain, you may sleep easy in your beds. Shame the statistics can't distinguish between frightened 12 year olds making a tree house and drug crazed 18 year olds smashing up a bus stop.

And of course it was Blair and not the police who decided that 10 year olds shold be subject to the full force of the criminal law.

**Vladimir** · 08-02-2006, 18:59

Originally Posted by Don Corleone

Not for nothing, but what does Tony Blair have to do with a small town police department? Don't you have local councils that see to that sort of thing?

Ok I think I have it straight: Blair's not the head of state but he controls every aspect of life. He even decides whether or not to arrest 12 year olds. He and his government are responsible for everything wrong in the UK but he's not the head of government. And because of all this, American's love him?

I guess he was responsible for having that old lady fined for feeding pigeons too.

**InsaneApache** · 08-02-2006, 20:02

Originally Posted by Vladimir

Ok I think I have it straight: Blair's not the head of state but he controls every aspect of life. He even decides whether or not to arrest 12 year olds. He and his government are responsible for everything wrong in the UK but he's not the head of government. And because of all this, American's love him?

I guess he was responsible for having that old lady fined for feeding pigeons too.

I realise that this was posted in jest; you have, however unintenionally, hit the nail right on the head.

He thinks he's the president, but Madge is in the way.

Oh.... and he was responsible for the fine, he has his mucky fingers in every aspect of UK life. The mans a menace.

**Vladimir** · 08-02-2006, 21:49

Originally Posted by InsaneApache

I realise that this was posted in jest; you have, however unintenionally, hit the nail right on the head.

He thinks he's the president, but Madge is in the way.

Oh.... and he was responsible for the fine, he has his mucky fingers in every aspect of UK life. The mans a menace.

Ahh, good. No offense intended. Just the British system of governance is a bit more, informal than I'm used to. I think your Bill of Rights equivalent spans several centuries correct?

**Crazed Rabbit** · 08-03-2006, 00:30

As I said in that thread about fining old women for feeding pigeons, the police need something to do between watching helmetless scooter thieves ride off and giving cautions to burglars.

And it makes perfect sense: they get it on the record that they've caught some criminals, without actually having to do the hard work of catching real criminals. And the time spent taking DNA samples and throwing them in cells is time not spent doing real policing.

Crazed Rabbit

**Geoffrey S** · 08-02-2006, 20:05

Read EA's post. Blair is responsible for basically setting quotas to be met in such a way that the statistic becomes more important than the actual offense.

Much the same can be seen in the screwed-up NHS. For instance, hospitals are graded on how many patients survive operations. No mention however would be made about how many of these patients were in life threatening conditions; so, a hospital that treats a large amount of cancer or burns patients would get a lower rating than a hospital that sets more breaks in bones. Again, this is due to quotas influencing the quality of the service and becoming more important than the actual service. In the case of police, this means police pursuing easy targets in favour of actual criminals.

**Red Peasant** · 08-02-2006, 20:14

Please, don't feed our god-fearing, Tory members, they do get very excited and extremely irrational at the mention of Blair.

Anyway, kids are evil, lock'em all up