If You Want To Know The Time, Bash A Policeman

Violence against police in the US has been around so long it's almost a cliche. It's been around a long time in the UK as well but this is appalling:

The amount of police time lost to sickness because of violent assaults on front line officers rose sharply last year, new figures have revealed. The total time lost was about 37,000 days in the year to March 2007, 15 per cent higher than in the previous year. The lost time cost the taxpayer around £3 million.

Closer to home:

THREE police officers who were attending a disturbance have been injured on the Gold Coast in an alleged attack by a couple... The male officers attended a disturbance on Orchid Avenue shortly before 4am (AEST) today, arresting two men for public nuisance.

...while the officers were waiting for transport, a group of people surrounded them, with one man allegedly punching an officer in the face. The officer used capsicum spray on the man, who then fled down Cavill Avenue before being tackled by a second officer... the man struggled with the officers, prompting his girlfriend to allegedly smash a bottle over the back of one policeman.

Meanwhile:

Suicides in prison rose by more than a third last year and more than doubled for women, new figures show.

I don't buy the 'overcrowding' excuse offered by penal reformers in the UK where this report comes from.

Flagrant disregard for the law - both as a concept and as the copper you'll bash for arresting your boyfriend but call for help when your boyfriend's bashing you - and an inability to deal with the consequences of one's behaviour:

Nearly half of those who committed suicide were awaiting trial or sentencing.

...indicate a society that has deep problems.

-- Nick

Serious Enough For You Now?

If only the cops had bothered to go deal with a small crime:

Resident Robert Henry called police about 9pm to complain about a trail bike rider riding up and down the street without headlights or a helmet. "They sounded a bit disinterested, really," he said. (emphasis added)

...they mightn't have been having to deal with a serious crime:

... police were called to a disturbance there shortly after midnight. A 17-year-old male... was found in the front yard with severe stab wounds to his chest. Ambulance officers tried to revive him but he died at the scene.

Of course, zero tolerance wastes already scarce resources.

-- Nick

Softly Softly

Crime no longer warrants vigorous police attention:

...car theft, or suspicion of it, is not in itself a serious enough offence to put the community at the increased risk caused by a pursuit... benefit of chasing an offender for traffic or driving offences would hardly ever outweigh the risks.

In future, criminals will be asked for their cooperation:

In a new scheme to be rolled out statewide, police will visit or write to repeat offenders asking them to come forward and seek help.

-- Nick

You Are Charged With Reporting A Crime

Earlier this year, a TV documentary called Undercover Mosque exposed Muslim preachers in the UK celebrating the death of a British soldier in Afghanistan and calling for the establishment of sharia law in Britain under which women would be hit if they didn't cover up and homosexuals would be 'thrown off the mountain' or crucified.

As a result of all this, people, including, I believe, local MPs, asked the police to investigate the preachers to see if prosecutions for crimes of racial hatred could be brought against them. C4 (the broadcasting TV station) itself did not ask for these investigations, but co-operated with police inquiries.

But then, on Wednesday, without any warning to Channel 4, the CPS and the West Midlands police issued their fatwa. Not only had they investigated, and decided, as they were entitled to do, that there were no charges to bring against people featured in the programme: they also announced that they had investigated the programme itself for stirring up racial hatred.

Again, they had decided not to press charges. But, said West Midlands police smugly, they had pursued the making of the programme "with as much rigour as the extremism portrayed within the documentary itself". They had concluded that comments had been "broadcast out of context" and so they and the CPS had complained to Ofcom (the UK television regulator).

London Telegraph reporter Charles Moore asks of the West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service:

Are they fit to protect us?

The answer is kind of obvious.

-- Nick

Oppressed Man Complains

A British Muslim arrested and questioned in the plot to kidnap and behead a soldier thinks he lives in a police state:

The released men’s solicitor, Gareth Peirce, said: “They have left the police station without any better understanding of why they were there than when they first arrived seven days ago.

Perhaps it was his membership of a deranged death cult.

Other cult members demand better behaviour from the cops:

Allah Ditta, of Ludlow Road mosque in Alum Rock, where four arrests were made, said: “The police must do their homework and be very sure before they arrest anybody..."

Will after they have a body with a head on its chest be sure enough?

-- Nick

Another Day In La La Land

Allegations of an assault by police that led to riots in an Aboriginal community have been found to be false:

In the CMC's report yesterday, Mr Bell told investigators that a member of the Aurukun Community Justice Group, Martha Koowarta, had asked him: "I think them two coppers were hitting you, hey?" Before being asked this question, he had spoken to members of his family and staff at a local medical clinic, none of whom were told police had struck him. "On the contrary, he told them that his brother had hit him," Mr Lambrides said.

That's ok though - Queensland Premier Peter Beattie will have the coppers charged anyway.

-- Nick