Suella Braverman statement about police behaviour and TRA police officer response

what are you on about? what victims? what scenario do you think all the public will be more down on the police than they already are due to the police's very own actions.

Old lady scratches cars - someone reports, the police are involved and arrest the old lady for criminal damage. No issues for anyone
Old lady - who is in a lesbian relationship i think? - takes a photograph of a sticker - police visit to warn her about her wrongthink. People rightly call the police utter idiots for going along with this.
or Old lady - who is in a lesbian relationship i think? - takes a photograph of a sticker and the police tell the people who report it that it's not a crime. So what, those people go to the press? do you think the public are going to say "boo hoo the hurty feels weren't validated by the police. Entirely correct" or are the public going to say "despite burglaries and shoplifting being low priority due to staffing levels it is ENTIRELY correct that the police intimidate an old lady"

what do you think, Felix? Just pack it in.

Brefugee

No problem - and then when she goes to the press and states "...that the police are just lazy and not helping victims again and look at how much medication I am on, how many days work I have missed, how I can't even walk down the street anymore.........."

The public will support the police........not

There will be a public outcry against them.

disingenuous twaddle again.
NOBODY has said that people who commit criminal damage, especially of several cars, shouldn't be reported and arrested. Even if they are 104.

People taking a picture of a sticker- not even sticking the bloody thing? Police should just get the fuck out of there and give the reporter a ticking off. But i am going to assume that "report was made - words were had" looks much better in the statistics than "report was made - established to be a case of 'hurty feels' (or even malicious reporting - words had with the reporter"

hard agree.

I just think they take the low hanging fruit and that's ok for them.

AlisonDonut
Little old ladies are well known for terrorising whole comunites by...taking pictures of stickers. It is literally why the police were originally formed.
You'll be surprised! We had a case of a 'little old lady' not liking cars parked on her street, so regularly scratched them as she walked past. Even got to the point where she would walk onto people's drives to do it. And these were expensive damages.

Another 'older person' who collected dog dirt from the street and assumed it was all from one house - so used to throw it on their drive. This couple didn't own a dog however. 'older person' didn't believe it and continued.

Older allotment holders who are jealous of their neighbours crop - sneak onto their plot and destroy them.

The term 'old' doesn't mean a great deal - I sometime think the older a person gets, the more childish they become.

MargotBamborough
I'm afraid I think the police need to grow some balls here and just issue a statement
I agree - and I would have probably not attended and told the complainant that it was no a police matter.

But it depends how much of a 'sob story' that the reporting person put on to the police. "....I know its only a minor thing, but its just one thing after another and its pushing me to the point of suicide. I am on strong medication and this is the straw that broke the camel's back. Can you go around and just explain to her how much distress this is causing me etc etc......."

Some cops may think - for the sake of a quick door knock, we'll keep her happy.

They don't want to risk the reporting person harming themselves (and people do for minor things such as this). And if its the reporting person's honest held belief that its causing her stress and anxiety etc etc - we can't really prosecute her for wasting police time.

It also stops her going to the press. And the police can release a statement saying that it was not a police matter - but she will just spin it to show that the police are just lazy and not helping victims again and look at how much medication I am on, how many days work I have missed, how I can't even walk down the street anymore..........

Yes, "silent prayer" is rather disingenuous, isn't it?

Even if they were silent, and neither spoke any audible words nor displayed any placards or written material, even if they simply stood there, their presence would most likely be intimidating. And that it its purpose.

If all they wanted was to silently pray for the souls of these women and their unborn babies, they could do that in their own homes or churches.

That's true, it's why they were originally called Peelers.

Will silent prayer be to do with people praying outside abortion clinics?

Has it ever been "silent" prayer. Isn't it always loud and in your face, with offensive placards waved in women's faces.

About the only type of protest I would have thought the new Public Order Bill justified.

Could have done with a bit more of a catchy quote to wow the masses. I'd have gone for "Police for Women - get in girls!!!"

They have the power and have no problem using it against stalking victims like the poor woman who was fined and cautioned for reporting her stalker who went on to murder her. Unfortunately it's a case of the police not willing to do anything about a certain demographic who waste police time and issues death and rape threats you know the things the malicious communications act was designed to deal with rather than hurty feelings from someone stating the truth, basicly it's all down to how biased the police are about applying the law fairly to all without fear or favor

Little old ladies are well known for terrorising whole comunites by...taking pictures of stickers. It is literally why the police were originally formed.

That's a brilliant letter

I'm afraid I think the police need to grow some balls here and just issue a statement saying, "This person called the police to deal with what turned out to be a sticker bearing the slogan "adult human female". Since this was neither a crime nor an emergency, valuable police resources were diverted from others who were in actual need of police assistance. We would like to remind the public that making hoax calls is against the law and a waste of public resources."

Right, but once they've attended the scene of the non crime and established that it really is just a sticker, instead of hunting down the stickerer to chastise them for their non crime, they need to throw the book at the nuisance caller.

If they need stronger powers to do this, I'm sure the current Home Secretary would be more than willing to grant them. Repeated offences should result in a criminal record, thus harming the nuisance caller's employment prospects.

We have had no training such as this

For those wondering how the police bias and choice of training organisations have affected trust eg of victims, here's an example:
https://childrenoftransitioners.org/2022/09/03/the-police-have-been-captured/

It depends on how you deal with them.

The problem being that if this reporting person phones to say that this lady has taken a photo of this sticker and it causing them distress. The call taker tells them that its "not a police matter and goodbye" - end of story.

The reporting person then goes to the press and makes out that this lady is a serial terrorist who is terrorizing their community causing stress, harassment and anxiety. They told the police their concerns and the police did absolutely nothing.

The press get hold of this and make the police force look corrupt and not dealing with a potential huge incident properly.

Therefore, the force take the option of passing the job onto a cop to deal with. That way, if there is any fall out, the force can blame that one cop for not handling the job properly.

Vexatious complainers happen a lot and they are not easy to deal with. You can't just simply ignore them all the time as you end up with the 'cry wolf' scenario.

A toxic person with lots of time on their hands and or a minor position of influence

there are many of them among the general public and I would think that services like the police deal with them a lot (I’ve only ever worked in the private sector)

which makes just how bad they are at dealing with them all the more baffling

MargotBamborough
What sort of person could give the police a hard time?

The ones that go to the press, their MP, the Chief Constable etc etc and say "... I reported a possible offence against me and the police did absolutely nothing...."

They can't do this now that we have sent someone - rightly or wrongly

MargotBamborough

I agree - any false calls should be dealt with, but often it depends on what the person's point of view is. What is merely a bit of nuisance to one person, maybe causing another person serious distress.

So in this case, the original caller may have said something along the lines of ".....I think she has placed this sticker on our poster to damage it and is doing so deliberately to cause me stress and anxiety. Its the last straw for me as we have loads of incidents like this and its now effecting my life as my anxiety has gone through the roof and I have had to go back to the doctors........... etc etc"

So the call taker has thought - "well, we better check it out in case there is something more to this". As opposed to "its only a sticker, get a grip and we are not sending anyone"

What sort of person could give the police a hard time?

It does seem likely to me that the sticker crime will have been reported by someone who is able to give that police force a really hard time, and they’ve decided it’s easier to persecute the 73 year old lesbian than say no to the cluster B personality who reported her

I’m just speculating though

Surely the point at which the police realised they had been called out over a sticker should have been the point at which they closed the file and issued the caller with a caution or whatever the punishment is for someone who wastes police time and resources by reporting things which are neither crimes nor emergencies?

Dumbo12

I agree - it comes back to what was on the original call and was it 'over egged' to get a police response. Did the original call from the reporting person elude to a crime taking place for example?

Perhaps the call taker should have said "no - we are not sending anyone". But then you suffer the wrath of the reporting person who makes a formal complaint that they have reported a possible crime and the police have done nothing to investigate it.

So it appears that they have 'erred on the side of caution' and created a job to send an officer - just in case.

But then that is what the Home Secretary is wanting by 'all crimes must be investigated'

In this the case - the call taker has judged that there may be a crime here, and created a job. You wont know if it is a crime unless its investigated.

The police end up in a 'no win' situation.

While I absolutely can see your point, in the case of West yorkshire police, they appear to have the time and resources to send 3 officers to re-educate a woman who took a photo of a sticker. They also appeared to have had the time and resources to view the cctv, and then find the woman's name and address.