To Thinkif you walk behind me in the dark you deserve to be stabbed a bit...

[Bonesinthechocolate]

I’m a bit ruffled.

I was walking down a cut through back towards my house with my dogs last night when I heard footsteps behind me that were pretty fast and catching up to me.

I glimpsed a bloke I didn’t know dresses in dark clothes walking briskly towards me, so I ignored him and carried on. My dogs stopped for a wee so I figured this guy would go passed me, but he didn’t. He stopped and waited for me to start walking again. At this point, I took my keys from my pocket and put my stabbiest one between my knuckles with the thought that if he did jump
me, I could at least break the skin and get some DNA for the police (I realise this is a fucked up train of thought, I listen to A LOT of true crime podcasts)

Anyway, I started walking again and he got really close, so I stopped and turned around pretending the dogs had stopped to wee again and looked him straight in the face. He stopped as well and there was a definite ‘moment’, then he turned around and walked back the way he had come

When I got home I called 101 and reported it immediately in the same words as above pretty much, and the woman on the line said that in future, don’t use your keys as protection because you can get in trouble for using a weapon I said frankly, if someone was about to rape/ murder me and my keys were my only fighting chance, I’d probably risk it.

She’s talking bollocks, right?

Also, I’m fine after the incident. I was shaken but I’m sensible enough to understand one weirdo doesn’t make the world unsafe forever.

Gino what the fuck does it matter if the call taker was a civilian?? You think that means we don't know what the fuck we're talking about? And if that's the case then why would police even have civilian staff doing the bloody job

She might be right that they would charge you but I doubt a jury would convict you!

Tippexy I was out late unexpectedly in a dark coat on a dark wet night. There was just no way I could safely cross the road. If I could have done I would have done - unless of course there was a woman on that side too in which case I would have seemed very threatening to her.

I did what I could, hurried past and gave her as wide a berth as the width of the pavement would allow. I was brought up aware of my responsibilities. No woman has come to harm at my hands or ever will.

Exactly Andrew. DS is 6’, black coat and walks fast. It ‘s more for his protection than anything else. I don’t want other people’s paranoia to harm him. Because he’s never intentionally harmed anyone.

Farfrom civilians were drafted in to CAD due to falling Police numbers, the same with custody suites, and now some forces are advertising for civilian detectives. That’s why they were employed. Police used to do all those jobs.

I'm well aware of the falling police numbers, however, suggesting that the call taker was wrong because they were probably civilian is just a bit small minded. We do the job just as well as police officers.