Greater Manchester Police broke up a child’s birthday party

[Redolent]

They’ve been busy recently...

#UPDATE | Officers attended a property in #Swinton where 3 families were celebrating a child's birthday in a private garden. The homeowner has been issued with a fixed penalty notice.

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The rest of their Twitter exploits:

mobile.twitter.com/gmpolice

Draconian or justified?

I know a GMP police officer. Apparently a wedding in Oldham with 300 guests was broken up. But it's been kept out of the press because of the furore it would cause if it got publicised. We're on lockdown, by the way!

Jesus what a pointless overreaction. What a waste of police resources.

Seriously?

My 'partner' is socialising in a pub tonight. I'm not expecting him back until the early hours of the morning. We're not supposed to socialise with anyone outside our family at the moment due to the lockdown. Not sure why pubs and clubs are allowed to be open.

@Jaxhog

Jesus what a pointless overreaction. What a waste of police resources.

Seriously?

Of course it bloody is! Considering there will be something more serious not being attended to because of this

2 deaths from Covid yesterday.... and here we are rubbing our hands together with glee because a child’s party got shut down. Seriously what has happened to people? Why are we still following these draconian rules for 2 deaths a day?

Because if we don’t follow the “draconian” rules there’ll soon be a lot more than 2 deaths a day.

@halcyondays

Because if we don’t follow the “draconian” rules there’ll soon be a lot more than 2 deaths a day.

Funny because there wasn't an increase in deaths when socialising was allowed. Just cases.

My parents live in an area with additional restrictions. They have also previously been under restrictions due to living in something akin to a care home although they live in a flat within the development. I have not been able to see them since February. This week my mum who has Alzheimer's lost her sister.

If the residents of their town had followed the rules I would be able to visit. As it stands I may need to travel 200 miles to a funeral which can only have 20 attendees, stay 2m away from my parents and then travel home 200 miles.

Should people be following the rules in the places where there are extra restrictions? Hell yes! Places holding wedding receptions should be closed down, people holding birthday parties should be fined, people should be doing the right things so that cases fall, restrictions can be eased and people who really need to spend time with loved ones can.

Are the people on here who are happy with this elderly or very unwell? If not, you do know it won't kill you? The police are breaking up a childs birthday party and fining people. It's too much.

people should be doing the right things so that cases fall, restrictions can be eased and people who really need to spend time with loved ones can

Where is the incentive? You can do the "right thing" and still be in a lockdown area. There is no incentive to do the right thing at all.

If anything these lockdowns will just ensure less people get tested. Because here healthy people were encouraged to get tests and hey presto lockdown.

Serves the parents right. Manchester is going to have bigger problems if people don't rein it in for a few weeks.

I get that it's 'against the rules' but realistically this kid is probably going to be in a bubble of 60 in a week's time when they return to school, mixing with 60 families. Not sure how having 3 families over for a birthday party is riskier than that. A fine is harsh and a waste of police time.

Where is the incentive? if the whole town follows the rules at the same time for say 2 weeks, transmission will fall, cases will drop and everyone will be freed from the restrictions.

The problem comes when say 50% of people don't follow the rules, cases don't fall far enough and the people not following the restrictions cause everyone to have the restrictions extended.

It's about doing the right thing when asked to minimise transmission and get everyone out of lockdown not saying 'i'm alright Jack' and ignoring the pandemic.

While I get that this is necessary, it makes me a bit sad thinking 3 households is most likely just grandparents visiting, and sitting in the garden by the sounds of it.

Also baffles me how police have time for stuff like this when they refuse to even cme out for burglaries anymore as apparently no time for that.

It was the right thing to do. Such a shame for the children but the parents have only themselves to blame.

Its so depressing seeing people applauding this.

It's all madness.
If they'd gone to the pub nobody would have cared

It is all completely out of proportion to the numbers

@EleanorOalike

It was the right thing to do. Such a shame for the children but the parents have only themselves to blame.

I’ve been in a pub tonight and it was packed.

The whole thing had got ridiculous now

But @Luce89 that is sort of the point, if people want schools to open and stay open, they need to follow the rules. The virus will only be in the school if someone brings it in, if many families have these gatherings, which in these areas is making the rates rise, then the virus will go into the schools, and they will be closing as soon as they open.

So if people want schools to be open, they need to be responsible. So many people on MN saying schools needs to be open, we need to think of the vulnerable children, well think of them now and try and reduce the transmission in schools.

Everyone seems to be thinking backwards, well if the children are going to be mixing in schools we may as well mix together now, whereas we need to stop mixing to help schools.

@MaxNormal

Its so depressing seeing people applauding this.

I know I cannot believe the amount of people who think this is great and deserved. It was 3 families in a garden for a kids birthday FFS. Some people have lost all sense of reality. The tweet was horrible and goady, there was no need for a fine.

What @ineedaholidaynow said.

Waste of resources.

This thread is painful to read, honestly.

Someone says, “And I’m being serious... It’ll be like North Korea next!” Yes, we’re just days away from a place a UN report said had “unspeakable atrocities,” where a woman had to drown her own baby, children are starved from birth, people have to live off lizards, whole families are tortured just for watching an episode of foreign TV. www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24122854 I’m sure the civilians in North Korea would love to hear how you compared breaking up a birthday party to that.

And then we have the person who said if you’re not old or unwell, you won’t die from COVID. Either they don’t read the news or... perhaps only pay attention to Facebook bollocks instead? Because (false) Facebook posts have said that, but here’s the truth: www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-covid-19-underlying/false-claim-all-patients-who-die-of-covid-19-have-serious-health-problems-idUSKBN22V2YQ The real news has been littered with people who had no pre-existing conditions and have died. Babies. Children. Teenagers. Men. Women. Every age group. By April, they were already 5% of the COVID death toll ( www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/17/no-underlying-conditions-coronavirus-deaths-english-hospitals ) so we’ve known this for MONTHS. It is 100% false that only the ill and elderly die of COVID.

@ineedaholidaynow has the right of it.

My God, the police can't do right for wrong. Just try walking in their shoes for one day.

Child’s party one week, Granny’s funeral the next.