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 live in GM. I am absolutely fed up that ( a minority) of people cannot keep to the the rules so thousands of people that can, are under stricter measures.
It was reported on the BBC that the authorities have been able to obtain lots of information about the virus and spread as a result of having a tighter restrictions in areas such as GM and some parts of East Lancs, well that's great but I don't want to be part of some statistical gathering experiment which is how I am beginning to feel. IMO, If this was happening to other parts of the country, for this length of time there would be uproar.

I know it's against the rules but so are many things you know actual crimes .
These parents broke the law. They committed an 'actual crime'.

I do agree re the odd priority management police seem to be applying on this. I work with troubled teens. Police don't always attend a knife incident and hardly ever anything related to drug dealing, but they can fit this into their day?

My point @RockingMyFiftiesNot someone can break into your car , for example what they class petty crime but you can't actually get the police to come and see you .
This has happened to me so next time someone breaks into my car or my house instead of reporting it I'll just invite my family round they'll be round then .

@islockdownoveryet Totally agree. When a burglar broke into my gran's flat and was stood over her bed rummaging through her handbag it took 9 hours before the police turned up. Absolute fucking joke. Yet there they are at a kids party dishing out fines. I wonder if those fines are going back into the pot to try and recoup the £2 trillion we have spent on this shit show.

If people aren’t following the rules, they should expect to see consequences for that.

I feel really sorry for the child in this but it was an awful decision to go ahead with the party.

Everything stops for Coronavirus remember. Nothing is more important don’t forget.

Even crime fighting too now it seems....

That's shocking @userxx your poor gran .

Yes we've all heard it the police just haven't got the resources.
Yet my outdoor fitness group hasn't had permission from the council to exercise in the park yet others who haven't asked the council have way more that 30 together football teams , boot camps etc . A friend who reported the boot camp on the field near her to a friend who's in the police didn't want to know said it's up to the council .
Hummm

I agree it is frustrating that there aren't enough police resources and it must be very distressing to have to wait for police assistance in many circumstances. But COVID-19 is a killer, rules and laws have been brought in to try to prevent the spread. People beak these laws, then potentially more people contract the virus as a result. Of which some will die. Not sure why people don't get that.

Not sure why people don't get that.
Of course we get it .
The point is it's heavy handed police .
We can work we can go to the pub/ gym: shop . Shops have no distancing anymore .
But good god you can't have family round .
I actually do think people should follow the rules like it or not but some common sense needs to be applied .
My child has had to go to relatives because I have to work . I have invited my mum round for a brew but I'm not having parties I'm not going to parties etc .
I realise we have to be careful I'm all for the police breaking up parties but it bloody annoys me when I hear that they won't turn up for crimes stealing , robbery , assault or follow them up but turning up to a child's party to fine them is wrong .

What I don't understand is:

Police called to wedding reception, over 150 guests. Dispersed. No fines.

Police called to house parties and raves, hundreds of people. Dispersed. No fines.

Small kids party in the garden. Throw the book at her "burn the witch".

Either apply the law fairly and proportionately or don't fucking bother.

@BelleSausage
*@bingbong1970

What a huge level of maturity you’ve shown.

slow claps*

Totally agree with you Belle, they are probably one of those people who think the rules don’t apply to them and think this virus is “just a bit of flu”

@RockingMyFiftiesNot

I know it's against the rules but so are many things you know actual crimes . These parents broke the law. They committed an 'actual crime'.

I don't think it is law under 30 people is it?

@Blimeyoreilly2020

Trustthegeniegenie - you shouldn’t need an incentive to do the right thing, just a few morals and some basic humanity should be enough🤷🏼‍♀️

Basic humanity? Quite a lot of our human rights have gone out the window. When the government start treating us with "basic humanity" then maybe I'll consider it.

Tbh I'm not a massive rule breaker anyway, but I understand why people are.

@TrustTheGeneGenie in Greater Manchester and other areas subject to tighter measures this is not the case. You are not allowed to meet other households indoors or in private gardens. Legislation was passed to this effect a few days after the new measures were announced.

[quote RockingMyFiftiesNot]@TrustTheGeneGenie in Greater Manchester and other areas subject to tighter measures this is not the case. You are not allowed to meet other households indoors or in private gardens. Legislation was passed to this effect a few days after the new measures were announced. [/quote]
If that's the case then fair enough, do I still think they have more important things to do. Like crimes with actual victims? Absolutely.

Good point @LivinLaVidaLoki

I also live in GMcr and am also pissed off at the people who felt the rules didn't apply to them by holding any kind of party in a garden. It's not allowed here. The more people do this, the longer the rest of us have to remain in more tight lockdown. The people on my corner have a toddler and they also had a party for his/her birthday a week ago. Had about 20 people in the garden including grandparents. It pissed me off. Just don't, so we can all go back to being able to see our loved ones sooner.

650 reports in day!? Manchester very hot on grassing people up !
It’s fair enough, it’s against the rules and it’s a restricted measures area.
Kids parties aren’t very long though, could’ve used their discretion, let them finish blowing out the candles.
Reading though that feed, the officers don’t love doing this, but it’s their job

41000 + Covid victims have died in the UK, breaking lockdown rules isn't a victimless crime....

savetti
"Kids parties aren't very long though"
About 2 hours or so. Plenty long enough to spread covid.

In My family of 6, 5 of us including 3 kids, have had birthdays in lockdown. We didn't have parties even though 3 were milestone birthdays.
My mother is turning 80 this week but lives somewhere far enough away that we can't just visit for an hour, we have to stay over. Thanks to all the twats holding parties and raves I cannot visit my mum for her 80th even just to go sit in her garden and wave. I am not allowed in anyone's garden but my own. So yes it's more than a bit annoying.

If its not on for them to break up a childrens party (which is against the rules in that area) at what age do the guests have to be for it to be ok to break up a party? A party is a party regardless of the age of the guests

@BwanaMakubwa

I also live in GMcr and am also pissed off at the people who felt the rules didn't apply to them by holding any kind of party in a garden. It's not allowed here. The more people do this, the longer the rest of us have to remain in more tight lockdown. The people on my corner have a toddler and they also had a party for his/her birthday a week ago. Had about 20 people in the garden including grandparents. It pissed me off. Just don't, so we can all go back to being able to see our loved ones sooner.

Exactly. But sadly too many people don't think the rules apply to them. If everyone followed the rules, the police wouldn't need to be involved. I think the reporting to police comes from sheer frustration from most people, rather than malice.

Absolutely the right thing to do. These local flare-ups are occurring because too many people think the rules don't apply to them. Though to be fair the government has made such a shit-storm of the guidance many people really are not clear on it so they are using their own judgement, sensibly or not.

I live in GM and will risk being flamed for this. I've broken lock down rules and allowed my child to go over to a friends house for a couple of hours for his birthday. It was just the two of them, they played indoors and in the garden.

My reasoning? They are both in holiday club together every day, failing at social distancing because they're kids, and are absolutely going to infect each other and our respective families anyway, if either caught Covid. I assessed the risk and felt there was no increased risk in transmission by going over to the boys house on his birthday for a play date and a slice of cake.

If I knew another child was there too, from another family that was also using the same holiday club, I'd consider the risk the same.

Could these 3 families be making similar judgement decisions? Are their kids already interacting so closely that they are in a bubble anyway, whether they like it or not? Obviously we don't know the answer to that one, but when so many of the lockdown rules don't make any sense, we need to be able to critically assess risk for ourselves.