Emily Harbour (22) convicted of child cruelty and STILL walks free!

In my job, you have to deal with all levels of society, and all degrees of offending. The result of these interactions is sometimes a decision to prosecute the offender – if you have the evidence, the resources, the backing of the CPS and a following wind.
On the occasions that things get to court (usually for more serious crimes or traffic matters) you then have to run the gauntlet of proving your case and obtaining a satisfactory punishment.

The odds of achieving the final goal decrease at every stage due to a number of factors:

• Having enough officers left outside the custody centres to complete an acceptable investigation and gather the evidence needed to proceed (if, in fact, there is anyone available to respond to the call in the first place!)
• Securing evidence from witnesses that are
• a) Willing to speak to you.
• b) Willing to provide a statement.
• c) Willing to go though with a court case
• d) Not so well-known or involved with the suspect that their evidence would be laughed out of court.
• Getting the compiled evidence past the in-house quality assurance team and the dreaded CPS
• Getting the bench or jury to believe that the Police have not been incompetent or immoral in their investigations despite the best efforts of the defence to show otherwise
• Having  Magistrates or a Judge willing to pass down a sentence that doesn’t make a complete mockery of the whole process.

With the ever tightening financial noose around the neck of Police Authorities, the chances of getting to the end of this process (or completing the first stage in many cases) gets smaller every day. It’s a shame, then, that when we do succeed in all the pre-trial elements that the final hurdle still causes us a such huge issue.

This is Fleetwood Close in Newbury. Home to 22-year-old Emily Harbour who, earlier this month, left her two children aged 4 years and 14 months home alone for an hour and a half while she visited her boyfriend, some five minutes away by car.

The children were found after entry was forced to the house in Newbury. They were surrounded by bags of rubbish, soiled nappies, blood-stained blankets, a sex toy, bottles of bleach, urine and human excrement. The baby was lying in a cot with a dirty curtain over his face, and the older child was hiding under a duvet in another room.

Mummy says I am old enough to look after myself.

Mummy will be home in the morning.

These were the responses of the 4-year-old child to questions from the attending officers. Concerns had already been raised as the Health Visitors had not been managed to see the children since they were a few months old, and there had been previous reports in 2007 about the children being left home alone.

Harbour, who receives £900 per month in benefits and lives in a three bedroom house, excused her actions saying that she had left her children in order to go to her boyfriend’s house to use his computer to look for a new home as they were being evicted in a matter of days.

Despite the appalling nature of these offences, Harbour was allowed to walk free from court after being given a six month jail sentence suspended for two years for the child cruelty offences. Her children have been living with their grandparents since the incident.

This level of sentencing is an absolute disgrace. It may well be within the strict guidelines set down for the courts, but it shows absolutely no regard for the serious nature of Harbour’s actions. Those children could have died in that house (in fact one of the attending officers thought initially that the baby was dead) and provided she does nothing wrong for a couple of years, Harbour will effectively have been unpunished for her crimes.

I only hope that she never gets sole custody of those poor children again. Think of the future implications for them, growing up in the belief that what they have experienced is “normal”. It’s behaviour like that of Harbour that has eroded a lot of the decent values in our society. She is a human catalyst for the slow slide into ruin that is enveloping the nation….unpunished by the State, it will surely continue.

Early Retirement – The acronyms speak for themselves

Sent to me by one who shall remain anonymous, but it made me chuckle so I thought I should share it…

Due to the current financial situation, the management have decided to implement a scheme to put all workers with over thirty on early retirement.  This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged Personnel Early).

Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to Management to be eligible for the SHAFT scheme (Special Help AFTer retirement). Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW scheme (Scheme for Retired Early Workers). A person may be RAPED only once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as the Management deems appropriate.

Persons who have been RAPED can apply to get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants or Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance). Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Management.

Persons staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Management has always prided itself for the amount of SHIT it gives its staff. Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT please bring it to the attention of your manager. He has been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.

Bailiffs to perform “culturally aware” eviction of travellers

Over the last 15 years or so, more and more aspects of our lives, and the jobs that we do are being dragged from the warm summer sun into the gloomy half-light that exists under the big umbrella that is diversity legislation.  I have always been a believer in doing whatever is necessary to achieve equality of outcome rather than just treating everybody according to the same scripted investigation. This allows for a degree of consideration for the differing needs of those that share our towns and cities to be addressed. After all, we aren’t merely trying to convince people to switch gas suppliers…we are trying to fix their broken and battered lives.

I do have to say that sometimes we seem to go a little too far in this approach and risk crossing the line into reverse discrimination. Two identical incidents can happen to two families in the same area – this happens regularly. But because the Home Office requires us to record that one family was white European and one was not, one of them gets pawed over at 9am on Monday by those in the office with the £1000 posture saving chairs and is raised to everyone up to Chief Inspector. The other is quite rightly written off as there were no suspects, no witnesses, no CCTV and no history of offences against that victim.

I understand that the system is there for a reason. I understand that racist or other such incidents can be horrific and destroy the quality of life for those involved. If an attack is motivated in this way, then I fully support the use of Police resources to tackle it.

However, given the above scenario, I also understand that it has to be a little frustrating for Mr and Mrs Johnson to receive a stream of PSCO’s and Neighbourhood Officers on reassurance visits and house to house enquiries about the wing mirror that got smashed 300 yards up the road when they got told on the phone that Police weren’t able to do anything about theirs. I see this happening time and time again. I have been on the receiving end of the “Johnson’s” anger. I was unable to give them a valid reason for the lack of interest in their crime as, to be honest, there wasn’t one!

Anyway….I digress.

Some occupations always seemed to exist outside this framework of fairness and equality. One of those was that of the bailiff…until now!

I am referring specifically to those that have been tasked with the onerous task of removing the 1000-or-so occupants of Europe’s largest traveller site at Dale Farm near Crays Hill in Essex. Years of legal battles have finally resulted in action being planned for 31st August of this year. However, Basildon council have recently decided that they need to provide some additional training for their Bailiffs in dealing ethically with the forced removal of gipsy and traveller women and children. They are reportedly concerned that action might breach equality legislation.

Unsurprisingly the organisations that have been approached so far, such as “Share” which promotes traveller health and welfare, have refused to assist in the educational process. This means that the £18m plan may now have to be put on hold.

I wonder what it will take for the people who create these ridiculous policies to get a grip….

• They are trespassing on land with no right to remain.
• A court has ordered their removal.
• They know the date that this comes into force.

If they choose to remain there, then they choose to have their trailers and caravans, 4×4′s, Transits and everything else dragged from the site by force if necessary. We, as a nation, have no teeth in situations like this, and its about time we changed dentist!

Coppers Ink…Kent Police Federation challenge tattoo regulations

Last week we heard from Inspector Gadget about how his force encouraged officers to embrace spitting as a cultural expression. He quoted a 2010 Diversity package that stated “It is judgemental for a police officer to challenge this behaviour” before asking “why are the cultural norms of the young jobless community less acceptable than those of their more fortunate peers”.

Echoing the opinion expressed in his blog, I too cannot understand how behaviour like this could ever be excused. It should be challenged, and dealt with robustly for what it is…a disgusting habit that remains, in my opinion, well and truly within the bounds of what is unacceptable. Suggesting that Police should turn a blind eye to this on the basis that it might damage public confidence and might prevent Police from effectively embedding into the society we serve is ridiculous!

Today, a different strain of the diversity virus has been reported in the national press. It represents a potential erosion of the high standards most of us expect from what always used to be considered a disciplined service. Ian Pointon, chairman of the Kent Police Federation has suggested that the policy on visible tattoos be relaxed in order that they might break down barriers in communication, acting as an ice-breaker in some situations, between Police and public.

This proposal has been rejected by Kent Police who’s Assistant Chief Constable Allyn Thomas said:

There is an expectation that officers and staff maintain a standard of appearance and dress considered professional, smart and approachable while on duty.

Currently all forces in England and Wales have guidelines regarding tattoos that could be intimidating, or were capable of causing distress to others. These rules are there to ensure that the professional image of the Police officer is maintained and that we remain approachable to all when out on patrol. I feel that accepting the proposals of Ian Pointon would start an irreversible dilution of the standards we expect from UK Police Officers.

Whilst I welcomed the loss of the shirt and tie in preference for a uniform that was actually fit for purpose, I do not feel that the current regulations should be relaxed or removed. I am not saying that tattoos are an unacceptable form of personal expression (providing their content is not itself offensive – I have one myself!) but I feel that in a role such as that of Police Officer, that personal expression should remain personal – not public. Anything other than a token motif or phrase should be in a location covered by normal attire such as upper arm, back or chest.

Perhaps I am a prude, lacking an understanding of modern cultural expression, or maybe I feel that Policing has enough to cope with at the moment with budgets being slashed and numbers being decimated without measure such as this being introduced which threaten to erode structural integrity from the inside.

Amy Winehouse found dead in London flat and joins the “27 Club”

Amy Winehouse has joined a rather unfortunate and select group called the “27 Club” who’s members include rock legends Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Rolling Stone Brian Jones – all of whom have met an untimely death at the hands of the dark side of superstardom at 27 years of age.

Amy was found at 4pm today at her £2.5m London home, finally losing the battle (we suspect) against her long and well documented nemesis of alcohol and drugs. It looks like the recently completed third album will have to become a tribute to a troubled life. Still, at least we won’t have to witness any more painfully bad live performances like the one that I referred to in a previous post in Belgrade.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘Inquiries continue into the circumstances of the death, which at this stage is being treated as unexplained. We do have people we’re speaking to but nobody has been arrested.’

A source said: ‘A number of people were helping police with their inquiries but we are still trying to establish who was with her when she died. It’s fair to say these people are central to police enquiries in piecing together what happened before she died.’

Although the death is suspected to be drink and drugs-related, a post-mortem is expected to be carried out tomorrow.

Whatever your thoughts on Amy, her lifestyle, and her untimely death, the fact remains that yet another young life (and one that had the potential for great success for years to come) has been ruined by drugs and alcohol. My thoughts and those of millions of people around the world are with the family and friends of this unique vocal talent.

I hope that the message gets through to the youth of the moment in the wake of this latest death. Only last month I wrote:

Our youth idolize people such as Amy and spend their time and money attempting to imitate them given their limited means. Images like [the ones from her concert in Belgrade] only serve to strengthen the need of the fans to be like their heros and increase the need of the emergency services to rescue the vomit stained and intoxicated (if we can find them) from the inevitable consequences of their behaviour.

Those consequences are now on the front page of nearly every domestic newspaper and major website in the world. Let’s see how much notice actually gets taken…