SK-TP - TELEGRAPH - Criminalising The Middle ClassesCriminalising the middle classes
Discretion and common sense are the supposed watchwords of police officers.
By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Published: 12:11PM BST 12 Jul 2009
Comments 35Which is why cases like the Devon doctor punished for leaving his son in his car while he went to the bank are so inexplicable.
The 51-year-old father had asked his son Henry, eight, if he wanted to come along but the boy preferred to remain in the car and play on his computer.
Returning 20 minutes later, the doctor was confronted by two police officers to account for his actions.
Discretion and common sense should have told the officers to warn the father and move on.
But instead they took his details and those of his wife and their four children – all of whom have now been placed on a police and social services register until the age of 18.
The doctor contacted The Daily Telegraph to tell of his anger at an “over-reaction” from police.
We are collecting other such stories to highlight and fight this worrying trend of criminalising innocent children and adults.
Have you experienced a similar injustice? Tell us about it on the form below
Comments: 35
My daughter is an enthusiastic explorer of old and decaying buildings which she catalogues and photographs for social history purposes. She was arrested in one such place recently on a visit to Scotland. The poor girl was arrested without having her rights read, interviewed without a lawyer or a tape recording being made and then charged with being in an enclosed space with the intention to steal. Furthermore they confiscated all her camera equipment and threw her in the cells for six hours. A nice way to treat a very small 22 year old girl. Well done coppers. She now has to travel from Brighton to Brechin to attend a court hearing and still doesn't have any legal representation. How just is that?
MarkS
on July 21, 2009
at 11:07 PM
Report this commentSomething very similar to other people's experiences happened to me.However I am too scared that the local police might read this comment and do something to me to even post the facts. I would always avoid the police in future. I think that says it all really.
mary
on July 21, 2009
at 10:56 PM
Report this commentSome weeks ago I was involved in an accident caused by an aggressive and possibly drunken yob. He got out of his land rover and forgot the handbrake and it rolled into my car.
While trying to his details he left the scene, attempting to drive over my wife. The police who reluctantly attended the scene did not want to talk to my witnesses, did not want to talk to me or my wife or take a statement from either of us.
After several phone calls to the police (but never getting a call back from the officers,) a pair of statement forms arrived, which were exclusively to do with traffic incidents. We tried to use them to report the assault as best we could.
Since we sent the forms back, they have vanished into a black hole. No-one has called us about them. No-one has done anything about them and no-one has called us back despite messages left.
Well done Wiltshire Police (motto making Wiltshire safer.) They do not seem to give a stuff.
Tony Nicholls
on July 21, 2009
at 10:22 PM
Report this commentAnd let us not forget that other source of interference with ordinary family life - Esther Ranzen's 'Childline'. The fact is that New Lab has totally altered the social landscape in a way that a right of centre party would never dare attempt to correct - listen to Cameron.What New Lab has constructed is here to stay.
B.D. Kelly
on July 21, 2009
at 10:22 PM
Report this commentThe biggest challenge to society is the slow but sure erradication of the stable working class family in this country. The current tax & benefit system was created to smash working class "traditional" households those with or without children. The blunt instrument used is the tax credit system which is abused by the majority of claimants and discrimnates against stable couples especially those who are Married and on moderate incomes. The rules are so unfair and benefit the so called single parent greatly (up to 70% do have a partner they just do not declare it) it's simple NO PROOF OF INCOME, HOUSEHOLD STATUES IS REQUIRED) simply make a claim over the phone they say. Ha Ha. When fraud is at an all time high (2 billion a year and rising, make that 5 billion) why does Gordon Brown believe everyone tells the truth when making a claim for tax credits and no proog is required? Why are maintenance payments disregared as income when making a claim for tax credits, why can someone have thousands upon thousands of pounds held in various ISA's and also disregared as income for TC purposes, why can someone still recieve working tax credit for the current year despite an increase of up to �25,000 yes �25,000 in their income in the same year. In other words someone can recieve WTC, get free prescriptions, dental treatment, even loft insulation etc etc and a higher rate taxpayer in the same year. Crazy but true. It is all in the masterplan of this government ridding its self of the traditional family/household at the expense of the "alternative family" and the country will pay a massive price indeed not only in ������.
N James
on July 21, 2009
at 10:15 PM
Report this commentSteven Kseizak 01.08 has been taken in by the very Enemy Class which I refer to in my comment of 6.20 pm.
He thinks they are working "for our good".
Nobody, I repeat nobody, knows what is for our good except ourselves. If Steven Ksiezak (who I presume is a Pole, or at least of Polish extraction and therefore ought to know better in either case for grave historical reasons which we have not time to go into heer) thinks that The Enemy Class have his, or his children's, or our children's, interests at heart, in these matters, then he is sadly mistaken and will have to relearn about 100 years of recent history.
It /must/ be understood as regards my commen above (06.20 pm) that I am not blaming the Police, or even the very officers who did this thing in the article. They are merely doing what they are ordered by their masters, who are our government and who are the real danger. What they did is not the right purpose of the Police, who oought to have more important things to do like nicking hoodlums and thuggers, rievers chunderers and murgulators, who are, through the education policies of ZanuLieBorg, the real problem of today.
David Davis
on July 21, 2009
at 10:15 PM
Report this commentEveryone thinks I'm having them on when I draw comparisons between the present-day UK and the social conditions which prevailed in the neighborhoods of Detroit several years prior to the riots of 1967 and 1968, yet this micro-management of British citizens exactly mirrors how blacks were hounded from the time of the first truly major strikes of the Detroit steel and auto industries and the subsequent pitting of black versus white factory worker against each other when in the formative days of the CIO right through around 1960 or so during the post-war boom years, there was solidarity. When the American workforce was 50% organized as it was then, this anti-working class "keep 'em down" strategy was the default setting for police forces nationwide. It still is, unions or no unions, the malice is simply free-floating instead of focused.
These black neighborhoods were socially and economically nearly self-sufficient, with their community leadership living downtown amongst their constituencies. The Michigan State Police "Red Squad" in conjunction with the all-white Detroit police force made it their business to hound any black man who had ever walked a picket line alongside white workers. It got to the point that on West Warren, if your trash left out for the collection trucks fell over or a dog got at it, you got fined. Jay-walking tickets were the order of the day, and arbitrary parking tickets in zones where cars had parked for years.
Few respect police more than me, as I was affiliated with MP units and related functions during my entire military experience, which baffles me, but I suppose the assigners of occupational specialties saw the last name, and figured Sure and Begorrah, give him a nightstick. (I hated it bitterly and do not know how I kept my cool to this day; anyone who can do the work, to me, deserves the Nobel Prize for patience). But when the British populace of all classes, creeds, and colours make like the brain-eating zombies in the last reel of "Resident Evil," PC Plod, you shall very well know why. What is an evolving transformation of a bitter annoyance into a perfectly avoidable and tragic inevitability is not without precedence. You did not make these policies and rules, you are just the messenger of the tidings and the will of the state, but you shall be witness to what I saw at the tender ages of 17 and 18. You will not like it one bit.
Walt O'Brien
on July 21, 2009
at 08:55 PM
Report this commentI have been compiling a list of similar goings on and had been publishing them on my blog. But I am so terrified of our government and their jobsworths now, I have disabled my blog for fear of being somehow 'punished'. How worrying is that?
The Daily Telegraph is the last bastion of common sense in the UK. Once it has gone, we are doomed.
Oflife
on July 21, 2009
at 08:42 PM
Report this commentA female friend of mine always recycles her empty bottles.
One fine Saturday, following a dinner party at her house on the Friday, she dutily packed various boxes with the empty wine bottles.
She put them in the back of her car.
Within minutes, the blue flashing lights appeared in her rear view mirror.
"Been drinking have we?" said the officer in that nasal, patronizing tone that only officers of the law have the ability to produce.
John Henry
on July 21, 2009
at 07:37 PM
Report this commentAh, looks like the Stasi-fication of Socialist Britain is now well-underway...
Reject Christ and His common-sense at your worsening peril.
Ming Ye
on July 21, 2009
at 07:30 PM
Report this commentAnother unintended consequence of 'targets'. A nice easy conviction to boost the numbers. If the police are re-empowered and relieved from an obligation to secure n convictions a year the problem will go away.
Geoff
on July 21, 2009
at 07:30 PM
Report this commentI am a Police Officer and I would deal with it this way. I don�t want to though, but I feel it would be necessary. I suspect those Officers are simply covering their backsides as would I. Professional Standards within Police Forces (sorry, Police Services) go to great length and expense to eek out any wrong doing by a Police Officer. Even if they don�t get you on something, once you are known to them they are on your case like nothing you�ve ever known. I have seen it happen to several Officers who had acted in good faith at the time. Perhaps like acting in good faith during this incident and simply giving the doctor words of advice. If it is found later he wasn�t of good character and the child came to harm then those Officers would be very well be for the high jump. A recent court case found that Police Officers now have a duty of care which is more graded and more specific to a particular situation. In this instance, Officers are more likely to be personally culpable for the welfare of the child. So what would you do? Take a risk for someone you don�t know? I have a family to support, I�m not going to lose that over any member of the public. What is wrong with the Police at the moment is the working environment. Officers are first and foremost human beings and will react to their working environment the same as anyone else. Detections are a bit part of this folly. We live in a democratic society, if you don�t like it do something about it. I am.
PC Plod
on July 21, 2009
at 06:43 PM
Report this commentForget pursuit of petty misdemeanours. What about pursuit of the victim to get a 2nd arrest. I am a barrister in my forties. I was cycling to court for a case one morning last summer in London. A youth of about 20 on a bicycle rode off the pavement on which he was riding, across a pedestrian crossing & across my path at a traffic light which was green for me. As I rode behind him to avoid him he swore at me very aggressively for riding towards him and then rode off. I went on my way in the opposite direction. Several hundred metres down the road and a minute or two later(far out of his way) he caught up with me, swung at me and punched me about the face 3 times very hard cutting me across the bridge of the nose. This was witnessed by numerous passers by and shopkeepers and the aftermath with him aggressively assailing me was seen by 3 police fire arms officers. We were less than 100m from a police station. I was asked if I wanted to press charges. I said that I felt the matter should be investigated properly as my assailant was plainly dangerous and volatile and likely to hurt someone else. We waited 50 minutes for local officers to arrive. When they did they released the fire arms officers and spoke to no witnesses, despite my pointing out a shopkeeper witness still on the scene who had brought me a cloth to staunch blood and had seen my being hit and the fact that my assailant was unmarked. They refused to speak to her before arrested both of us and processing us at the station. This took 2 hours. I was kept in a cell for 7 further hours before being medically examined, interviewed and giving my account. I was repeatedly asked to agree to drop my allegation. The investigating officer insisted that the witness had said that I had struck my assailant after being struck first myself (which was untrue and not what she had said to me) but the WPc improperly refused to let me see the statement asserting this. I declined to drop the matter and was released on bail. I missed my hearing and had my holiday spoiled.I was informed 14 days later that I could accept a caution. When I declined this on grounds that I was the victim and not admitting any act against my assailant. I was told that there was no public interest in pursuing the matter and released from my bail without apology or further comment. Moral of the story : one former police supporter disenchanted, one law abiding citizen fewer to assist the police when they need help; one more person on the DNA data base.
James
on July 21, 2009
at 06:35 PM
Report this commentThe Badman Report into Home Education treats parents as worse than criminals. It presupposes that our educational choice puts our children at risk and validates forced entry into our homes and the removal of our children by local authority functionaries for 'questioning.' These powers far exceed those used against, say, ex-convicts, who only need allow access to their homes if there is a reason to suspect wrong doing. Local Authorities alreasy have powers to intervene when they suspect abuse. What is happening here is the vilification of an entire community in order to destroy the only educational arena, ironically enough for the current debate, in which working class children outperform their middle class, schooled peers. What, one wonders, is Ed Balls' real motivation?
Roger Machin
on July 21, 2009
at 06:35 PM
Report this commentThe kid's 8 years old. I used to be out and about on my own at that age. Make my own way to school etc. What law has been broken? What a pathetic country this is!
james
on July 21, 2009
at 06:27 PM
Report this commentWe should be entirely unsurprised by things like this.
The Law and the Police have been deliberately taken over and retargetted by a Gramsco-Fabian system of objective and deliberate wickedness.
Causing terror and unhappiness to those who would be most likely to not want the sort of society this Class wants, is all part of the early-endgame.
In the West, this system is called socialism.
The purpose of this "agent of change" is precisely to do such things to such people, as part of its strategy of dissolving the normally-evolved familial and societal bonds which hold a peaceable and Classical liberal civilisation together.
The result is unimaginable wealth and power for the new ruling Enemy-Class, and neo-barbarism for everyone else. It is what the Enemy Class wish for, and they probably will get it as things are rather too far gone now. We were all asleep in the early 1990s, when we could have got serious about them and they might not have been able to resist honest ideological pressure to become good.
It is deliberate and objectively wicked, they know it, and that's why they do it.
David Davis
on July 21, 2009
at 06:20 PM
Report this commentWelcome to totalitarian Britain. I wonder if the police were alerted via CCTV. Perhaps a "good citizen", like our red friend here, alerted them to the doctor's "crime of neglect".
If Ksiezak enjoys heavy handed socialism so much, then perhaps he should sod off to North Korea.
Nufffrespect
on July 21, 2009
at 06:13 PM
Report this commentThe biggest risk to any totalitarian regime is the threat of revolt from the middle class, keep the middle class under thumb and you can rule safely. Allow thugs the freedom to do their damage and run a mock of the law whilst oppressing the working population, a double whamy and extremely affective. New Labour...
Gary
on July 21, 2009
at 06:13 PM
Report this commentThe Police are now the paramilitary wing of the Guardian - blindly following the edicts of Pol Toynbee as she strives for her very own kind of Year Zero.
Paul
on July 21, 2009
at 06:08 PM
Report this commentTo see first hand how the police waste time and money going for the"lowest apples on the tree", I recommend attendance at your local Magistrates Court. Prepare to be shocked.
David Mann
on July 21, 2009
at 05:48 PM
Report this commentre: "Prevention and Dection of Crime", I've yet to see comment on the much publicised Harry Potter actor drug story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8161154.stm)
Obviously I don't condone the conduct for which he has been charged, but when I read that the evidence as discovered when "Police seized the camera after he was arrested for taking a picture of officers as he and his friend John Innis, 20, drove past"
Presumably in order to facilitate this seizure, sirens were engaged and a chase ensued.
It seems a further Police mandate is 'prevent photographic capture of a uniformed officer'.
Is this an offence, and am I alone in feeling that this has become more prevalent since the contraversial images captured at the G8 protests?
Owen M. Robson
on July 21, 2009
at 05:48 PM
Report this commentRE: What does this have to do with the middle classes?
If nothing else, this shows that the middle classes are not immune from the predatory reach of Socialist Services.
The two scheming hags in question may well have had it in for him because of his background.
This is an absolutely disgraceful breach of human rights, both the father's and the children's.
We must open up the secret family courts immediately.
Colin
on July 21, 2009
at 05:47 PM
Report this commentIdiotic Exeter Police raided a family barbecue of 15 people with riot police and the police helicopter and said it was a rave. Dimwits!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8155441.stm
Anthony
on July 21, 2009
at 05:40 PM
Report this commentCan the police be charged with wasting their own time?
Pipkins
on July 21, 2009
at 05:30 PM
Report this commentLabour has succeeded in politicising the police
Douglas
on July 21, 2009
at 04:15 PM
Report this commentWhat happened to the old definition of 'Prevention and Detection of crime'as the task of the Police Force? The first seems forgotten, the second appears now to read 'Detection of petty misdemeaners.'
Michael White
on July 21, 2009
at 03:55 PM
Report this commentKsiezak - yes, a good British name ! Obviously one of the Marx-Stalinist Brits !
OZ
on July 21, 2009
at 02:52 PM
Report this commentRe: Eating an apple whilst driving: They called out the Helicopter for it as well. http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2005/1/24/25235.html
John Kirkpatrick
on July 21, 2009
at 02:13 PM
Report this commentEminently sensible in my opinion. now can the police turn their attention to the Dr's McCann and their negligent child rearing. Nothing would have happened to Madeleine if they had not left the children on their own that fateful night
Suusi M-B
on July 21, 2009
at 02:13 PM
Report this commentMr Ksiezak.
You seem just the sort of chap to live in our Brave new World.
The police are behaving like social controllers,their job is catching criminals, not persecuting the citizen.
This chap should have insisted on being charged with an offence, the database society is a disgrace, freedom is destroyed.
john bonny
on July 21, 2009
at 01:40 PM
Report this commentWhat does this have to do with the middle classes? The police overreacted, it has nothing to do with the fact that the gentleman in question was of the middle class. Is the correspondent feeling a little victimised today?
Parbo Kimz
on July 21, 2009
at 01:27 PM
Report this comment"The lowest apples on the tree."
"The easy pickings."
Police officers all over the country admit that they go after trivial 'crimes' because they can quickly reach their targets by doing so.
james
on July 21, 2009
at 01:23 PM
Report this commentI have been involved in two instances of over the top Police behaviour. The most petty was whilst I was a student at Manchester University when I jumped a red light on my bike. I admitted that I was wrong to the Polce officers and apoligised, but they became aggressive and threatened to have me banned from driving. I explained that I thought they were making heavy weather of this and that I did not believe they could take away mr driving licence for a minor cycling offence (which I later found out was correct). I was therefore shocked to receive a summons for dangerous cycling a few weeks later which was accompanied by a four page witness statement from the Police officers. The matter went to court at great public expense and two Police officers spent an afternoon at court. I am in no way trying to belittle what I did and I admitted I was wrong. However I thought it was completely disporportinate for Manchester Police and the CPS to deal with the matter in this way. The Magistrate who dealt with the matter agreed that it was over the top, he asked the Police officers to leave the court saying he had heard enough from them already and fined me �60 costs. I just cannot believe that in a City with all the crime that Manchester has, that this was a sensible use of Police resources. It is no wonder people have such a cycnical view of the Police when they repeatedly behave like this.
Ed Marcus
on July 21, 2009
at 01:10 PM
Report this commentWell I think the police should have gone further and charged him with Child Neglect. The Middleclass are only too happy to blame lower earners about their irresponsible behaviour and here we see the hypocrisy and percieved superiority of the middle class. So, as I have heard from many of the middle class, these parents should go to parenting classes....I bet he calls himself a professional too.
Steven Ksiezak
on July 21, 2009
at 01:08 PM
Report this commentFour years ago a young lady was charged and convicted of driving without due care and attention near Newcastle. Her "crime" was she was eating an apple whilst driving.
Roland G. Adams
on July 21, 2009
at 01:06 PM
Report this commentWell the above can all be seen at
CLICK HEREI have added my own comment and wonder if it will be published!
Usually the Telegraph is prety fair!
Hi,
sorry - time pressure but have a look at:
http://stolenkids-bloggers.blogspot.com/
AND:
http://stolenkids-documents.blogspot.com/
Then for Police Malpractice:
http://gl-w.blogspot.com/2009/06/g123-but-police-are-allowed.html
Or even Police utter incompetence at all levels:
http://gl-w.blogspot.com/2009/06/g119-pc-idiot-police-failure.html
ALSO I am sure I have Missed Many of the Police Murders:
http://gl-w.blogspot.com/2009/05/g103-another-police-murder-added.html
Then of course THE State has grown whilst commerce and the economy shrinks.
We now have 30,000 assorted politicians at a cost of over £500,000,000 a year.
Our Government has so mishandled the economy that we now OWE £800Billion they admit to - 57% of our GDP.
Our Ministry of Defeat has lost £150Million of radio equipment!
Our Ministry of Defeat has bungled the payroll of the army to the tune of £150,000,000.
The Government has proved so dishonourable most informed people do not believe a word of the Global Warming / Climate Change tax raising scam with huge % of independent scientists speaking out and telling the truth at the risk of never getting more government grant money!
A huge % of our peoples so distrust the Government an self serving politicians that they believe Swine Flu is a deliberate medium for a trial run on vaccination to reduce population.
Meanwhile we squander £1,800,000 per hour OVER £40Million every single day on membership of The EU when not one honest politician has EVER given an honest and convincing reason for membership or gain.
Meanwhile the police batter and bully those who peacefully protest - see the videos of G20 etc.
Brown clearly hasn't a clue what he is doing, after 12 years of his control of the economy he is still too stupid to realise it was HIS incompetence and tinkering NOT other Countries, there was no need for him to lead OUR Country into such lunacy!
We have Generals keeping quiet as Generals for fear of damaging their pensions and the Exec. Directorships they aim for.
Just look at Guthrie who cow towed for his peerage and some of the biggest income exec. directorships even of Colt as a nothing more than an arms dealer. Pays better than drug dealer but equally as dishonourable.
You will note John Major draws down £1M a year as a director of Carlysle Group 'payolla'? What does he DO worth that to arms dealers?
Blair was near penniless until he took office and rampped up a property portfolio in the 10s of Millions. He was GIVEN a £1M as a boncella the other day. What has that liar done for mankind besides lie to dupe Britain & America to war - a war criminal based on the killings he is responsible for personally.
Consider how much an MP makes yet they make less than 20% of our laws yet even those have to comply with their masters in the EU.
MEPs are no more than Massively Expensive Parasites - they have no effective job other than trying to con us into stuffing their pockets with unaccounted cash.
We were roundly and soundly defeated in Iraq and driven out due to incompetent management.
We have inadequate helicopters in Afghanistan - more mismanagement - now in panic they are to get Merlin 4tonners at £31M what for? they won't be there as more than ornaments as they have forgotten to put the armamour into them, so they can't legally carry soldiers!!!
Hueys or Blackhawks can be delivered within 1month @ £4M each + £2M each conversion and maintenance OFF THE SHELF!
Why then are we spending £1.7Billion on future Lynx for delivery in 2014? I understand conversion for theatre is extra. At this cost of £14,000,000 each dare we use them and risk losing one?
One wonders by what contorted logic Common Purpose with its Government affiliations, massive grants and government contracts that make it a multi, multi £Million profit making business registered as a charity!!
Then we see banks making Billions in profits and paying massive bonuses - yet their chums in the treasury have given them unlimited bail outs rather than prison sentences.
We all pay masasively more taxes yet all that happens is politicians grow the Kleptocratic QUANGOcracy and swan off to make their £Millions take long holidays and feather their ducks nests.
They have no meaningful job when they are at work now so that there is more time needed to rubber stamp by Statutory Instrument or Order In Council to oblige their EU masters.
The answer has been to send the useless MPs on holday as they get in the way!
Our Politicians have destroyed our industry - we no longer make ANYTHING to export at a cost it will be purchased and having deliberately destroyed our economy now we watch helplessly as our Politicians determinedly force on an unwilling and increasingly resentful public the New Constitution risibly sold as The Lisbon Treaty.
So that will liberate relocation of the financial core of Britain's City to Frankfurt!
Do any of our 30,000 over paid politicians have any honourable patriotic ideas or ability?
One wonders why so little of the truth is published by the meeeja!
'We live in hope' - minded of the fact that the balance of the quote is 'and die in despair' but it is our duty to inform!
Regards,
Greg L-W.
Mr Hendry's intervention comes after appeal judges prevented the couple
