When a 17 year old teenager threw stones at the window of a disabled pensioner, Renate Bowling, 71, confronted the 17-year-old youth in the street. She bravely went out to remonstrate with him. During the conversation the frail widow, who fled to Britain from Communist East Germany and walks with a steel frame, prodded the youth in the chest with her finger.
She told him what she thought of him. He called her "some ****ing German woman".
Police officers were called to the quiet residential street and the teenager told them he had been assaulted.
'Then the police arrested me - I thought "What a joke. What is going on?"
'That lad had held my wrists and bruised them and he had the gall to call it self-defence.
'The police put me in the back of their van like a sack of spuds and took me to the station where they questioned me. Then a few days later I was told I was being prosecuted. I could not believe it, neither could my family.
'I had to borrow £20 from a friend to pay the court costs as I only had £30 on me. It has all been a nightmare
To read the full Daily mail story click here
COMMENT
This story exemplifies what a complete farce the Criminal Justice System has become.
That a system has become so perverse that common sense could not prevail is beyond belief. The sad fact is that the majority of common sense coppers in the UK agree with how ridiculously commonplace such incidents are.
Inspector Gadget, Copperfield, Ellie Bloggs, 200 and other police bloggers and authors have been trying to raise public awareness about the mid boggling utter stupidity of the crime reporting system for a few years now.
Hunting detections to improve crime figures is slowly but surely eroding the confidence of natural police supporters. Ordinary people who make up the bulk of the British population are being criminalised in ways like that of Renate Bowling, all in the crazy pursuit of ticked boxes and meeting targets. The common sense police response would be to exercise descretion, rap the youth on the knuckles for his behaviour and advise Mrs Bowling. The mad system that has evolved however does not allow for discretion. Once the matter is reported, (the assualt in this case) it is logged on computer as a crime. The case cannot be resolved and "detected" until the accused accepts responsibility. The officers are not permitted to show discretion and walk away, they are forced by the system to follow it through. Teams of audit officers scrutinise and follow up on such cases until the detection box is ticked.
In this case, as with many thousands of others concealed within Home Office figures, the price paid for the detection was way out of proportion with common sense policing. The result is one criminalised disabled grandmother who has lost all confidence and support for the police. Consider further the many hours consumed by officers taking statements and processing the matter for the CPS. Whilst police officers are tied up with enquiries like this that only serve to diminish confidence in the service, they are not available to respond to other more serious and needy cases. Little wonder police morale is at its lowest ebb, when the very system they are forced to implement prevents them doing the really important jobs as effectively as they would want.
The example is one of thousands where the CPS then exacurbate the situation by pursuing the case, safe in the knowledge they have another detection secured. Why oh why, could common sense not have prevailed and the decision made to take no further action? If the responsibility and decsion to charge was returned back to the custody sergeant, common sense might well have prevailed, and Mrs Bowling may have been saved the indignity of a court appearance and a black mark against her otherwise good name.
Police Officers and CPS are being strangled by Government directions and performance targets to detect at any cost. All so that the Government can feed the public more statistical spin about how crime has reduced since they came to power.
A consequence of the true public perception is that less than 50% of crimes are reported. The public have lost confidence that the police will be able to do anything, or worse, as in this case, as the real victim, you are more likely to face prosecution than the yob. We no longer have an accurate grip on what is real and manufactured concerning crime in the UK. On that basis, how can any Government accurately forecast the financial and human resourcing for a given area?
The system doesn't legislate or care, it got its detection and that's all that matters.
Politicians take note . . . . This needs addressing SOON.
The Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Ltd Read more: http://www.blogdoctor.me/2007/02/expandable-post-summaries.html#ixzz0PTplKsFN
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