Pointless policing

[MarkW]

If anyone immediately outside of Harrogate fancies committing a violent crime today you're in luck, as the entire armed response unit from North Yorkshire Police appears to have been deployed to guard the Harrogate Christmas market. I wasn't aware that Al-Qaeda had the HG1 postal district in their sights, but the number of officers who are armed to the teeth as they patrol the perimeter of the concrete barricades they've set up around the market suggest that they are expecting some sort of hit on the coach loads of grannies that are infesting the place, or possibly an assault on the Cheeses of Yorkshire stall. Muppets.

Given the spate of burglaries and antisocial behaviour in the area of late, I think that given the choice most residents would opt for a bit less of this pointless posturing and a bit more proper policing.

[Guest]

All about raising a profile, innit?

[geofferz]

All about raising a profile, innit?

 

Indeed. Cops can't sit in everyone's house to prevent or arrest burgalers, but they can attend public events. Fine by me.

[MarkW]

All about raising a profile, innit?

 

Indeed. Cops can't sit in everyone's house to prevent or arrest burgalers, but they can attend public events. Fine by me.

 

That misses the point. Completely. I have no problem with the police attending public events - in fact I'd expect it. But sending a dozen heavily armed officers to a Christmas market in Harrogate? And barricading it with concrete blocks? What the f*ck were they expecting - a terrorist attack launched from Betty's Tea Rooms?

[Gerontious]

Maybe they know something you don't.

[Via]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Berlin_truck_attack

Not unknown

[S-Westerly]

Probably because not so long ago some sod drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin and killed a few people. The police would, rightly, then be completely in the clarts. Sadly this is the world we live in.

[MarkW]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Berlin_truck_attack

Not unknown

 

Yes, but Harrogate isn't Berlin. Or Paris. Or London. I can only assume that we would have been the dress rehearsal for their main target: the Women's Institute garden party in Chipping Campden.

[MarkW]

Maybe they know something you don't.

 

My next door neighbour had one of the stalls in the market, selling his prints. He said the police had wanted to put security fencing around the whole market area, but the council wasn't having it. Doesn't sound as though there was any great security threat if they capitulated that easily.

The best friend of my ex-neighbour on the other side was a firearms instructor for NYP. I only met him a handful of times, but I'm not sure I wouldn't feel safer taking my chances with the terrorists!

[Bender]

Anything is possible but highly unlikely, unfortunately the police have to be shown to be doing something, I'm sure the pedophiles in Burnley will sleep easier tonight.

[Joeman]

Cultural diversity.. we need to embrace other cultures and other countries traditions, even if the traditions do seem a little odd to us Brits like driving trucks through Xmas markets like they do in Germany, or having armed patrols on the streets like they do in Afghanistan.

I hear cycle lanes are being replaced by donky tracks soon.. that should be interesting.

[MarkW]

We now seem to live in a society where we'll willingly accept any absurdity if it's dressed up as 'security' or 'anti-terrorism'. I got on a short flight in Amsterdam a few days after 9/11 on which the cabin crew announced that they wouldn't be serving any hot drinks or snacks 'as a security precaution'. And nobody questioned this bullshit. What the hell did they think a terrorist could get up to with a paper cup of lukewarm tea and a Twix?

[Gerontious]

I think you should make yourself a nice fondue to help calm your nerves... Nithing like the sight of gently melting cheese to reduce your stress levels.

Treat yourself to a few Jaffa cakes for afters. Have a lie down.

[MarkW]

I think you should make yourself a nice fondue to help calm your nerves... Nithing like the sight of gently melting cheese to reduce your stress levels.

Treat yourself to a few Jaffa cakes for afters. Have a lie down.

 

I'll pass on the fondue, but the Jaffa Cakes are a splendid suggestion!

[Tango]

Brits? .....as in the people of this island who are derived from Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, French, Asian, African, various other European and middle eastern countries, etc?.......multiculturism is our entire history!

Anyway.....With 20000 fewer police I guess they can't be everywhere......so I guess that they'll put the main police presence where there's a high concentration of people.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

The airlines food is stored in a rat infested warehouse and there’s a risk to national security from reintroducing the plague. I think it was that or something even more sensible...

[MarkW]

Brits? .....as in the people of this island who are derived from Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, French, Asian, African, various other European and middle eastern countries, etc?.......multiculturism is our entire history!

Anyway.....With 20000 fewer police I guess they can't be everywhere......so I guess that they'll put the main police presence where there's a high concentration of people.

 

My father-in-laws xenophobia extends to plants and animals too, and he drones on endlessly about the 'non-native' invaders that should be wiped out. I tried explaining that the only truly indigenous wildlife in the UK is what little was left immediately after the last ice age retreated, and that most of what he thinks of as 'native' either arrived or was brought here subsequently, but it made no difference.

[fastbob]

All about raising a profile, innit?

 

Indeed. Cops can't sit in everyone's house to prevent or arrest burgalers, but they can attend public events. Fine by me.

 

That misses the point. Completely. I have no problem with the police attending public events - in fact I'd expect it. But sending a dozen heavily armed officers to a Christmas market in Harrogate? And barricading it with concrete blocks? What the f*ck were they expecting - a terrorist attack launched from Betty's Tea Rooms?

 

Did you ask them ?

[TimR]

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/northyorkshire/17228025.increased-police-presence-in-harrogate-as-part-of-operation/

[Six30]

its due to Doris overcharging for jars of homemade jam last year .... if she does it this year it's curtains for her .

[geofferz]

We now seem to live in a society where we'll willingly accept any absurdity...

 

Depends. If I saw a cop every 100m on the a24 with a speed gun I'd be tweeting, writing and campaigning about a waste of police resources and 'go catch some real criminals' etc, I assure you of that!

[MarkW]

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/northyorkshire/17228025.increased-police-presence-in-harrogate-as-part-of-operation/

 

This is exactly what I was talking about when I said we accept any old guff if it's dressed up as security or anti-terrorism. I can't remember the last time I saw a proper policeman in Harrogate, and then we get the whole bloody armed response team and their various toys deployed at the Christmas market.

If I was a pick-pocket or a drug dealer, an armed police presence wouldn't deter me any more than a regular police presence (unless of course I was also guilty of the greater crime of 'looking a bit foreign' in which case I'd probably steer well clear for fear of ending up like that poor bast*rd at Stockwell). That market was absolutely heaving yesterday, as it is every year, and getting around it was a slow shuffle pressed up against everyone else - absolutely perfect pick-pocket territory. Nobody would have known if they were being frisked and nobody around them would have been able to see, and as all the police were patrolling around the perimeter their presence would be utterly irrelevant.

And what about protecting us from terrorists? The lone wolf with a kitchen knife is a common enough scenario, and there is nothing they would have been able to do about that: there wasn't a single police officer in the market, and it would have taken them so long to locate and then reach a lunatic in the middle that it would all have been over by the time they did. And what would they do then? Open fire with their H&Ks into a crowd of Christmas shoppers? It's all utter bollocks, and goes back to what I said in my first post: proper policing is what's needed, not the occasional bit of high-profile poncing around.

[TimR]

The airlines food is stored in a rat infested warehouse and there’s a risk to national security from reintroducing the plague. I think it was that or something even more sensible...

 

And the random post in a thread award goes to @Slowlycatchymonkey

[MarkW]

The airlines food is stored in a rat infested warehouse and there’s a risk to national security from reintroducing the plague. I think it was that or something even more sensible...

 

And the random post in a thread award goes to @Slowlycatchymonkey

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

We now seem to live in a society where we'll willingly accept any absurdity if it's dressed up as 'security' or 'anti-terrorism'. I got on a short flight in Amsterdam a few days after 9/11 on which the cabin crew announced that they wouldn't be serving any hot drinks or snacks 'as a security precaution'. And nobody questioned this bullshit. What the hell did they think a terrorist could get up to with a paper cup of lukewarm tea and a Twix?

 

The airlines food is stored in a rat infested warehouse and there’s a risk to national security from reintroducing the plague. I think it was that or something even more sensible...