The post you are reporting:
I spent last thursday in court listening to a case being brought against my sister and nephew, both charged with violent disorder, resisting arrest, and assaulting policemen.
What happened to them is so unfair, and such an incredible waste of the extraordinary police resources employed, that it makes my blood boil. I cannot go into specific details of location and names as the case is still ongoing. However, the local newspaper has taken up the cudgels and will pursue the matter further when sentencing is complete. Complaints against two police officers are under investigation and a third has been given what a police spokesman described as "words of advice."
There had been an all-day street party in the town which had gone off very well. My sister was in the local club as it was closing just before midnight, with everybody saying their goodbyes and leaving. Her husband died eighteen months ago and my seventeen year old nephew had arrived to walk her home and was leaning against a table near the bar with his friend, looking at his mobile phone screen. Neither was drinking, nor indeed allowed to be served had they wanted.
A woman driving a car flagged down a patrol car and said that some youths had thrown stones at her as she passed the club. The patrol car went to the club and the crew, consisting of a police constable and a special constable, entered the club after finding that whoever had been throwing stones was no longer outside. They decided to hasten the departure of the remaining customers, who were still drifting happily towards the exit.
What happened next is incredible. I have copies of all the witness statements from the customers in the pub and the police officers and, crucially, a copy of the CCTV recording from the camera looking towards the bar from the exit. The police officers made their statements before seeing the CCTV recording and a lot of what they have put is, sadly, pure invention. Were it not for the CCTV then their word would have been accepted without question and the actions of my sister and nephew attributed to late night intoxication.
To cut a long story short, the Special Constable raced after my nephew as he was starting to follow his mother out of the club and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and exchanged a few words. He also put his hands behind him and pulled up his trousers. He then turned away and resumed his passage to the exit. The Police Constable then stood in his way and grabbed him by both shoulders. His statement says that this is because my nephew had "clenched his fists" behind him as though preparing to hit the Special Constable and he intervened because he feared for his safety. This is transparently not the case as my nephew had pulled up his trousers and turned away. There is reason to think that this was a set up because my nephew is not afraid to speak his mind and had had words with a PCSO earlier in the day during the street party.
By this time, there were six policemen in the club and they all descended on my nephew and threw him to the floor. My sister came racing back from where she had been assisting an eighty year old man out of the exit and flung herself into the mass of writhing bodies. She is a tiny five foot nothing eight stone moppet. Two of them threw her backwards and forwards across a table. They were then manhandled out of the club with all the remaining customers vociferously protesting at what was going on, entirely verbally. Nobody could believe what was happening. It had been a peaceful happy end to a lovely community day and suddenly the police were going berserk and violently arresting two popular customers who were on their way quietly out of the club.
Yet more backup had been called. The scene outside was extraordinary with lines of police cars, dog handlers and a police helicopter! The local paper asked for what resources were deployed, under the Freedom of Information legislation. It took five months for the police to respond. This is what it states:
37 officers in total plus 1 civilian pilot, broken down as one inspector, three sergeants, three foot patrol constables, twentyfour mobile patrol constables, two armed response officers, two dog handlers constables, two helicopter crew plus pilot. Vehicles deployed were thirteen general patrol vehicles, one armed response unit (not on an armed deployment), two dog units and one helicopter.
There were also two ambulances as the police somehow knocked a sixtythree year old woman over in the road, and the eighty year old man my sister had been helping also fell over and had to be assisted.
All this to arrest one seventeen year old lad and his diminutive mother, neither of whom had done anything wrong and were on their way home!
My sister was fined over a thousand pounds and given two years probation and a police record. The single young female magistrate presiding told her sternly that she had got off lightly. My nephews sentence has been adjourned until next month for reports but the three magistrates presiding when he attended for sentencing said it will probably only be community service.
This all seems to stem from the actions of one dodgy policeman who has a very bad reputation locally. I have been told that he spent most of last year on suspension and has now been transferred to a small town elsewhere in the county.
I wonder if it is possible that dressing them all up as last hero actionmen with flak jackets and assorted weaponry has a bearing on their behaviour. Do they get bored with sitting in their Panda cars all night with nothing happening and relish the opportunity to throw their weight around and use up some of their pent-up physical energy and aggression when the opportunity presents itself or can be manufactured to do so?
This incident must call into question whether the police are as under-resourced as they endlessly claim to be. All that this lot lacked were some flame throwers and a main battle tank.
I feel very aggrieved at the injustice that has been perpetrated on my sister and nephew. The personnel concerned have done a disservice to their calling and have alienated a substantial section of the law abiding community. The matter will not rest here and both myself and the local press will be pursuing the matter once my nephew has been sentenced. I have sent copious information to the journalist who attended court, and who wrote an excoriating front page article detailing the resources deployed as reluctantly disclosed by the police, and he assures me that he intends to ask further questions about this night when court proceedings are over.