St. Louis CofCC Blog

UK Daily Mail:

Police ‘persecute the middle classes’ to hit Government crime targets

The middle classes are being persecuted so police can chase Government crime targets, the head of the Police Federation says today.

Jan Berry says targets imposed by Whitehall have distorted police priorities, encouraging officers to arrest people for minor offences instead of investigating serious crime.

‘There has been a sense of persecuting middle England in order to make the statistics look good’, she said.

(snip)

Mrs Berry says police are concentrating minor offences speeding offences and public order offences when they should take into account the quality as well as quantity of crimes.

(snip)

Sir Ronnie Flanagan found that police were too busy chasing children accused of playground fights to do their job properly and did not always act in the ‘public interest’.

His report was scathing about the way police forces are obliged to chase targets for catching a fixed number of offenders each year, regardless of their crime

Government rules mean punishing a child involved in a schoolyard scuffle carries the same weight as arresting a burglar, rapist or killer.

Ridiculous examples given by rank-and-file police include the case of a Cheshire man who was cautioned for being ‘found in possession of an egg with intent to throw’.

In Kent, a child was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber from a tuna sandwich at another youngster.

It’s “anarchy” because the cops are too scared or neutered to go after the real thugs, and “tyranny” because they do harass people holding cucumbers and eggs, and our leviathan punishes someone who sawed off a shotgun 0.25-inch too far and didn’t pay the $5 transfer tax thereof by assassinating his wife, infant child and dog.