18 hours in cell for discarded apple core

[Halcyon]

The real big issue is why does it take 5 officers to tackle such an incident.
What a complete waste of police time.

[Enuff]

Originally Posted by etccarmageddon

we need DNA testing done on the apple to check for his siliva.

Now why didn't they think of that?

[Derek S]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

The real big issue is why does it take 5 officers to tackle such an incident.
What a complete waste of police time.

Well the two immediate explanations I can think of would be:

A - There were 5 of them in a minibus nearby.
B - The PCSO put out an assistance call and in those cases normally two or three cars will turn up rather than just one. These are different from urgent assistance calls where the whole nick, any cops nearby + kitchen sink turn up.

Anyway after the initial incident three at least would have gone onto other things leaving one or possibly two handling the phantom apple chucker.

[SMG]

Originally Posted by Enuff

It's my local too, let's hope they comfront the smokers who litter with their randomly discarded dimps. Not forgetting the gum spitters, I'd probably have more chance of slipping in bird muck than slipping on the amount of apple cores dropped on the precinct.

What would you say is a worse crime? the police leaving his poor wife and family in the dark worried sick, thinking something serious had happened to him. Or a discarded apple core that may not even have been dropped by the accused?

The Swinton council (just like any other) are doing everything to rob the public of their cash. They should be sorting out the high numbers of chavin trouble makers who are in the area. Pathetic.

A lot of your post had already been answered by others. I agree anyone who litters should be brought to task. Bird crap wont topple an old timer as easily as an apple core, however, in my view, one apple core is one too many.

"A worst crime". Well, the guy is entitled to a phone call upon arriving at the nick so I wonder who he phoned? Why should the Police give a damn about this guys family. I pay my taxes for the Police to lock up trouble makers, not to waste Police time by running around telling their families whats happened, thats what the phone calls for.

I fully agree with your point regarding Swinton Council.

Dropping an apple core may seem petty to you, & you do have a point, however it is littering. Local authorities are trying to clean our towns up, so full marks to them.

This entire incident was down to this guys attitude toward authority. I for one, don't like to see my money, (Police time) being wasted by people who disrespect the law. He had a go, gobbed off, took the mick, challenged authority, he was on a looser from the start.

They locked him up for 18 hours. Theres a lesson to be learned there m8, lets hope he learned it. I learned the same lesson years ago.

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by Derek S

Well the two immediate explanations I can think of would be:

A - There were 5 of them in a minibus nearby.
B - The PCSO put out an assistance call and in those cases normally two or three cars will turn up rather than just one. These are different from urgent assistance calls where the whole nick, any cops nearby + kitchen sink turn up.

So, a 54 year old throwing an apple core gets a van full of plod, yet, these people get nothing for 3 hours? What gives?

[Derek S]

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

So, a 54 year old throwing an apple core gets a van full of plod, yet, these people get nothing for 3 hours? What gives?

He probably got the first car available, it just happened to be a van. Once nabbed three at least would have been back out and about.

Dunno about that incident. *IF* it was as reported then it's disgraceful and backsides should be getting booted from one county to the other.

But (and it's a big but) when you have some forces with a handful of cops covering a force on a nightshift thats when can happen. If you don't believe thats possible have a quick shifty though some of the Police blogs for examples.

When the main priority gets to be having lots of Hi-Viz on the streets at peak times to make the Public think there are lots of Police about the first shift to get hit for staff is the night shift. Have (for example) a fatal accident, 1 custody being dealt with from earlier in the evening and someone off sick and the dispatchers cupboard can start looking very barren.

Still thats what happens after 10 years of Labour tinkering with the Police forces of England and Wales. Accountability and discretion taken away, fixation on quick target driven detections, some crimes such as burglaries been seen as not important.

And they wonder why officers are leaving in droves to Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc.

All I can say is from my knowledge of my local force any call with intruders on premises gets a high priorty with a number of cars going to it. But then again my local force hasn't felt the meddling fingers of new labour quite as much as the ones down south. Yet.

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

So, a 54 year old throwing an apple core gets a van full of plod, yet, these people get nothing for 3 hours? What gives?

That's pretty normal for police in arnold, tbh.

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

So, a 54 year old throwing an apple core gets a van full of plod, yet, these people get nothing for 3 hours? What gives?

Obviously a horrifically frightening experience, especially with two young children present. But as stated above by Derek, I find it almost impossible to believe the guy rang 999 and told them eight masked intruders wielding an axe were downstairs robbing his house, as he was barricaded with young children upstairs. Id like to wager the police will release a recording of this call to counter his argument, also from the Mails point of view they get a great headline, claiming they took the victims word, they cant lose because IF it does turn out the victim has been "economical" with the truth the Mail get another story, this time painting him as the villain. We will just have to wait and see, but I know where my money would be.

[Enuff]

He's not been found guilty yet. He's due in court July.

The charge of obstruction was dropped, he faces a charge for littering only.

There's plenty of people on and around Swinton precinct dropping litter, sort them out!

I have an idea, why not pay someone to clean the excess litter? Like they do on Salford precinct. A guy drives round on a large vacuum cleaner, whilst other cleaners push carts.

[foreverwar]

Isn't that dealing with the symptoms, rather than dealing with the cause?

Surely it is better to stop people littering, than pick up after them? Why should it always be someone else's problem - people should take responsibility for their own rubbish, including fag-ends, fast food wrappers, and apple cores (imho).

When I was up in Glasgow last year, they introduced anti-litter patrols (link) (not because I was up there, the timing was coincidental ), because they were having to clear up 9 tonnes of litter some nights in the City Centre. An apple core here, a chip wrapper there, it soon adds up.

[slowcoach]

Then there are the people who think that it is only an offence if the litter hits the pavement, leaving the litter on a window sill or bus shelter seat is not seen as an offence.

[Enuff]

where there's large numbers of people, there'll always be litter. Have you seen the amount of litter down Bury new road!?

[Derek S]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

When I was up in Glasgow last year, they introduced anti-litter patrols (link) (not because I was up there, the timing was coincidental )

They work during the daytime but almost all carry a big heavy maglite. I wonder why...

[Escapee]

I took an apple with me from the house on my early Sunday morning walk, I threw the core onto a grass verge. I would say this is not like throwing it on the ground in a shopping precinct though.

On the other side of the coin I also called into th garage and got a small carton of pop to drink, I opened this and drank it whilst walking down the canal towpath. When I had finished it I carried it some considerable distance before I found a bin to place it in.

Throwing the apple core on the grass would be very differen from throwin the carton on the grass. I would of thought a police officer correct to challenge me if I had thrown down the drink carton, but would of thought him to be a total idiot for doing that for throwing the apple core on he grass.

I did similar on a previous recent walk, I eat a lolly and carried the wrapper until I found a bin. (long after I had finished the lolly) The stick though I threw in some overgrown brambles as it was a bio degradable item that would sit there until it rots and not blow around like the wrapper would of.

Perhaps I was wrong to do that, but at the end of the day it's all common sense which some people fail to have.

[haydnwalker]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

The real big issue is why does it take 5 officers to tackle such an incident.
What a complete waste of police time.

That's true...waste of resources... The article states he walked on and to where he was going... he didnt run off from the PCSO, so it didn't need 5 PCs to tackle him. Just a PCSO on the way out of the Chemist.

IF he dropped/threw the core then fine (still don't think he should have been "tackled" like that). The £50 is his problem. However I do think some PCSOs think they own their beat and need to be knocked down a peg or two (and I'm by no means generalising every PCSO here).

However i DO think that not phoning his wife/family until nearly 11pm that evening is utterly rediculous as they must've known she was disabled (i would have thought the man mentioned this!)