Police in the West Midlands have proudly released footage of themselves using a petrol disc cutter to cut their way into a football club to break up an illegal ‘lock in’ in breach of Chinese coronavirus rules.
According to their video:
We’d had reports that drinkers were illegally gathered in the bar behind the shutters, but our attempts to get in were initially met with silence.
The caption to the video makes reference to the local Chinese coronavirus lockdown rules:
‘We’re still in tier 3 so it’s vital everyone sticks to the rules.’
The organisers were fined £1,000 and 17 drinkers were fined £200 each.
But if this was supposed to be a publicity stunt (at the end the message flashes up ‘We’re recruiting!’) it has backfired horribly – with many people questioning West Midlands Police’s bizarre priorities.
How come, for example, West Midlands Police can go in mob-handed to stop a few people having a drink but failed to show up when a man armed with a machete smashed up a mother’s car as she was taking her four-year-old child to school?
According to the Mail in an article published the same day as the club raid video:
Shocking footage shows a man thrashing his weapon through the windscreen and onto the car bonnet at around 9.10am in an attack which left the young child in tears.
The woman, whose partner was driving, claimed police failed to attend the scene despite four 999 calls from other parents and the school.
This is the same police force condemned for a string of ‘unacceptable’ failures in protecting children from sexual exploitation by Muslim rape gangs.
According to Mail report from 2014:
In one child sex exploitation case, information was sent to the force’s intelligence unit about men who may have been raping younger girls but no follow-up action took place, HMIC said.
Inspectors found cases where ‘vital information’ had not been recorded including one of children found ‘living in chaos’ because of their parents’ criminality and another involving the sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old girl.
They also raised concerns about delays in the arrests of offenders, and found officers had closed cases without sufficient consideration of the risk posed to other potential victims, the report found.
Last year, a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, rated West Midlands Police ‘inadequate’. The report noted that it was ‘failing victims’ and not recording more than 16,600 violent crimes each year.
But while West Midlands Police may not take child rape or machete attacks or common assault seriously, there can be no doubting the zeal with which it is enforcing coronavirus regulations.
Earlier this year, West Midlands Police announced that its officers would enter homes if necessary to investigate family Christmas gatherings in breach of Covid rules.
West Midlands Police does not appear to have mastered the art of policing with consent. Or indeed, of winning the public’s hearts and minds…
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