OP
OP
swee'pea99
Squire
I suppose I should be relieved that not everyone has responded with 'your daughter's obviously lying to you. the police wouldn't do that', and/or personal reminiscences of occasions when the police would or should definitely have been involved. Still, it's a tad depressing.
First off, seven. Yes, it was seven. Of this I am confident. My daughter may on occasion exaggerate, but on such a basic fact, I have no doubt she would not lie. She was shocked. As am I. If you choose not to believe her, that's your prerogative, but seven cops turned up and invaded her friend's house, for no good reason.
Booze? Of course there was booze. I never said anything about tiddleywinks and ice-cream. They were a bunch of nice, well-behaved 15-16 year olds letting off steam before getting into the last lap of pre-GCSE preparations. They were mostly on that horrible fruit-flavoured cider, by all accounts, and I'm sure several had had more than too much. Kids do that. There may even have been a spliff or two (though the cops didn't find any); such things are not unheard of among bright 15-16 year olds.
But there was no violence, no-one was getting hurt, nothing was getting damaged, the music was not excessive, and no-one had been the least put out by a teenagers' party, in London, at 9 o' clock on a Saturday night. Other than one neighbour, who for reasons unknown (some kind of personal grudge?), decided to call the police.
Who, in my opinion, should have been told that if you live in a big city, you have to expect the odd party at 9 of a Saturday evening, now if you'll excuse us, we have work to do. Or at most, sent a car round with a couple of cops to have a word, make sure nothing untoward was going on, give a heads-up that anything bad would be dealt with firmly. Instead, it was used as an opportunity to turn up mob-handed, scare the shoot out of a bunch of harmless teens, ruin their fun, for absolutely no good reason, and cause real damage to community relations. Is that what we pay them for? I don't think so. If you do, you're entitled to your views. Best hope it doesn't happen to your kids, eh?
And to paraphrase Neil Kinnock's famous speech, do be careful not to be black, or gay, or anything else young, bored hyped up cops take a dislike to. Because if you do, and they decide to take it out on you, you're sure to find yourself surrounded by a smug community assuring you that 'you must have been asking for it'.
First off, seven. Yes, it was seven. Of this I am confident. My daughter may on occasion exaggerate, but on such a basic fact, I have no doubt she would not lie. She was shocked. As am I. If you choose not to believe her, that's your prerogative, but seven cops turned up and invaded her friend's house, for no good reason.
Booze? Of course there was booze. I never said anything about tiddleywinks and ice-cream. They were a bunch of nice, well-behaved 15-16 year olds letting off steam before getting into the last lap of pre-GCSE preparations. They were mostly on that horrible fruit-flavoured cider, by all accounts, and I'm sure several had had more than too much. Kids do that. There may even have been a spliff or two (though the cops didn't find any); such things are not unheard of among bright 15-16 year olds.
But there was no violence, no-one was getting hurt, nothing was getting damaged, the music was not excessive, and no-one had been the least put out by a teenagers' party, in London, at 9 o' clock on a Saturday night. Other than one neighbour, who for reasons unknown (some kind of personal grudge?), decided to call the police.
Who, in my opinion, should have been told that if you live in a big city, you have to expect the odd party at 9 of a Saturday evening, now if you'll excuse us, we have work to do. Or at most, sent a car round with a couple of cops to have a word, make sure nothing untoward was going on, give a heads-up that anything bad would be dealt with firmly. Instead, it was used as an opportunity to turn up mob-handed, scare the shoot out of a bunch of harmless teens, ruin their fun, for absolutely no good reason, and cause real damage to community relations. Is that what we pay them for? I don't think so. If you do, you're entitled to your views. Best hope it doesn't happen to your kids, eh?
And to paraphrase Neil Kinnock's famous speech, do be careful not to be black, or gay, or anything else young, bored hyped up cops take a dislike to. Because if you do, and they decide to take it out on you, you're sure to find yourself surrounded by a smug community assuring you that 'you must have been asking for it'.
They should talk their way out of trouble like we used to do. Calling the police officer sir and offering a small donation to the police benevolent fund always seemed to get us off with a "You don't seem bad lads,don't do it again".
