State of Police
I don’t often feel obliged to comment on the news, or highlight a particular item, but this article about police overreaction made me want to scream.
“Ray Markham said footballs had been flying into his garden for years but when one smashed into his greenhouse last month he refused to return it.
The 68-year-old, who lives next to a policeman in Cubbington, said he was then arrested by four Warwickshire Police officers for theft of the ball.”
Legally the man was probably on shaky ground, for refusing to return the ball. By demonstrating intent to permanently deprive, I guess it was technically stealing. (I sure wish I’d known this as a kid - would’ve saved me a fortune!) I would argue though, that breaking his greenhouse was criminal damage and the ball was evidence. The fact that the ball had been kicked into his garden several times previously showed a certain recklessness as to whether damage to Mr Markham’s property might occur.
Regardless of the legal aspects of this, which I suspect can be argued either way by lawyers, the fact remains that a moral wrong has been committed here. If someone accidentally kicked something through my window and broke it, I would have to cheerfully thank them for doing so and return the item that was accidentally launched through my window. I don’t think so!
As a child, I had a very clear idea that if I broke something, I would have to pay for the damage to be fixed, not go and demand the ball back! Ye gods, what chutzpah that would have demanded!
This example of police heavy-handedness, and, dare I say it, misuse of police time - which is, I believe, an offence in itself, has not endeared the Police to me.
This story would have been equally of note, however, had the neighbour not been a Police officer and simply been an ordinary citizen who called the Police. I suspect though that an ordinary citizen would have been ignored, and not received the attention of four Police officers.