
*Knock knock*
‘Who’s there?’
‘Stasi’
‘Stasi who?’
‘Ve vill ask ze qwestions…’
It’s an old ‘un but a good ‘un, and it never goes out of fashion. Cunters will no doubt recall the recent ‘WhatsApp’ scandal, when offensive comments posted by a number of Labour politicians led to the sacking of Health Minister Andrew Gwynne and the suspension of Oliver Ryan (MP for Burnley) and a number of councillors.
Enter a certain Mrs Helen Jones of Stockport, who called on Facebook for resignations on the part of those councillors involved. And guess what… Within 48 hours, she gets the proverbial knock on the door from Greater Manchester Plod, who ‘want a word’ about her comments. In a subsequent phone call, the lady learns from the fizz that a complaint has been made against her (the cops won’t say by whom; mmm…give me three guesses…).
Naturally Mrs Jones had committed no crime, and was simply engaging in legitimate comment on the disgraceful behaviour of those politicians involved. Unsurprisingly however, she felt intimidated by the police actions, and stated ‘it made me think I’d just best keep quiet for the rest of my life’.
No doubt the police would argue that they had a ‘duty’ to act as they did, but it will also come as no surprise that the actions of the scuffers have been branded a waste of time and resources in an area where so much crime goes uninvestigated and unsolved. It’s a view that’s hard to disagree with. A more disagreeable factor is consequence for free speech. Mrs Jones feels that she’s been leaned on by these pettyflogging plods, and when this starts to happen, we can fear that we are indeed on a slippery slope.
In her position I’d have told them to piss off and catch some proper criminals instead of wasting my time on what is no doubt classed by the hierarchy as a ‘non-crime incident’. Is this really what we pay our taxes for?
*Ding dong*
Oh hang on, there’s someone at the door…
Daily Fail
Nominated by Ron Knee.