Thursday 22 January 2009

Themes of the week...

The previous post was a bit heavy - I know - but every now and then, something happens and I look round and wonder if I'm out of step with the rest of the world - or whether something inexplicable and awful has happened - and no-one else noticed.

But meanwhile, at Grim-on-th't-Moor Central HQ, we've been busy dealing with our parishioners latest sets of problems. The current top 5 are:

1. Threats via Facebook - where being called a 'slapper' or 'minger' is taken as an immediate and serious threats to kill.

2. Harassment by mobile phone - where the availability and low cost of pay-as-you-go SIM cards, has led to open season for ex-partners, ex-friends, ex-neighbours and estranged family members to send all manner of annoying, stupid and occasionally unpleasant texts from anwhere in the country to their target. Apparently changing your number or being more careful who you pass it out to - or even deleting the unread texts is not an option...

3. Lottery frauds - 'What's that - I've won millions in the Spanish lottery, that I don't remember entering, but I have to send you £500, and then £1000, then a further £1000? Sounds good to me - where's my chequebook?.....' I despair at these.

4. Reports of assault to comply with company policy - 'Yes - I've been assaulted at work - my line manager says I have to report it..... no I don't want to go go to Court..... no - I don't want to give a statement..... no I'm too busy to see you at work..... yes, but I have to report it...... Officer, are you crying? What is this 'NCRS' you have to comply with?....'

5. School bullying. Apparently, for many schools, dealing with unruly or unpleasant children who are picking on others is 'not in their remit', so it must be in ours. Stand by while we get our pens out...

Sgt C.

3 comments:

  1. Or... Making threats via somebody else's facebook profile. So X tells Y that she's going to do Z in via facebook. How does Z find out? By covertly sneaking a look at Y's profile. Z, believe it or not then phones the police.

    They all live in the same place. Why they don't just go down the pub and slag each other off in the car park after 15 stella's I don't know.

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  2. Sadly, schools are not allowed to deal with bullying outside school. Our powers are limited.

    What really gets up out noses is the way the police seem to think that when laws are broken in school they can turn a blind eye or let the school use its narrow range of punishments to deal with the child. If a member of the public smacks a doctor in A&E all hell breaks loose because the tea-drinking policemen who are at the end of the corridor who are flirting with the nurses come a running. Not so in schools.

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