Hint. If you are concerned about the activities of the migrants that have been dumped on your area then Staffordshire Police don’t seem to be on your side, at least at present.
This force has issued a warning to the public not to talk about allegations that illegal migrants who have been housed in the Cannock area of Staffordshire are causing trouble. The police said that they will treat as ‘hate crime’ any attempt to speculate over claims that migrants have stolen a dog and followed young girls around.
Staffordshire Police have said that they have made ‘extensive enquiries’ about these allegations and have uncovered nothing to substantiate them although a claim that there was vehicle damage does seem to have resulted in an arrest. It’s all well and good that Staffordshire Police have said that they have made such far reaching enquiries but should the people of Cannock believe the police on this matter? It could, it needs to be said, be the case that the police are telling the truth and that these concerns are unsubstantiated, but it could equally be true that the police might just be bullshitting in order to keep the lid on what seems to be an escalating level of concern about the behaviour of the migrants who’ve been seemingly dumped on Cannock.
The possibility that Staffordshire Police might be bullshitting should not be dismissed out of hand. After all we do have several examples, including ones from Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford, where the police ignored horrific levels of sexual exploitation of children and young women by Islamic Rape Gangs in order to not create or exacerbate social and communal tensions. If South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and West Mercia Police felt that it was morally and operationally acceptable to ignore complaints about these gangs and the massive numbers of rapes they committed in order to protect the community that the rapists came from, then it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Staffordshire Police might be doing something similar. This force might well be bullshitting the people of Cannock about problems allegedly brought to the town by the migrants that have been imposed on them. In effect Staffordshire Police are telling those whom they police that they should ‘stay quiet and you’ll be OK’, which, worryingly, is something that we’ve heard before, it was what one of the 9/11 hijackers were believed to have told their doomed passengers.
Jamie Brassington writing on the Birmingham Live website said of the police’s comments:
A police force said there was no room for hate crime after it received “unsubstantiated” complaints that asylum seekers had followed girls and tried to steal a dog. Staffordshire Police said there was no evidence the allegations, made on its Facebook page, had ever happened despite officers making “extensive enquiries” following claims in Cannock.
I, along with probably many others, would be interested to know how ‘extensive’ Staffordshire Police’s extensive investigation into these allegations was. Was it truly extensive enough to be appropriate for allegations of men following young girls, something that could be a serious offence, which left no stone unturned? Or was it a barest minimum resourced type of investigation which did only just enough to give the police enough plausible deniability about a potential or actual problem in Cannock and also enough to be able to tell the people of the town to shut up? For all we know the police could have had a brief chat with half a dozen people and just called it quits. The point is we do not know what serious effort, if any, Staffordshire Police have put into investigating these complaints.
It said in a statement: “We continue to carry out our local policing patrols in the area to ensure we are visible to anyone who may wish to raise any concerns. We acknowledge that some people have concerns and that the strength of community feeling is high, but there is no place for hate crime amongst our communities.
Mealy mouthed police bullshit speak. They acknowledge that there are concerns and that people are extremely angry at potentially dangerous and thoroughly unvetted migrants being dumped on them, but the police don’t seem to be doing any thing about these concerns except to tell those who are angry and concerned to shut up and to threaten them with the big stick of ‘hate crime’ charges.
“We are monitoring comments on our posts and would ask people not to speculate in this forum, particularly posting views on unrelated topics when we are trying to keep you informed about policing activities in the area. If you have concerns, please report them to us so we can investigate them.
A message to Stafforshire Police. You seem to be thinking that communication between police and public only goes one way, from police to the public but are forgetting that communication is two way and the public are in my view completely justified in raising on police social media channels their concerns. Allegations that migrant men are running around Cannock and committing offences or behaving in an anti-social manner IS NOT an unrelated topic for discussion.
“Spreading commentary around concerns which are unsubstantiated and have not been reported to us can escalate feelings further, and we will not tolerate people taking matters into their own hands. We will continue to work closely with our communities and partners to monitor key locations, reassure residents and offer guidance and support to the vulnerable.”
The force said a total of three incidents had been officially reported and one man charged with interfering with a vehicle. It said: “We’re aware of a number of social media posts and comments on recent posts issued on our Cannock Police Facebook page, regarding a series of alleged suspicious incidents in Cannock involving asylum seekers. Three incidents have been officially reported to us, which have been fully investigated.
To those who are discussing the alleged activities of these migrants that have been dumped on Cannock then I would say that if you have a concern about what is going on then report it to the police. The police might ignore your complaint or give you some standard police bullshit but if the allegations are reported then the police no longer will have the excuse that matters have not been reported therefore they can do nothing. It looks as if the police are only looking into stuff that is reported to them directly and not allegations made in general discussion.
I concur with the police that vigilantism is not the greatest of ideas. ‘King Mob’ as I’ve said before on many an occasion, such as this one, is not the greatest or most just of rulers. However, the fact that the police are mentioning this in their statement to the press may well indicate that things might be extremely tense in Stafford Police’s area. The police are obviously worried about escalating tensions caused by the dumping of alleged asylum seekers on their patch and are trying to keep a lid on things.
Whether the police are genuinely and properly investigating complaints of anti-social behaviour by migrants and finding nothing to be concerned about or whether they are just telling people any old rubbish in order to shut them up and de-escalate the situation is something that only the passage of time will reveal. But what the police have said about their investigation doesn’t lead me to believe that it was as thorough as it might have been.
Jamie Brassington quoted the police as saying:
“We have spoken to the people who alerted us to these incidents as well as other local residents, local schools and the local authority. To reassure you, we can confirm that no offence – other than the vehicle interference – have been identified.
This comment leaves me with some questions. Questions such as: How many people who raised the alarm did the police actually speak to? How many local residents did they contact and get positive responses from and how close in proximity were they to the alleged incidents. I put little value on any information given to the police by either the schools or the local authority as with stuff like this they are often the last to know what is going on. To get an idea how this could be the case then just think back on your own lives and experiences and consider just how much went on in your school and in your area that neither the school or anybody else knew was going on and it is possible to understand that there might be bad or worrying stuff going on in Cannock that neither the schools or local authority are at all aware of.
I’m glad that the police caught the alleged vehicle tamperer but there might be much more with regards criminality and anti-social behaviour caused by the dumped migrants going on. The police might be correct with regards the incidents that have so far been reported to them but that doesn’t mean that in the near future that other allegations that might be made concerning bad behaviour by these migrants will also be groundless. This might be just the calm before the storm for the people of Cannock as many of these migrants are fit, military age males from cultures where women’s rights are either lacking or non-existent, which is something that is bound to become some sort of big issue for the host community. Time will tell whether Staffordshire Police will stand with the regular residents or instead, abandon all pretence of impartiality and side with the migrants and against those making valid complaints about the behaviour of the migrants.
