Category Archives: Rant

Shot PCs: Man Arrested Over Facebook Page

A 22-year-old man has been arrested after an offensive Facebook page was set up following the deaths of PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone.

Several similar Facebook sites were set-up within hours of news that the two officers were shot dead after answering a routine call in Manchester.

Comments on one of the pages praised Dale Creegan as a ‘hero’ who should be awarded an OBE and suggested more officers should be killed.

One user who posted to one of the pages refered to himself as ‘bullet-tooth tony’ and wrote: “dale cregan u legend”.

The posts attracted widespread condemnation from police colleagues of the shot officers and from the general public.

In a statement to journalists, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Garry Shewan, said: “Tuesday’s tragedy has touched many people’s lives.

“As the public have been watching in from the outside, they’ll have seen the hurt and the pain this tragedy has caused police and the public and those who support policing in Greater Manchester.

“Social media has given people the facility to say how they feel about the loss they’ve experienced.

“But there are also a number of people who use social media in a very malicious and offensive way. We’ve become very aware that derogatory and offensive comments have been posted on social media websites.”

“We received reports of at least one Facebook account had been set up with derogatory comments about the tragedy of Tuesday’s events and last night, Merseyside police arrested a 22-year-old male from the Netherley area of Merseyside.”

Despite the arrest, the overwhelming message on social media sites remained one of support and a Facebook page was set-up by members of the public.

A Twitter hashtag #coverforgmp was also started, with more than 2,700 police officers from forces around the country offering their time to allow GMP officers and staff to attend the funerals.

As this is not my site but a site for retired comrades I will let another blogger, Anna Raccoon answer for me.  I hope she will not mind me lifting this extract from her blog but you can read the full post at: -

Land of the Rising Scum…

by Anna Raccoon on September 19, 2012

We have a feral underclass. It is a statement many bloggers make daily – but we do not think too deeply about it. We don’t go out in the morning, leave food out for the cat, drop our kids off at child care – and then walk into the feral lair.

We talk of the morons with “cut here” tattooed on their neck – we don’t invite them into our car ‘to answer questions’.

We avoid dangerous areas. We don’t walk up to empty council houses in the full knowledge that the local community are well aware that a double murderer, a drug dealer and armed criminal, a man given to lobbing hand grenades at those who offend him, is hiding somewhere in the area.

Today, tonight, in the dark of the night, after two police women were blown to smithereens, other police will be clocking onto duty; understaffed, under equipped, underpaid, under appreciated, and walking back into that feral lair – on our behalf.

They will be doing more than just walking back into the lair. They will be in Hyde Police station addressing Dale Cregan as “Mr Cregan”; they will make sure he has a cup of tea at regular intervals; when his solicitor says he is tired, they will stop the interview, call it a day; they won’t kick his other eye out, though who could blame them if they wanted to behave as the Thai police did; they will keep their temper, aware that the IPCC will monitor their every utterance, their every move. They will do that even as they mourn their colleagues – some may even have to miss the funeral to ensure Dale Cregan’s safety.

For Dale Cregan will be in full possession of his ‘uman rites’. Why do you think he gave himself up  - a sudden fit of conscience? Perchance he didn’t fancy spending a couple of weeks sleeping in a drainage ditch, with a failed footballer and a cold Chinese for company. He knew the safest place for him was right in the heart of ‘those murderous scum’ that he so detests. He knew he could rely upon their professionalism to keep him safe. We ask too much of these men and women.

It makes no difference that those two officers were women. They were not killed because they were women, but because they represent ‘the enemy’ to a feral sub-culture. There is a war out there, one that has become so mundane to the media that most of us were unaware that life in Manchester included hand grenades being lobbed around and double murderers on the loose.

We are shocked – and supportive – when the army suffers deaths from the people they are supposed to be helping. Yet there is a sector of the Internet that is happy to label all police as scum – and thus foster the belief that whatever happens to them, they deserve it. They don’t.

These are ordinary men and women, doing a job. Without their painstaking efforts day after day, we will all find ourself living in a land ruled by the increasingly violent feral under class.

I feel for the ordinary men and women who have to live in an area like Hyde. Who have to live cheek by jowl with the likes of Dale Cregan. Though they can at least keep their heads down, avoid the pubs that the likes of Cregan frequent, and try to stay out of trouble.

Not so the Police. They, men and women, have to engage with the Cregan’s on a daily basis. Two young girls, answering a call regarding a suspected burglary, an empty house, nothing of value could have been taken, but there are targets for answering calls from members of the public, and they must be met. They could have been ‘meeting targets’ in a call centre, but they weren’t. In return, they were not just shot, but blown up.

Theresa May thinks that the ‘family’, as they were described tonight by Ian Hanson, their federation representative, can be replaced by civilians. That their pay can be compared to that of other civil servants. That their pensions can be slashed and self funded. That they are mere objects, pawns to be moved around the Crown board.

I had to stop writing this last night, Martin Brunt on Sky so enraged me fretting that Cregan ‘might not get a fair trial’ owing to the heartfelt and emotional comments of the Manchester Chief Constable who had just lost a ‘bubbly’ 23 year old, and a ‘shy’ 32 year old from his force. Who had had to explain how it could have happened to that young girl’s fiancée, and the families of both officers. Who had had to talk to other young officers, off for the night to see if they could find the murderous Cregan’s accomplices in the shady cracks and crevices of Mottram’s feral backside. They’ll have a stick of wood and a stab proof vest – and the remains of a pension – to give them courage.

Dear God, give me strength.

They deserve better, much better. Before we find out what life would be like without them

And before you ask, to the best of my knowledge ‘Anna Raccoon’ is not nor has ever been a police officer so I post this extract as a quote from a member of the public who has said it like it is.