A week after I phoned to police to tell them that our 95 had been vandalised I get a letter through the post from Gloucesteshire Police.
Its depressing reading – says so much about what our police force has become:
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Offence : Criminal Damage to property valued under £5000 – vehicle
Date Reported : 03/12/2007
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The offence you reported has been recorded within our computerised crime reporting system…..
To date our investigations have failed to identify the offender. Nevertheless we shall continue to review the matter.
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So its been logged on their computer – wonderful. Did it really take them a week to do that? Actually No. It took them 2 days to log in into the computer (or print the letter) as the letter is dated 05/12. Then they posted it – two days AFTER they had printed it, and it arrived on the 10th (they did at least not waste money sending it out first class!)
So how do we interpret “Criminal Damage to Property valued under £5000”. Does it mean the property is worth less than £5000, does it mean that they did less than £5000 worth of damage?
Its sodding vandalism – my personal property has been vandalised. But apparently the severity of the crime is linked to some odd concept of commercial value. Would it be more of a crime if my car was a £350,000 Ascari and they’d smashed the windscreen, or it would it be more of a crime if they’d mashed the mirrors and slashed the tyres on the 93 at the same time.
Its my car – its how I get to work, its how I go shopping. But to the police it is simply an item of monetary worth.
As for the “we have failed to identify the offender” well, to use an american phrase: no shit sherlock. It happened on a quietish side road, where we hardly ever see policemen. The scrotes from Whaddon roam round the neighbourhood causing trouble all over the place. The police do nothing and then the sodding council gives Whaddon a million pound community centre which I’m sure they’ll torch to the ground soon.
Still the police have more important things to do than chase criminals – its learning Polish All this from the police force whose Chief Constable – Dr Brain (just got to love that name!!) says will have to cut services as they are short of money in next years budget
Oh well
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