Yesterday was a lovely day for most of the UK. Temperatures were 10 or 15 degrees higher than those ridiculous sub-zero ones we have seen over recent weeks. On the south coast the National Press showed people taking to the beaches to soak up some rays but in Manchester things weren’t so serene. There, the criminal minority chose to forego the chance to hit the beach or have a BBQ and go lob bricks at the Police and abuse at restaurant owners instead.
In a completely misguided attempt to show anger at the fact that a restaurant, now run by new management, had allegedly been the meeting point for a number of victims and the child sex-offender who is now part of an ongoing trial at Liverpool Crown Court. Once Police became involved and attempted to control the disorder they too became a target and officers were injured as a result.
As usual with these moronic groups, they have adopted half a story and a few disjointed facts as justification for mass disorder. We have seen it before and now we see it again. The rationale for the disorder seems to have been:
- There is a trial on in Liverpool that relates to child sex-offenders – that makes ‘us’ angry
- Some of these offences took place in or related to activity in our local area
- One of those on trial used the Tasty Bites takeaway in Rochdale to meet some of his victims
- The staff and owners of the Tasty Bites takeaway must have known what was going on and are obviously sex-offenders too – we must punish them
- We must also attack those who run other similar businesses in the local area as they are obviously involved too
- The Police are trying to stop us punishing them so they are obviously on the side of the sex-offenders
- The Police therefore deserve the same, or more, punishment for taking the side of the bad guys
- The Police should have stopped the offenders sooner
- The Police hate ‘us’ anyway
- Everything is the Police’s fault
- Where’s my face scarf and brick throwing gloves…
Now those of us with a slightly more rational mind would not, perhaps, be so presumptuous and discover that:
- The trial is still ongoing so no one has been proven to have done anything yet
- The restaurant is under new management so the staff being targeted weren’t eventhere when the offending was allegedly happening.
- The Police are only there because you are committing numerous offences against innocent people
- The actions of paedophiles are not condoned by the Police - child sex offenders are the scum of the earth and there isn’t a copper out there that wouldn’t like to slap a pair of cuffs on one
- The Police don’t hate you…but they do hate having bricks thrown at them
- Everything is not our fault – some bad stuff that happens is the fault of these people we in the business call ‘criminals’
At its peak the disorder was being created by about 200 people and had the result of causing a number of local businesses to close of their own volition. Several vehicles including at least two Police vehicles were damaged during the incident and one officer is reported to have been injured.
Surprisingly, despite this the disorder resulted in just two arrests. This is either extraordinary restraint or the result of insufficient resources. I hope it was more to do with the first, but suspect that it may also have been just as much to do with the second! Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney has said he understood residents would be concerned by the trouble and police would do all they could to prevent it flaring up again. Let’s hope the phones don’t go unanswered in Greater Manchester if it all kicks off again tonight!
