Now There's A Suprise(!)

When the G20 Summit came to London in April 2009 a man was killed by the police during the demonstrations against the summit. Obviously there is absolutely no suggestion that any police officer will face any sort of prosecution over that incident but as news of the death sparked an inpromtu memorial service at the site the following day. As you can see from this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V23PGWd46MM a Sargent in the Territorial Support Group to slap one of the women in attendance across the face and then give her a couple of strikes with his baton. Under the pressure of publicity that this video created and the relatively minor nature of the crime the police officer (Delroy Smellie) was charged with common assault and put on trial. That trial ended today and guess what? He was found not guilty of all charges! So apparently what you see in that video is not assault.

It might seem a strange thing for me to say but I'm taking that as a good sign. You see two of the stranger rumours about me are that I'm a policeman and that I smell. Therefore a judge ruling that the Smellie policeman is entitled to use force to protect himself could be a good omen. Of course though that's just spin and won't detract from the fact that Delroy Smellie will now be allowed to continue his career in the police where he has earned a reputation for being quick to violence.

In other news I've had that chat with the Doctor from Parchmore Road. They don't seem interested in sorting out the problem quietly so have instead called in local social services to investigate what they suspect could be serious mistreatment of my grandmother. That means the atmosphere in my house is going to get very hot right around the first weekend in May. It will then blow over as once again one department of Croydon Council decides it's not going to find evidence of mis-conduct by another department of Croydon Council. It's a good job then that plans to remove Croydon Council from the decision making process are already at quite an advanced stage.