The idea
Why is it the police do not seem to exercise common sense when presented with trivial matters brought to their attention? I have come across examples over the years but the most ridiculous was their investigation when a child threw a slice of cucumber from their lunch at another child at school. The police got involved for this supposed assault. There was no injury so why could they have have let the school to sort the problem out as part of their own disciplinary procedures?
Often the standard excuse given by the police for their involvement is that they have a duty to investigate a complaint or allegation. Why can't they adopt a common sense approach and refuse to get involved in trivia? Haven't they got anything better to do or are they driven by targets, another solved crime for their statistics?
Sometimes these cases end up in court. Fortunately many are thrown out by judges or magistrates or the CPS suddenly decide, after public outcry, they have no evidence or a realistic chance of a prosecution. This is a waste of police time and public money.
Interestingly I reported a senior Labour figure to the police after he appeared in a documentary and flouted the seat belt rules. Instead of exercising a duty to investigate they told me they had other priorities!
Why is it important?
The police should be stopping real crime
I agree absolutely. For the police to put a child through such trauma for such a small incident is absolutely disgusting and feels like more of a crime than the original issue! I also blame the idiot who reported it. Surely their “duty to investigate” could simply be to consider the complaint and then apply common sense by either getting on with something useful to spend our taxes on or arrest the complainent for being an arsehole. I think that the police are investigating more and more trivial issues, sticking their noses into our everyday lives such as fouls at football matches etc rather than catching baddies. After all, their failure to investigate Jimmy Saville pails their investigation into a child throwing a slice of bloody cucumber into mindblowing insignificance from a priority perspective.. They appear to be becoming a law unto themselves, acting as they see fit and on their own hunches and opinions. They should simply apply the law of the land based on simple priorities. If they can fabricate statements at hillsborough, and (allegedly) lie about the minister in the Downing street scandle then they have reached the point where they think they can behave how they want. Given the nature of your average copper this is a scary state of affairs. I agree with the current governments attempts to bring them back in line. They are our public servants who we pay from our hard earned wages and whose purpose should simply be to uphold the law and nothing else. No “telling off”, no “opinions”, no ” pointless investigation”, no causing trauma to kids, no fabrication, no bad manners, no silly humour (i’ve seen road wars), no patronising, no swearing( “get out the ****ing car”) and no time wasting investigations. Saying that, I’ve met loads of nice ones so I suspect it’s the system thats at fault rather than individuals. We have reached the point in society where all statutary services feel affraid to apply common sense in case they get investigated themselves by some waste of money body who themselves cannot apply common sense and so the chain continues. What was the original issue again!!??