A bit of poor communication yesterday evening on the polices behalf.
My lad and his mates (all about 14) were sitting on the green at about 7pm'ish, when the police came along and asked them to move on as there had been accusations of an 'attack' locally. So they moved off watched by the police thinking they were being persecuted when an elderly drunk ran out of an alley way and bottled one of the kids and started punching the others shouting out specific names, but not theirs?
Anyway the police ran to the incident and arrested the guy. More police turned up because this guy wasn't going quietly.
They brought my lad home and one lad is in hospital with severe facial injuries.
And the attacker is known to them?
I was out and I don't know what happens next.
Don't know why I'm popsting this either, strange old world.
Just think two policemen in one car looking for a man accussed of an assult was a bit on the light side? I don't know.
that's bad, but if the police were doing an area search they would have been all over the neighbourhood, not concentrated in one place.
At least they'd turned out in the first place, it's just a shame that when they told the kids to do home they ended up puttign them in more danger.
sounds like the po pos were trying to help???
Bloody hell, not all the nutters where on here last night,hope the young lad gets better, as for 2 police, there may well have been plain clothes officers looking as well CCTV.
Accusations of an attack (just being shoved is an attack, hardly worth an armed response team), drunk person, weak response until proven otherwise? Hard to know without more detail.
Yes they were trying to help, but all the lads assumed they were being accuessed. So instead of coming home they walked further into town.
I've go no issues at all, no problems, you can't go through life without a bit of trouble.
I guess it depends on the severity of the original assault, as to the intensity of the search. Balance this with issue specific to what else your resources are dealing with, and maybe there were more police active on this?
Moving on the kids seems sensible to me as an attempt to keep them safe. It's unfortunate it ended as it did and I wish the best to those effected/ injured, but I think more details would be needed before you could blame the police. Unfortunately bad things happen in the world, despite people's best efforts.
edit - God, I type slow, this should have been up there ^
Without knowing what the cops actually said - did they say "theres been accusations of an attack, please move on" or did they say "we've heard someones been attacked, you should move on", did the kids hear that or did they jump to conclusions and assume? Did the cops assume it was kids doing the attacking? who knows.
Will we find out who did it as my lad didn't suffer any real harm.
None of the kids knew the bloke and it's a small town.
I assume he was drunk anyway or a bit mad. My lad said that was the most worrying when he was calling them names, not swear words but names as if he though they were someone else.
This is it coffeeking, young kids with no experience of talking to the police, probably scared to death when they were approached. Totally got the wrong end of the stick, but I don't think from talking to my boy that they thought they could be in danger.
[Ton] Do you know where the policeman's Dad lives? I'd go round there.. etc [/Ton]
Sorry to hear about your lad going through that, sounds extremely stressful. Can his mate get compensated for his injuries?
On the up side he couldn't wait to get to school this morning.
Knowing the families I would say they wouldn't bother, and just chalk it up to experience.
The one boy has been kept in overnight, his dad told me his lip is torn from his brace being ripped off and he'll have a small scar at the side of his mouth. Other than that his fine and milking it at the hospital.
they should press charges against the drunk
Maybe the police should have anticipated the actions of this drunk guy and placed a protective cordon around the lads.
they should press charges against the drunk
Normally I'd say +1 this. However the "elderly drunk" may have attacked, albeit mistakenly, in reponse to an attack on someone close to him. We don't know all the facts.
If they do decide to take it further then I'd say the fact that Police witnesses were present can only help.
Can the police do anything right these days? FFS...
Well I'm just happy they were there, they could have been attacked by this guy anyway.
The police were so close that they ran to the incident rather than use the car.
I'm going home early today to see what happened.