Mounted police were outside Poundland today as a reassuring gesture after yesterday’s fatal stabbing.
The Street Pastors were also there for anybody who wanted to talk.
Close by, for the next week in the Community Free Space, there is a Christmas reflective space with different areas to explore the Christmas Story.
what exactly is the point? – when you’ve arrested the accused the sight of police just frightens people studies show.
not a criticism of the police i hasten to add.
A few colleagues and I were commenting on how run down the photographed area looks.
And what really is the point of mounted police, in a situation such as this?? Don’t get me wrong, i have seen police horses in action used for crowd control after a rock concet at Wembley..when thousands of people all going one way needed to be let through in sections…and i stood on the bridge and watched in awe…what a fantastic job they did….but here…seriously??!! After the man has been arrested? Was this a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has been paraded??
Mounted Police are not just for crowd control, in fact if you lived in the Milton Keynes area where they are stabled you would be used to them a bit more than the rest of us. There will be some sections of our community that will be feeling very vulnerable with the tragic events over the past few months and whilst I believe they are wholly unconnected, it does make people think that is society getting more violent and some of the press coverage particularly on the TV has not helped. Police Horses are very visible, they are also different and act as ‘ice breaker’ when they are in the community. In fact most of their time is spent doing just this visible policing out in the community it’s just a shame they are based so far north and the Thames Valley is so big otherwise we would probably see more of them.
My husband and I were randomly threatened in the car park at the Tamworth Services. When you are just going about your business it takes some time to realise what is happening. From the man’s demeanour we could see that the level of aggression and threats of violence were beyond reason so got in the car and drove away. It brought home to us that people could not now be complacent. The BBC reported that the incident of knife crime has gone up. People do not want to be patronised. If you talk to local police you will get. “We have to fight the fear of crime”, (crime does not exist it is all in your mind!). Or “This is a low crime area”. (There is no crime here, we are in denial). It was such a treat to speak to an old style retired copper who you felt was completely on your side. He was quite happy to talk about crime statistics, what crime was in the area and how people could be vigilant and what to do to protect oneself.