Grenfell Bonfire (6 Viewers)

[skybluetony176]

I appreciate its a different force but they've put far more effort into investigating this than they put into to investigating my son and his mate getting robbed at knifepoint.

Firstly, sorry to hear that.

There’s definitely a sensible conversation to be had about failures in the justice system but it doesn’t start with wild claims that the CPS don’t prosecute certain crimes. There’s definitely a postcode lottery for justice and I had a mate in a similar situation to your son. He wasn’t robbed but he was viciously attacked in the street in broad daylight in an unprovoked attack. It was bad enough that it put him in hospital for a few days and if it wasn’t for 2 builders in a nearby building site coming to his aid it would have been much worse. The guy actually turned himself in but claimed self defence. Even with 2 independent witnesses the police were for some reason reluctant to charge and it took my mate getting a solicitor involved to get the ball rolling, it then took over a year to get to court where the guy was convicted and sent down. In contrast this happened the same week Caroline Flack attacked her boyfriend who didn’t have to spend a few days in hospital and didn’t want to press charges. Yet she was charged and facing a judge in a matter of weeks. There is a dangerous precedent to favour high profile cases but that’s not to say that this guy didn’t deserve to face the full strength of the law. He sounds like a right piece of work with a history of thinking it’s clever to mock the afflicted.

 

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[clint van damme]

Firstly, sorry to hear that.

There’s definitely a sensible conversation to be had about failures in the justice system but it doesn’t start with wild claims that the CPS don’t prosecute certain crimes. There’s definitely a postcode lottery for justice and I had a mate in a similar situation to your son. He wasn’t robbed but he was viciously attacked in the street in broad daylight in an unprovoked attack. It was bad enough that it put him in hospital for a few days and if it wasn’t for 2 builders in a nearby building site coming to his aid it would have been much worse. The guy actually turned himself in but claimed self defence. Even with 2 independent witnesses the police were for some reason reluctant to charge and it took my mate getting a solicitor involved to get the ball rolling, it then took over a year to get to court where the guy was convicted and sent down. In contrast this happened the same week Caroline Flack attacked her boyfriend who didn’t have to spend a few days in hospital and didn’t want to press charges. Yet she was charged and facing a judge in a matter of weeks. There is a dangerous precedent to favour high profile cases but that’s not to say that this guy didn’t deserve to face the full strength of the law. He sounds like a right piece of work with a history of thinking it’s clever to mock the afflicted.

Your mates incident sounds horrendous and I appreciate there isn't really any correlation between the incidents we've mentioned and this Grenfell one but it's frustrating when violent crime sees to be treated with a fair amount of disdain.

This fella who posted the WhatsApp videos sounds a right piece of work and I'm glad he's not a neighbour of mine but he hasn't actually hurt anyone as far as we know.

 

[Nick]

Social media pressure though isn't it

 

[jimmyhillsfanclub]

This fella who posted the WhatsApp videos sounds a right piece of work and I'm glad he's not a neighbour of mine but he hasn't actually hurt anyone as far as we know.

Exactly....there are no real victims to an offensive video....it may offend people....so what....theyll get over it......but lots of things people say and do (and even wear) offend me on a daily basis.....

Its more the point that despite being previously acquitted, the CPS still found time and resource to appeal and re-prosecute the naughty man with the bad taste joke.

 

[stay_up_skyblues]

Off topic a bit but…

Sorry to hear about that Clint. Our lad was mugged at knifepoint earlier this year outside a shopping centre in Birmingham on his way home from school. Telephone interview and to be fair the copper was initially very good with him (he’s 12).

It would have been on cctv (there are cameras everywhere in the area) and the police said they could go and retrieve it. But our lad would need to press the charges and testify in court. It was a fully grown “man” (wannabe gangster) and the boy was terrified so we declined as we didn’t want to put him through the court process and have him face the c**t.

What I couldn’t understand is that if it’s on camera the bloke has still broken the law and had a knife in public. Further, we could locate him through the find my phone app and offered the police his location. They declined and said they wouldn’t take further action if we didn’t press charges.

Bizarre as if I act a c**t at the footy (I don’t!), sell a bit of weed or am drunk in public the cps can charge me without a victim to press charges. You’d think they’d be keen to reduce violent knife crime, what better way thank to pinch someone on camera committing a knife crime.

The best bit was when they said if we do charge they may look to force the guy to apologise by letter rather than take it to court

 

[clint van damme]

Off topic a bit but…

Sorry to hear about that Clint. Our lad was mugged at knifepoint earlier this year outside a shopping centre in Birmingham on his way home from school. Telephone interview and to be fair the copper was initially very good with him (he’s 12).

It would have been on cctv (there are cameras everywhere in the area) and the police said they could go and retrieve it. But our lad would need to press the charges and testify in court. It was a fully grown “man” (wannabe gangster) and the boy was terrified so we declined as we didn’t want to put him through the court process and have him face the c**t.

What I couldn’t understand is that if it’s on camera the bloke has still broken the law and had a knife in public. Further, we could locate him through the find my phone app and offered the police his location. They declined and said they wouldn’t take further action if we didn’t press charges.

Bizarre as if I act a c**t at the footy (I don’t!), sell a bit of weed or am drunk in public the cps can charge me without a victim to press charges. You’d think they’d be keen to reduce violent knife crime, what better way thank to pinch someone on camera committing a knife crime.

The best bit was when they said if we do charge they may look to force the guy to apologise by letter rather than take it to court

Horrendous mate, hope your son is OK.
Not a pleasant experience at any age but especially at 12 and just illustrates what's been said about the police not taking these crimes seriously enough in my opinion.

 

[SBT]

Reading back this thread and I refuse to believe that someone showed up at a school with a burning twin towers t-shirt on September 12, 2001.

 

[shmmeee]

That's a very flippant remark.
The police didn't even visit my son or his mate. There were 7 knifepoint robberies in cov that weekend and the police didn't visit one victim in person, they did everything over the phone but hey, don't miss out on an opportunity to try and be a smart arse.

The CPS is almost exclusively concerned with whether a case will succeed at trial. The police are a different entity that are concerned with collecting evidence. I’m sorry for what your son went through, I’ve been robbed at knifepoint more than once and I know it’s frustrating but generally unless there’s CCTV or something there’s not much evidence to be collected and chances of a prosecution are low so they don’t commit much resource to it. A bloke filming his crime and admitting to it is a slam dunk in terms of prosecution.

It’s not me being the smartarse here. There’s good reasons why this crime was prosecuted and others aren’t and it’s not “stupid people don’t care about crime”.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I appreciate its a different force but they've put far more effort into investigating this than they put into to investigating my son and his mate getting robbed at knifepoint.

When we lived in Cov someone just opened the front door while we were in and helped themselves to my wife’s bags which were nearest in the lounge. Police didn’t do much besides give a reference number and criticise us for not locking the door while we were in.

We only got them back because the thief chucked them in someone’s garden who handed them in to the station.

 

[clint van damme]

The CPS is almost exclusively concerned with whether a case will succeed at trial. The police are a different entity that are concerned with collecting evidence. I’m sorry for what your son went through, I’ve been robbed at knifepoint more than once and I know it’s frustrating but generally unless there’s CCTV or something there’s not much evidence to be collected and chances of a prosecution are low so they don’t commit much resource to it. A bloke filming his crime and admitting to it is a slam dunk in terms of prosecution.

It’s not me being the smartarse here. There’s good reasons why this crime was prosecuted and others aren’t and it’s not “stupid people don’t care about crime”.

No. Look how doggedly this has been pursued.
Look at the examples given in this thread where far more serious crimes have been brushed aside
I understand the difference between the CPS and the police but considering the party of law and order have been in office for 12 years they should be funding and directing the pair of them tackle one of the most serious issues we face,and that issue isn't racist edgelords on social media trying to be the new Bernard manning

 

[stay_up_skyblues]

Horrendous mate, hope your son is OK.
Not a pleasant experience at any age but especially at 12 and just illustrates what's been said about the police not taking these crimes seriously enough in my opinion.

Cheers. He’s ok now after a couple of months of me driving him too and from, he’s decided to start taking the bus with friends again. The £200 odd he got given in PlayStation store points from the wider family members cheered him up a bit!

In all seriousness though it’s sad that there’s two or three lads in his year that he now swaps similar stories with. And we’re in one of the better areas. For the sake of nipping to the centre and obtaining the footage they would almost certainly have had this prick bang to rights.

 

[clint van damme]

Cheers. He’s ok now after a couple of months of me driving him too and from, he’s decided to start taking the bus with friends again. The £200 odd he got given in PlayStation store points from the wider family members cheered him up a bit!

In all seriousness though it’s sad that there’s two or three lads in his year that he now swaps similar stories with. And we’re in one of the better areas. For the sake of nipping to the centre and obtaining the footage they would almost certainly have had this prick bang to rights.

Glad he's starting to come round.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Was mugged at knifepoint about the same age and it’s stayed with me since

 

[jimmyhillsfanclub]

Was mugged at knifepoint about the same age and it’s stayed with me since

Did anyone get prosecuted?

It could've been worse though mate....you may have stumbled across a viral tiktok showing a dickhead burning a shit model made of shoe boxes...

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Did anyone get prosecuted?

It could've been worse though mate....you may have stumbled across a viral tiktok showing a dickhead burning a shit model made of shoe boxes...

It was surreal. Gang of black lads with knives in the centre of Birmingham. We negotiated with them so they accepted a pound each off us and agreed not to cut us. My mate wanted to fight them. Dad was fuming. I am just scared and always have been walking in Public on my own.

Didn’t even report it

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

We've all got stories it seems . Got jumped by three blokes outside the Sky Dome about 5 years ago and ended up in Walsgrave. Several witnesses, and the reg plate of the car they jumped out of. Some CCTV footage of the aftermath too. Did not want to know. The words the copper used before closing the case was 'we can't justify putting it through the expense of the court procedure with the CPS because it might not win'.

Basically, go round kicking the shit out of who you like, but don't you dare make a sick joke in public. It really makes me mad. Only good thing that came out of it was that I started hitting the gym hard and now I'm stacked. Don't make the mistake of thinking I don't think the burning thing wasn't a bit sick, it was, but it is not something for the authorities FFS.

 

[Johnnythespider]

This will probably be the only conviction related to the Grenfell, that's the sad thing