Yorks police respond to their critics

Christopher Booker, in his column today, follows up on the travails of this Blogger:

West Yorkshire police certainly have a clear sense of priorities. At 25 minutes to midnight last Saturday, two policemen arrived at the door of my friend (and co-author) Dr Richard North in Bradford, threatening to kick it in. Instead, they entered his home through a window, scattering china ornaments, and arrested him.

They took him to Bradford's main police station, where he was thrown into a freezing cell for the night without bedding.

North's offence was that, for the second time in a few months, he had withheld his council tax. This is his continuing protest against the ever-rising payments that are demanded for what he and his neighbours regard as the lack of any proper service from their local police. Their street has suffered from a long succession of burglaries, without attracting much interest from the police, until two years ago.

North was in dispute with the police over a minor traffic offence. When bailiffs came to his door demanding the keys to his £12,000 car in payment of a £60 fine, he pointed out that this was illegal, since the car was "tools of trade". The baililffs called the police. Within minutes, five policemen arrived and frogmarched Dr North to the cells, where he remained for several hours until his long-suffering wife Mary arrived with the money.

Only later were North's solicitors allowed to see the court warrant. It had specifically prohibited the bailiffs from removing his car.

Act Two of this drama came last summer when North paid his council tax, but withheld the "police precept". Ordered to pay by the court, he offered to make his payment by credit card. This was not allowed, nor was he permitted to leave the court to obtain the cash. He was sentenced to 14 days in Armley prison. It was only that evening, when a friendly journalist arrived with the cash, that the prisoner was allowed to go free.

Last weekend came Act Three, when North was again arrested for not paying council tax. Normally, with a bailiff, he could have paid by credit card. But when the two policemen arrived just before midnight, having been seen reconnoitring the premises that afternoon, they would only take cash. Since this was not easy to obtain at such an hour, he was thrown into solitary confinement for 36 hours, to await Monday morning when Mary could arrive with cash to
release him.

Asked why it had been necessary to arrest him at this hour, West Yorkshire police explained: "It so happened that resources were available at that time on Saturday night" (even though, elsewhere, Bradford was undergoing its usual weekend mayhem). A source inside the police said, rather more plausibly: "It was to teach him a lesson."

Although the police so often bleat about "lack of resources", it is very difficult to take them seriously when they seem to have so much time and resource available to pursue their own vendettas.

More to the point, its is a "given" in this country that the police operate by "consent", relying on the support of the greater part of the law-abiding community in order to do their job.

As the speed cameras proliferate, as the police retreat more and more from dealing with "ordinary" crime", and as they indulge in the sort of activity described in this Blog, one wonder how long it will take them to realise that they are increasingly losing the confidence and support of ordinary people. And what will they do then?