Posted on 12/27/2007 7:13:38 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
When she spotted yobs vandalising a war memorial garden, Julie Lake sprang into action.
As the daughter of a Second World War RAF pilot – and granddaughter of one of the fallen in the 1914-18 war – she felt it was her duty to intervene. But, after giving the main culprit a talking- to and a 'cuff round the ear', she finds herself facing the prospect of being arrested for assault.
Yesterday Mrs Lake accused police of failing to follow up her complaints about graffiti and other hooliganism in the memorial garden.
"The memorial is a sacred place – it's like a grave," said the 50-year-old.
"How dare these youngsters tarnish the memories of those who made a sacrifice for future generations?
"I've called the police and I've tried to talk to these kids, but I've got nowhere.
"I lost my temper in complete frustration after two years of patiently trying to get something done and immediately the police are after me. It's ridiculous.
"I did not go up to these boys intending to hit anyone but they when they started shouting abuse at me and my husband, Peter, who is recovering from cancer, I just snapped."
She said that 15 youths surrounded her and mockingly asked if her husband, who was in their car, was going to rescue her.
"I saw red and gave the ringleader a slap on the cheek," she added. "He was just laughing and said 'That's assault'.
"Then they took my car registration and rang the police. They all know their rights, they just don't care about anyone else's."
She said many of the older residents of her village – Mangotsfield near Bristol – were too scared to venture out at night because of the yobs.
Gangs of teenagers wearing hooded tops have carried out a series of attacks on the pretty memorial garden with its sombre stone cross.
They have daubed offensive graffiti on the stone, ridden their bikes over wreaths and carved their names into wooden benches.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police confirmed the force is investigating an alleged assault on a 15- year-old boy.
He admitted however that Mangotsfield has a problem with youth vandalism.
Inspector Gus Krouwel said: 'Neighbourhood police regularly receive complaints about groups of around eight young people gathering by the war memorial, drinking and leaving litter.
"I do appreciate that people may get frustrated with this sort of situation but the appropriate response is to work with agencies like the police and local authority to find solutions."
Mrs Lake will voluntarily attend a police station next month to be formally arrested. She could be charged with assault which carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison or a £5,000 fine.
But she said she was prepared to take any punishment she is given to make a point about the effects of anti-social behaviour.
"The yobs have stopped going to the war memorial as much – but this is what it has taken," she said.
"I'll go to prison if I have to, because this is not about me, it is about the whole community who are scared to leave their homes.
"I know the lad I got hold of was the most persistent offender.
"I gave him what the police would call a cuff round the ear and threw his bike into the ground."
Mrs Lake, who works in sales, said the example of her father, who was based in wartime South Africa, had inspired her to take action.
She said: "My father and grandfather serving in the forces have made me very passionate about honouring our soldiers and what they sacrificed.
"My family told me never to shrink from a challenge and although I don't condone what I did, I hope some good comes out of it."
Mrs Lake's 63-year-old husband, a retired airman, also lost a grandfather in the First World War.
“Now in this case you might say that the lady in question is the criminal and the youth is the victim which indeed is the police’s opinion”
How is it the police’s opinion? They haven’t even spoken to her about it yet.
“That former “common sense” approach to policing has been abandoned in the UK in favour of a strict literalism and neutrality and no amount of parsing and analysing the current state of UK legislation is going to gainsay that.”
In some respects that is certainly correct. On the other hand, in the past, people complained that there was a lack of answerability by the police and some units seemed to be a law unto themselves, and also that police forces tended to under-record crime in order to make their figures look better.
To correct that, the police are now required to follow prescriptive national standards as to when they should or shouldn’t record a crime. They are lots of places where a more common sense approach could be used but in the end, we can’t have it both ways.
> She was surrounded and asked who was going to help her. Sounds like she was being assulted and responded in self defense.
I believe that you are correct.
If we get down to legal definations, assault is a verbal threat and battery is the act of carrying through on the threat (hitting).
If a YOB the same as a what we call over here a YUTE?
Property crime, vandalism and muggings were rampant in London when I lived there. My children were mugged 3 times in one year (by yobs)and the police "advice" was for them to carry a few pounds that they could “give” the mugger without creating a “tense” situation.
The implication was, that since they looked “American”, they attracted the muggings.
I made rolls of “2P” coins for them to carry in self defense. It worked magnificently on the fourth muggers’ nose.
I’m not convinced things have changed based on this old lady’s experience.
“I do appreciate that people may get frustrated with this sort of situation but the appropriate response is to work with agencies like the police and local authority to find solutions.”
This inspector ought to get assaulted across the face too. What a jerk. The police should be profusely apologizing to the woman for not doing their job.
“How is it the police’s opinion? They haven’t even spoken to her about it yet.”
From the article;
*Mrs Lake will voluntarily attend a police station next month to be formally arrested.*
Clearly someone from the local constabulary has had a word in her shell-like, unless she found out she is to be formally arrested by telepathy.
Yes, when the police have grounds to suspect someone of a crime they formally arrest them prior to interviewing them. It’s the first stage of the investigation, not the conclusion.
I just love Limey slang, what little I know of it.
I understand that.
I didn’t say it was the conclusion, but you stated “that they [the police] haven’t even spoken to her yet”, that is clearly incorrect and your obsession with the minutiae of procedure doesn’t detract from the overall picture of a police force more concerned with this woman’s behaviour than that of the louts who roam her area.
It’s a simple concept and one which I would have thought someone who called himself a UK Tory could understand. The UK police now see themselves as neutral enforcers of the law in the same way as their European counterparts, schooled in the Code Napoleon, have always considered themselves.
However what traditionally set British policemen aside from continental policemen was that the job of a British constable was first and foremost keeping the peace, not enforcing the law, it might seem a subtle difference but it was in fact the bedrock of community support for British policing for generations.
If the British police want to become gendarmes, blindly enforcing state decrees, well then let them come out and say so and let them not be surprised by the concomitant hostility of ordinary British citizens towards them.
I would have thought a self describing Tory could understand this basic principle.
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