Noisy
Hell of a lot of sirens going off in the last few days. Not a PCSO or Real Police foot patrol in sight, except as a passing blur in a patrol car. For the first time ever I saw the vehicle which is one of our areas Armed Response Units cruising around the town centre.
Management have got their knickers in a serious twist over the possible terrorist threat. Some of the guys are getting a bit worried about going out on patrol because of it. Most of us are indulging in the usual gallows humour we use to get us through the general round of threats and attempted assaults that are our daily lot. See this link from the Scotsman to see what happens north of the border.
On our patch, that sort of thing happens every week. It’s very rare that a day goes by without someone strolling into the mess room without a near miss tale to tell. Weekends are the worst. As I’ve said before, unless one of us gets hospitalised, it doesn’t even make the local newspaper, whereas they are usually first there if the Mayors cat gets stuck up a tree.
Since Friday we’ve had a number of people coming up to us in the street, telling us about suspect packages. All we can do is call it in to CCTV and hope like hell it’s a case of over anxiety on the part of the public. One nervous woman even reported one of our own vans for ‘lurking suspiciously’ at the end of her street. In one respect she was correct, but the only people ‘at risk’ from that particular suspicious vehicle would be illegal parkers.
Not that any self-respecting terrorist would leave any bombs in our little corner of Chavland. Firstly; there’s nothing to blow up that wouldn’t be cheered to the rafters by the locals. The IRA passed us by for years. There’s something vaguely insulting about that when they even deigned to bomb Solihull (A suburb or Birmingham, England) in the 1970’s. Secondly; there’s nothing remotely American around here apart from the usual fast food franchises. If there was a Michelin terrorists ‘Where to bomb’ list, we wouldn’t even get a mention.
Bearing this in mind, we’re not that concerned about the random actions of psychotic madmen with bombs. We’ve got enough problems from the general dyslexic as it is. It’s the psychotic madmen (And women) in cars that keep us awake at nights.
That and those flaming sirens.
Management have got their knickers in a serious twist over the possible terrorist threat. Some of the guys are getting a bit worried about going out on patrol because of it. Most of us are indulging in the usual gallows humour we use to get us through the general round of threats and attempted assaults that are our daily lot. See this link from the Scotsman to see what happens north of the border.
On our patch, that sort of thing happens every week. It’s very rare that a day goes by without someone strolling into the mess room without a near miss tale to tell. Weekends are the worst. As I’ve said before, unless one of us gets hospitalised, it doesn’t even make the local newspaper, whereas they are usually first there if the Mayors cat gets stuck up a tree.
Since Friday we’ve had a number of people coming up to us in the street, telling us about suspect packages. All we can do is call it in to CCTV and hope like hell it’s a case of over anxiety on the part of the public. One nervous woman even reported one of our own vans for ‘lurking suspiciously’ at the end of her street. In one respect she was correct, but the only people ‘at risk’ from that particular suspicious vehicle would be illegal parkers.
Not that any self-respecting terrorist would leave any bombs in our little corner of Chavland. Firstly; there’s nothing to blow up that wouldn’t be cheered to the rafters by the locals. The IRA passed us by for years. There’s something vaguely insulting about that when they even deigned to bomb Solihull (A suburb or Birmingham, England) in the 1970’s. Secondly; there’s nothing remotely American around here apart from the usual fast food franchises. If there was a Michelin terrorists ‘Where to bomb’ list, we wouldn’t even get a mention.
Bearing this in mind, we’re not that concerned about the random actions of psychotic madmen with bombs. We’ve got enough problems from the general dyslexic as it is. It’s the psychotic madmen (And women) in cars that keep us awake at nights.
That and those flaming sirens.
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