More Faux Outrage

Appalling Ignorance.  Beyond Appalling.

A local blogger posted the following fulmination:

UK Police lose the plot

February 12th, 2015 at 7:00 am by David Farrar The Independent reports:

A police force was forced to apologise today after one of its officers told a newsagent to hand over the names of four people in the name of community cohesion, after they bought a commemorative edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Wiltshire police confirmed that it had deleted the names of the buyers from its system, which were collected after officers toured shops warning newsagents to be vigilant during an “assessment of community tensions” in the sleepy market town following the attacks in the French capital in January.

Appalling. Beyond appalling. You buy Charlie Hebdo and the UK Police put you on a watch list. The Police officers in question should transfer to Saudi Arabia.

Hat Tip: No Right

Sounds really bad.  That's the way the media portrayed it in the UK.  But here is the Wiltshire Police statement:

In a statement, Wiltshire police apologised to “the members of the public who may be affected by this."   A spokeswoman said: "Following the terrorism incident in Paris, France on 7 January 2015, Wiltshire police undertook an assessment of community tensions across the county.  "As part of this work, local sector policing teams were asked to be mindful of business premises, in particular newsagents who may be distributing the Charlie Hebdo magazine and to consider that these shops may be vulnerable.

"There was no specific threat nationally and nothing to suggest newsagents in particular would be vulnerable."  She continued: "A police officer visited a local shop and post office in Corsham to make an assessment of community tensions and, if appropriate, encourage the newsagent’s owner to be vigilant. During this conversation the officer requested information about subscribers to the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The question is begged.  Was this police action, "Appalling.  Beyond appalling."?  Hardly.  It appears to be a prudent use of police resources and an entirely reasonable action.  The point was the vulnerability of the shopkeepers distributing the Charlie Hebdo rag.  The visits by local police teams (that is, neighbourhood policing teams) were to assist in protecting shopkeepers from getting murdered.  Exactly the sort of community work we expect from police. 

One of the core planks of neighbourhood policing is intelligence gathering, and knowing what is going down in one's patch.  That's why its so effective.  Crime goes down when police are out talking to people in communities and neighbourhoods all the time, relying on data and information voluntarily supplied by citizens. 

As to collecting the names of folk who bought the rag mag, that too is reasonable when seen in a certain light.  The storekeepers selling the rag may well have become targets; the folk who bought the mag would then become immediate likely suspects.  All the more so if the purchaser were muttering "Allah Akbhar" under his breath and showing other signs of anger or hostility.  And gathering the names and cross referencing them in a database to see if there are any links with known Islamic activists would be a very sensible thing to have done.  The Wiltshire police deserve to be commended for their pro-active neighbourhood policing.  

If a store selling synthetic drugs had customers who were suspected of leaving the store and plying said synthetic cannabis upon twelve and thirteen year olds, and a local resident starting recording the registrations of vehicles pulling up to transact, and then called police to pass the registrations on, most folk would think this would be a commendable civic action. It would be seen as part of normal police intelligence gathering to combat crime and potential crime in a neighbourhood, which goes on all the time.  Few would utter the declamation, "appalling" and suggest that the police who took down the registration numbers should be transferred to Saudi Arabia.  

Ironically, it is likely that the same folk who have been incensed with rage over the Wiltshire neighbourhood policing initiative would be incandescent if the storeowners in Wiltshire had subsequently been ruthlessly killed by faithful Islamic believers.  Doubtless cries of outrage along the lines of, "Why didn't the police do anything to prevent this?" would be heard out of the selfsame mouths.

It's perfectly reasonable to link the list of purchasers of the Hebdo rag with the subset of people who may blow up a newsagent out of Islamic rage against a blasphemer of the Prophet.  You know--buy the rag, distribute it amongst confederates, wind said associates up into a murderous rage, plot the assassination of the storekeeper as a blow for Allah.  Not necessarily, of course.  But potentially.  Moreover, the information was asked for and was given--voluntarily.  It was not seized compulsorily under warrant.

Silly, stupid, effete liberals cannot have it both ways.  They cannot demand the added security of preventative neighbourhood policing, on the one hand, whilst at the same time decrying its processes and presence, on the other.  Nimbyism in one of its more stupid incarnations.