Page 129 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Joined by my mate, we arrested the two kids 13 and 14 years respectively
and nicked mom for good measure too as she was clearly party to their life of
crime. We called for vehicle back up so we could take our prisoners and the
stolen gear back to Kingstanding nick.

The upshot of all this was to be the really satisfying part. Not only was mom
aware of what the kids were up to, she later confessed she was the ‘spotter’.
Seeing where bikes (and tatters metal) was left unattended in the area, she
would send the kids out to do the dirty work. We were to nickname her
‘Fagin’ (the fictional Charles Dickens character who led a group of children
and taught them to make their living by criminal activities).

Once word got out among the other beat officers, we collated the similar
uncleared offences on their patches. As a result, this single parent crime
family cleared up over 40 offences committed in the prior month alone. Mom
was to receive a suspended custodial sentence. Bonnie and Clyde were
taken into care, better off away from this woman. Albeit perhaps minor in the
scheme of things, I felt I had started to clean up my patch.

This and other arrests brought me to the positive attention of the CID who not
only praised me for my efforts, but also cleared up further offences this
woman and his offspring had committed.
A SPOILED GENERATION

The attitude of some of those more feral characters I had encountered so far,
was to spring to mind many times throughout my police career and
repeatedly in the years since.

Spinning forward ten or eleven years, whilst employed outside of the service,
a part of me had never lost its allegiance and support of the service. So
much so that I became the author of a blog that I am pleased to say,
received thousands of visitors.

https://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.com
An article I penned on 21 September 2009 received a lot of attention and
st
visits so I must assume its content resonated with the readers. I’ll reproduce it
here as it is relevant to the guiltless oblivious attitude of some of the
youngsters I came into contact with. You may find some resonance with your
own experiences of a certain section of todays youngsters.

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