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Over 1,000 children abused and nothing is done? Just wow.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

If they're anything like American cops I'm sure they're investing a great deal of time pulling people over for doing 5 MPH over the speed limit.

That's where the money is for the local community, so writing speeding tickets is much more important.

It seems to be that both the police brass and the council were more concerned with negative backlash if they were wrong than anything else, that and they had their head in the sand they did not want to believe that this problem was as big as it was even though their own police officers investigating were saying it is a big issue and action was needed.

They were afraid of being called racist? Seriously? How pathethic is that! PC gone mad I say.
Also, 1400? wow... That is... a lot.
As obsessed as the UK is with child abuse, it is amazing that no-one did anything about this.

Sounds like Pen Sate British Edition.

Sounds like it may have been a community wide problem. Was this in some ethnic community that has strained relationship with police?

Even then, I can't see this going on for that long with that many children without SOMEBODY pushing a case forward.

Apparently it was pushed forwards once as a concern, and the police suppressed it as they didn't believe it could be happening. It was then raised another two times, and the police ignored it for various reasons. It was only the fourth time it was raised it began to get somewhere.

 Ketara wrote:
Apparently it was pushed forwards once as a concern, and the police suppressed it as they didn't believe it could be happening. It was then raised another two times, and the police ignored it for various reasons. It was only the fourth time it was raised it began to get somewhere.

Yeah, it stated that in the article. But how did a major news source not run with this earlier? I'd like to think better of the police, but perhaps it was a failure at an institutional level within their ranks.

The only reason I ask about the community is I recall a story from a few years ago that dealt with widespread abuse in an immigrant community in the US (Portland maybe?) that went undetected because the population had few English speakers and distrusted law enforcement as a cultural norm.

This is pretty shocking and although heads should roll over it I have the funny feeling they won't, because those heads will belong to senior officers who are quite good at 'slopey-shouldering' that kind of responsibility. Although a hefty portion of the blame should also fall on Social Services who apparently weren't all that interested either....

Does make me feel a bit better about the way we deal with such allegations though.....

Why does it make you feel better. Its your country no, and took multiple attempts to get anyone to notice.

Apparently it was a load of Asians and generally people didn't want to be accused of being racist. Despite the fact that calling people out for fondling kids isn't racist, unless the person is of any ethnicity other than white.

Welcome to the UK!

I blame Tony Blair era politics.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
They were afraid of being called racist? Seriously? How pathethic is that! PC gone mad I say.
Also, 1400? wow... That is... a lot.
As obsessed as the UK is with child abuse, it is amazing that no-one did anything about this.

Thats putting it generously.

"Abject cowardice" is how I'd put it.

I laughed at hearing about people calling for one person to loose their job over this. Multiple heads from around that council should be rolling.

And whats even more shocking, this isn't the first time that gangs of Asian/Muslim paedophiles have been able to operate with near impunity fro long periods of time. There was an identical story in the news a few years ago.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Apparently it was a load of Asians and generally people didn't want to be accused of being racist. Despite the fact that calling people out for fondling kids isn't racist, unless the person is of any ethnicity other than white.

Welcome to the UK!

I blame Tony Blair era politics.

This is by no means the fault of the Labour Party alone.

David Cameron once called himself "the Heir to Blair".

Rather, its the whole fething Westminster Establishment, Labour, Tories and Lib Dems all.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Medium of Death wrote:
I laughed at hearing about people calling for one person to loose their job over this. Multiple heads from around that council should be rolling.

Great idea! We could borrow a few guillotines from the French.

 Frazzled wrote:
Why does it make you feel better. Its your country no, and took multiple attempts to get anyone to notice.

Because we take every such allegation seriously. No matter how ridiculous it seems on the face of it. At the time it can be really frustrating because the number of false and malicious allegations is pretty high, but hearing about this is just a reminder that there is a point to it.

While I agree that all allegations should be investigated, I can understand that cases like this sound totally outlandish until it appears in the news and you're like "omg it actually happened."

I mean, go way back. Before the 70's, would anyone even believe for a moment that a Priest would molest little boys? Back in his hay day would anyone believe that Jerry Sandusky was abusing children?

Some people just can't believe terrible things are happening until its in their face.

 Inquisitor Gonzo wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
Why does it make you feel better. Its your country no, and took multiple attempts to get anyone to notice.

Because we take every such allegation seriously. No matter how ridiculous it seems on the face of it. At the time it can be really frustrating because the number of false and malicious allegations is pretty high, but hearing about this is just a reminder that there is a point to it.

Evidently you didn't.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Inquisitor Gonzo wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
Why does it make you feel better. Its your country no, and took multiple attempts to get anyone to notice.

Because we take every such allegation seriously. No matter how ridiculous it seems on the face of it. At the time it can be really frustrating because the number of false and malicious allegations is pretty high, but hearing about this is just a reminder that there is a point to it.

Evidently you didn't.

His area may be different. Some abuse rings go on for so long because of the areas they operate in.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Apparently it was a load of Asians and generally people didn't want to be accused of being racist. Despite the fact that calling people out for fondling kids isn't racist, unless the person is of any ethnicity other than white.

Welcome to the UK!

I blame Tony Blair era politics.

I believe they where specifically Pakistani Muslims. The word 'Asian' has been used to describe the gang but seems rather vague to me. It's a bit like describing the Mafia as European as opposed to Italian to avoid being thought of as prejudiced towards Italians.

I've no idea why people keep skirting round the issue and I don't think it's racist to point out that the members of this group all had the same national and religious roots. I'd say it's essential to acknowledge it if we want to get to the root cause of the problem. Treading on eggshells is exactly what allowed the problem to go unchecked for so long.

Per articles they were Pakistanis. I don't see why thats a deal, but I'm a dern ferener.

Is that a deal?

 Frazzled wrote:
Per articles they were Pakistanis. I don't see why thats a deal, but I'm a dern ferener.

Is that a deal?

Yes. Because British police forces have a track record for overlooking paedophile rings in immigrant and/or Asian communities. An identical scandal hit the news a few years ago, though it was on a much smaller scale as I recall.

Just look at the recent witch hunts and outraged media frenzy over paedophile rings among celebrity circles in the last 5 years or so. Our police certainly have not been shy and reluctant about investigating those claims.

The identical scandal from a few years ago was the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of the men in this case to substantial prison terms.

What is happening now is that the lack of effectiveness of the police and local government in Rotherham has been investigated following that court case and a lot of dirt is being dished.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The identical scandal from a few years ago was the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of the men in this case to substantial prison terms.

What is happening now is that the lack of effectiveness of the police and local government in Rotherham has been investigated following that court case and a lot of dirt is being dished.

Ah. I stand corrected then. I got the impression from the news that this was an entirely new scandal.

 Frazzled wrote:
Why does it make you feel better. Its your country no, and took multiple attempts to get anyone to notice.

Frazz, if you thought that Washington was the master of buck passing, then you've never had the misfortune of dealing with the British police.


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 Frazzled wrote:
Per articles they were Pakistanis. I don't see why thats a deal, but I'm a dern ferener.

Is that a deal?

Yes, because of recent scandals, British police are terrified of doing anything that might seem remotely racist, even if there is a genuine case of law breaking going on.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The identical scandal from a few years ago was the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of the men in this case to substantial prison terms.

What is happening now is that the lack of effectiveness of the police and local government in Rotherham has been investigated following that court case and a lot of dirt is being dished.

Ah. I stand corrected then. I got the impression from the news that this was an entirely new scandal.

It is the fallout, long overdue but that is because these inquiries always take a long time. At least this report is not a whitewash. The shocking thing is the huge extent in time and number of victims.

There was a scandal in Oxford recently in which a number of men were convicted of abusing six girls and got sentences up to life.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The identical scandal from a few years ago was the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of the men in this case to substantial prison terms.

What is happening now is that the lack of effectiveness of the police and local government in Rotherham has been investigated following that court case and a lot of dirt is being dished.

Ah. I stand corrected then. I got the impression from the news that this was an entirely new scandal.

It is the fallout, long overdue but that is because these inquiries always take a long time. At least this report is not a whitewash. The shocking thing is the huge extent in time and number of victims.

There was a scandal in Oxford recently in which a number of men were convicted of abusing six girls and got sentences up to life.

Unfortunately life doesn't actually mean life.

 gianlucafiorentini123 wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
The identical scandal from a few years ago was the prosecution, conviction and sentencing of the men in this case to substantial prison terms.

What is happening now is that the lack of effectiveness of the police and local government in Rotherham has been investigated following that court case and a lot of dirt is being dished.

Ah. I stand corrected then. I got the impression from the news that this was an entirely new scandal.

It is the fallout, long overdue but that is because these inquiries always take a long time. At least this report is not a whitewash. The shocking thing is the huge extent in time and number of victims.

There was a scandal in Oxford recently in which a number of men were convicted of abusing six girls and got sentences up to life.

Unfortunately life doesn't actually mean life.

How about burning pedophiles at the stake? Something I'd be in favor of

An interesting idea but a tangent to the topic.

Why not start a new thread to discuss crime and punishment?

Are they called cops there? I thought it was bobbies.