Rural crime "out of control"

[vtsnowedin]

Back a few years a local gun shop had a sign up behind the counter. "Justice likes peace and quiet at night. Anyone who disturbs his sleep will have his remains thrown in the trash in the morning.
" An Arrow pointed down. "meet Justice"
If you looked where the arrow pointed behind the counter there was a black and white Great Dane the size of a Shetland pony ensconced on his bed.
They had a very low theft rate.

[PS_RalphW]

My children decided to spend their Christmas present money on rehoming a 16 year old cat. This morning we were late feeding so it came down stairs and started eating the dog's breakfast (which is 9 months old and twice the weight) whilst the dog barked from a safe distance on the other side of the room.

Size isn't everything

[Vortex2]

We had a mobile home next to our new barn conversion raided over the Christmas period .. whilst we were at home.

Maybe the six or seventh break in we have had over nine years.

Pointless talking to the police.

In fact we warned the police about suspicious people 'casing' local properties a few days earlier.

The police operator just LAUGHED at me. She said that I was living in the past, and that they would only come out if we could see a crime in progress.

[adam2]

Burglary is now de facto de-criminalised, a bit like possession of pot.

Both are still against the law and can lead to arrest, but normally don't. Hurting a burglar is still a serious offence.

[Little John]

Burglary is now de facto de-criminalised, a bit like possession of pot.

Both are still against the law and can lead to arrest, but normally don't. Hurting a burglar is still a serious offence.

Round here, the consequences for a burglar who gets hurt while he is in the line of duty and then reports it to the police, are far worse than the hurt he may receive.

[kenneal - lagger]

We had a mobile home next to our new barn conversion raided over the Christmas period .. whilst we were at home.

Maybe the six or seventh break in we have had over nine years.

Pointless talking to the police.

In fact we warned the police about suspicious people 'casing' local properties a few days earlier.

The police operator just LAUGHED at me. She said that I was living in the past, and that they would only come out if we could see a crime in progress.

Report it to your MP so that they know that the policing in their area is inadequate. If they're opposition they'll use it against the government. If they're Tories it might flag up to them that their policies are causing problems which might see them not elected at the next election.

It is especially worth complaining when MPs complaining about their security has just ensured that it has been enhanced. I complained about the reaction to Soubrey's little scuffle to my MP and he was offended. I don't really care and I will point out to him that MPs gaining extra care means that there will probably be more knifings in London as a result.

[adam2]

My children decided to spend their Christmas present money on rehoming a 16 year old cat. This morning we were late feeding so it came down stairs and started eating the dog's breakfast (which is 9 months old and twice the weight) whilst the dog barked from a safe distance on the other side of the room.

Size isn't everything

Good for your children, I hope that the cat will be happy and gets on OK with the dog.

[RenewableCandy]

Back a few years a local gun shop had a sign up behind the counter. "Justice likes peace and quiet at night. Anyone who disturbs his sleep will have his remains thrown in the trash in the morning.
" An Arrow pointed down. "meet Justice"
If you looked where the arrow pointed behind the counter there was a black and white Great Dane the size of a Shetland pony ensconced on his bed.
They had a very low theft rate.

This ties in with a comment I once read by Michael Moore:
"If you're (contemplating a gun because you're) worried about Security, get a dog."
To be fair, he was addressing urban types rather than folk like you

[vtsnowedin]

Back a few years a local gun shop had a sign up behind the counter. "Justice likes peace and quiet at night. Anyone who disturbs his sleep will have his remains thrown in the trash in the morning.
" An Arrow pointed down. "meet Justice"
If you looked where the arrow pointed behind the counter there was a black and white Great Dane the size of a Shetland pony ensconced on his bed.
They had a very low theft rate.

This ties in with a comment I once read by Michael Moore:
"If you're (contemplating a gun because you're) worried about Security, get a dog."
To be fair, he was addressing urban types rather than folk like you

My sister-in-law lives in a high gun control area and has four children at home so guns are not an option. She acquired a boxer to help out and he is quite intimidating when she is out running with him but inside is a pussycat that thinks he should have as much lap time as the chihuahuas. He has become very protective of the three year old so earns his kibble.
The thing about guns is you don't have to walk them twice a day or feed them more often then you have time for. I haven't fed any of mine a single bullet in months.

[adam2]

Neighbours have had several tons of builders waste fly tipped on their land.
The police are not hopeful of catching the offenders.
The only action taken by the local authority has been to serve a notice requiring that the landowner promptly remove the waste at their own expense.

There is a very strong suspicion that travellers are behind this and other fly tipping, therefore nothing can be done.
The police are frightened of travellers.
The local authority regard travellers as a protected species who need help and support, not persecution.

Removing the waste will cost several thousand pounds.

[vtsnowedin]

Neighbours have had several tons of builders waste fly tipped on their land.
The police are not hopeful of catching the offenders.
The only action taken by the local authority has been to serve a notice requiring that the landowner promptly remove the waste at their own expense.

There is a very strong suspicion that travellers are behind this and other fly tipping, therefore nothing can be done.
The police are frightened of travellers.
The local authority regard travellers as a protected species who need help and support, not persecution.

Removing the waste will cost several thousand pounds.

You have a failure of government there that should be an issue every election. A little investigative work should be able to trace the waste back to the construction project from whence it came and then force the generators to come pick it up. The person that paid the "travelers" as you call them is the first person to commit a crime here and should be held accountable.

[adam2]

Fly tipping is getting worse, as reported here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60031410

Another new crackdown has been announced, but no one around here is very hopeful of any actual action. It is generally accepted that travelers are behind the great majority of fly tipping.

Some form of electronic tracking is being proposed, rather than arresting and imprisoning those guilty of fly tipping.

[BritDownUnder]

From the looks of that photo a lot of that waste is wood or at least combustible. There even appears to be a tattered American flag but is maybe just a striped brolly. Maybe the UK should use it in generating electricity or at least heat. i am sure there was a company in Stafford that made incinerators that generated electricity and some even chomped up the pallets and waste as part of the process. Personally I generate little waste that would need to be fly tipped and what waste I do generate gets composted, then recycled and then cut into pieces and put in the normal wheelie bin.

Perhaps the most pedantic people with waste are the Japanese. Supposedly they sort their recycling into 32 different categories.
I spoke to someone while at a coal mine who said that the coal exported to Japan has all of the waste in it such as coke cans etc put into a container and returned to the mine free of charge all the way from Japan.

[Lurkalot2]

We've had our share of fly tipping incidents near us. Nobody seems that surprised , disgusted yes but not surprised when our local council tip won't take certain things like plasterboard and charge for other things like rubble , tires or double glazed units. It would help if people were to change their attitudes towards waste and actively try to produce less and recycle or reuse as much as possible. Staffordshire council are introducing bags for us to seperate paper and card from general recycling but the responses on social media have been largely negative. Equally I'm currently working on a house extension and have seen an otherwise perfectly good three year old kitchen ripped out and thrown into the skip. I've saved some stuff from the skip but there is still a lot of waste just casually thrown away.
Some years ago on the edge of a local industrial estate somebody dumped a load of paving bricks. a few weeks later they were still there so I stopped and started loading them into my van. Within a few minutes a security guard turned up to ask me what I was doing , I had been seen on cctv. I explained to him and he was shocking saying that was the first time someone had been spotted picking up rubbish. He radioed back and I loaded the rest of the bricks then chatted for a little while and all ended well.

[BritDownUnder]

I think if people used things like Freecycle then there could be a lot more swapping of items rather than throwing it.

Back on subject though, clearly councils have not got the guts to catch these people. Maybe there should be hit squads, police checkpoints regarding loads, instant fines, confiscation of licenses and vehicles to name a few.

I like the bit about being caught on CCTV removing rubbish. Probably the people watching cameras were a bit slower when people were dumping the stuff.