Police vs Castletown Festival

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Tarne said:

https://www.facebook.com/LoisEmily6852/videos/10159132482460182/

The silent marching band video. Cracking! 6800 views already. Oh dear oh dear, this is definitely a straw that's shat all over the polices back  

they have never sounded so good.

[TheTeapot]

Works for me Rhumsaa so it must be you.

 

That's a quality protest, well done to those involved.

[2112]

In all fairness, the Castletown Carnival is a local, parochial and small village/island event, Hardly the hotbed of crime and violence or a place where gangland fights going to take place. After all the entertainment involved is local bands and a brass/silver band taking part. How come it took place last year and again over the years? Certainly in the modern era since 2010. Has licensing rules changed? If something not quite right, couldn't the Police have not used a modicum of intelligence, point out possible error, let the event go ahead. Worry about the law afterwards and 'lessons will be learned' for next year. Now we will have every organisation on the island worried about health and safety, fire and every form of licensing known to Christendom. I feel sorry for the VMCC organising Jurby Day who I known have been hit by Government interference left right and centre, not to mention jobsworths. 

[the stinking enigma]

you would have thought that someone would have informed the guy banging the drum that it was a silent protest

[gettafa]

(^ The drum went silent as the band neared the square)

 

11 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

.

There is some indication of what the problem might be in the discussion on the first tweet, where Rachael Braidwood (who I think is a member of the AG's Chambers) says " simple application for a music and dancing licence would have solved all problems, would it not?" and gets the reply from Roberts "Yes, it is as simple as that.".  But others point out that the event has never needed one before and of course I don't think that getting one at last minutes is an easy business.

 

Rachael, of coure, is married to a now senior policeman.

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2017 by gettafa

[Keith]

2 hours ago, Tarne said:

https://www.facebook.com/LoisEmily6852/videos/10159132482460182/

The silent marching band video. Cracking! 6800 views already. Oh dear oh dear, this is definitely a straw that's shat all over the polices back  

"Police wrote to the organisers saying: ’Having reviewed the Carnival over the past few years it is evident that there are no families that attend the evening part of the event ...’

It's a good job no families were present to witness such an outlandish protest! Won't someone think of the children??? 

[quilp]

The video is now on MR's (crap) website.

Proposals for changes to the bye-laws for this event have been ongoing since. 2014. I would post a link from MR's website regarding this issue but although the headlines are there, the article fails to load (absolutely fecking typical and predictably amateurish). So concerns regarding the safety and policing (iirc) have been ongoing for 3years. I reckon our most progressive Chief Constable yet, is making a salient point. It is a growing event, and necessitates policing. It has never been trouble free: albeit, usually minor, but crowd control requires oversight. I think Mr Roberts is reinforcing his view that there just ain't enough coppers, Island-wide, to maintain safety. And also to highlight the lazy legislators who failed to address concerns for 3 years.  

Edited August 6, 2017 by quilp
Goddamn spellcheck...

[hboy]

14 minutes ago, quilp said:

The video is now on MR's (crap) website.

Proposals for changes to the bye-laws for this event have been ongoing since. 2014. I would post a link from MR's website regarding this issue but although the headlines are there, the article fails to load (absolutely fecking typical and predictably amateurish). So concerns regarding the safety and policing (iirc) have been ongoing for 3years. I reckon our most progressive Chief Constable yet, is making a salient point. It is a growing event, and necessitates policing. It has never been trouble free: albeit, usually minor, but crowd control requires oversight. I think Mr Roberts is reinforcing his view that there just ain't enough coppers, Island-wide, to maintain safety. And also to highlight the lazy legislators who failed to address concerns for 3 years.  

So it's exactly as everyone has claimed then? A petty political move by the Police to further the perception of how hard done by they all are and how their budgets are being cut back again. Boo hoo! Nobody can have any fun because we want to prove a point that's in our own interests to prove, 

So great to see that clip. They totally took the piss out of the jobsworths for their ridiculous attitude. Hopefully there will be more protests against petty government jobsworth behaviour to come as and when more pathetic incidents like this arise in future. 

What we need is more polite civil disobedience like this to counter the ever increasing wealth of senseless bullshit being generated by our over inflated state and public sector. 

Edited August 6, 2017 by hboy

[Keith]

6 minutes ago, quilp said:

I reckon our most progressive Chief Constable yet, is making a salient point. It is a growing event, and necessitates policing. It has never been trouble free: albeit, usually minor, but crowd control requires oversight. I think Mr Roberts is reinforcing his view that there just ain't enough coppers, Island-wide, to maintain safety. And also to highlight the lazy legislators who failed to address concerns for 3 years.  

But did they give good notice that they would take this line this year? Or did they (as it appears) leave it until the last minute, then raise the issue? If they told the organisers six months ago that they'd need a license and the organisers ignored them, then my sympathy will quickly evaporate. If the police announced this (as it appears) late last week, then that is pathetic. 

[quilp]

Is it up to the Police to remind our over-paid legislators of their duty to legislate in good time? 

[hboy]

It's the public and people of Castletown who suffered in this instance not the legislators (who I'm sure still don't really give a shit) so quite clearly it was petty and vindictive and the response from the people (the silent band) quite justified and an appropriate 'two fingers' to the lot of them. Government in all its guises needs to sort itself out - we're paying for these twats to act like overgrown school children and generally destroy much that was good about living in the IOM. I hope that more pathetic public acts of defiance will start occurring until people in government start to get it that a lot of their input isn't wanted and is not needed. It's only the constant self creation of bullshit and red tape that's keeping a lot of them in jobs. 

Edited August 6, 2017 by hboy

[Blackie26]

Regarding the previous comment, The Castletown Festival is a relatively small event when related to the many TT events that take place each year, so the argument that Mr Roberts may believe he doesn`t have the officers to cope does not hold water. Also there seems to be a much deeper motive behind all this. A Parking Control officer was operating in the town and was ticketing vehicles throughout the area. To even see a traffic warden in the town is a rarity, so why was he sent down especially for this event. You would have thought that this would be the one day in the year when parking restrictions would be lifted. As for the lame reason that the evening entertainment was not attended by families, you only need visit the Castletown Festival Website to view a video of the 2016 event to see that this assumption is way off the mark. I sincerely hope that the festival organisers take serious legal advice over this affair and get to the bottom of who exactly is behind all this.

[quilp]

23 minutes ago, hboy said:

So it's exactly as everyone has claimed then? A petty political move by the Police to further the perception of how hard done by they all are and how their budgets are being cut back again. Boo hoo! Nobody can have any fun because we want to prove a point that's in our own interests to prove, 

So great to see that clip. They totally took the piss out of the jobsworths for their ridiculous attitude. Hopefully there will be more protests against petty government jobsworth behaviour to come as and when more pathetic incidents like this arise in future. 

What we need is more polite civil disobedience like this to counter the ever increasing wealth of senseless bullshit being generated by our over inflated state and public sector. 

Does our Police force percieve themselves as "hard done by"? Or is it just possible that they know they are overstretched and unable to cope in the event of any major incident? Hardly "petty". For sure, officers would have to've been bussed-in to police this event from other towns and supplemented by others on overtime so I can see the CC's point completely and do not see it as vindictive to the point of deliberately spoiling the fun of others, as you seem to be implying. Already the police budget is being stretched by the workload that has increased because of the burgeoning historical child sex abuse crimes, as an example, we have officers from the adjacent isle being shipped-in to cope. Who pays for that? Gary Roberts has said the same thing about policing the TT; resources for his team have not kept up with demand. Hence the mud-slinging over the spate of burglaries.

The idea of "polite civil disobedience" is a good one but unfortunately this concept is probably weather-dependent as well as the general passivity and laziness of the majority of us locals but if you'd be prepared to lead the way hboy...

[Tempus Fugit]

wasn't CC Roberts on leave when all this fiasco erupted

 

whan the cat's away........

 

I just wonder about the Police's remit to judge whether an organisation is philanthropic or not, surely it's the responsibility of whoever decided on an organisation's legal status over 60 years ago

Edited August 6, 2017 by Tempus Fugit

[quilp]

Yeah, maybe. A statement has been promised, in due course. We'll see...