Post by Joe K on Sept 5, 2014 13:43:25 GMT
I went to this meeting (as only advertised in the seldom viewed Barton police 'chitchat' forum).
It was full of bold claims about how the police were now going to start listening to the concerns of the BME public, and not make rash judgement about people, which is pretty funny, given that three of them, Tim Wood, Matt Bishop and Rob Boland, all made the rash judgement that they had the right to prevent me from attending a public meeting, and in Bishop's case, believed that justified him in committing violence against my person. At the end I did, however, get a confirmation from Emma Ackland, Gloucestershire police Superintendent, that the local priority meeting was a public meeting. When I explained that I had been refused entry by police officers to that meeting on previous occasions, but not to AGMs, EGMs and open meetings that were also organised by the BTNP, she sought out Tim Wood for an explanation. He gave the same broken record answer, that it had 'already been explained to Joe' why I couldn't attend, but again, he couldn't explain how he had at any point reconciled the inconsistency of barring me from one kind of public meeting but saying not a peep about the others.
Having made a complaint about this last week, after giving both Wood and Boland final opportunities to defend themselves over the last bit of interference, I would like to think this would be a foregone conclusion, and that there will be no further efforts to hamper me. There is the problem, though, that such a resolution would leave these two open to charges of misconduct, and certainly not knowing what genuine authority they have, while Bishop would actually be seem to have assaulted a member of the public without a valid justification. Would that be too much of an 'appalling vista' for the investigators?
What's interesting is that on Wednesday, I went to the TETRA meeting, at the Big Vic, at 10am. Actually, I was about half an hour late, and when I arrived, I was told that this was a 'committee' meeting, and that I couldn't stay. I was reluctant to accept this judgement at face value, so I asked when the next 'proper' meeting would be. Pat Scannell said that hadn't been decided yet, which was strange in itself, as the dates are fixed, 1st Wednesday of the month. I wanted to be certain that the next one wouldn't be a committee one too, so I said I'd be on the other side of the room waiting til they had 'decided'.
The committee weren't happy about this, but here's the thing. The police don't usually attend TETRA meetings, well, public ones anyway, but there was a woman police officer I didn't recognise. Never got her badge number, and don't know if she was a constable or a sergeant, but Pat Scannell wanted her to make me leave the building, and she said she didn't have the power to do that. What she did do is find the owner of the pub, who then asked me to leave (as they 'weren't open yet'), which I cheerfully acquiesced to. Still, this officer didn't, like Wood, Bishop and Boland, presume to speak for anyone else in their absence. If this woman was in charge of Barton police, there might be some hope for our area, I'd like to think. I'll have to find out who she is.
It was full of bold claims about how the police were now going to start listening to the concerns of the BME public, and not make rash judgement about people, which is pretty funny, given that three of them, Tim Wood, Matt Bishop and Rob Boland, all made the rash judgement that they had the right to prevent me from attending a public meeting, and in Bishop's case, believed that justified him in committing violence against my person. At the end I did, however, get a confirmation from Emma Ackland, Gloucestershire police Superintendent, that the local priority meeting was a public meeting. When I explained that I had been refused entry by police officers to that meeting on previous occasions, but not to AGMs, EGMs and open meetings that were also organised by the BTNP, she sought out Tim Wood for an explanation. He gave the same broken record answer, that it had 'already been explained to Joe' why I couldn't attend, but again, he couldn't explain how he had at any point reconciled the inconsistency of barring me from one kind of public meeting but saying not a peep about the others.
Having made a complaint about this last week, after giving both Wood and Boland final opportunities to defend themselves over the last bit of interference, I would like to think this would be a foregone conclusion, and that there will be no further efforts to hamper me. There is the problem, though, that such a resolution would leave these two open to charges of misconduct, and certainly not knowing what genuine authority they have, while Bishop would actually be seem to have assaulted a member of the public without a valid justification. Would that be too much of an 'appalling vista' for the investigators?
What's interesting is that on Wednesday, I went to the TETRA meeting, at the Big Vic, at 10am. Actually, I was about half an hour late, and when I arrived, I was told that this was a 'committee' meeting, and that I couldn't stay. I was reluctant to accept this judgement at face value, so I asked when the next 'proper' meeting would be. Pat Scannell said that hadn't been decided yet, which was strange in itself, as the dates are fixed, 1st Wednesday of the month. I wanted to be certain that the next one wouldn't be a committee one too, so I said I'd be on the other side of the room waiting til they had 'decided'.
The committee weren't happy about this, but here's the thing. The police don't usually attend TETRA meetings, well, public ones anyway, but there was a woman police officer I didn't recognise. Never got her badge number, and don't know if she was a constable or a sergeant, but Pat Scannell wanted her to make me leave the building, and she said she didn't have the power to do that. What she did do is find the owner of the pub, who then asked me to leave (as they 'weren't open yet'), which I cheerfully acquiesced to. Still, this officer didn't, like Wood, Bishop and Boland, presume to speak for anyone else in their absence. If this woman was in charge of Barton police, there might be some hope for our area, I'd like to think. I'll have to find out who she is.