A story that packed a punch.....
The story this morning of the policeman seen on CCTV striking a woman he was trying to arrest provoked an huge text response.
The clear majority of those who got in touch sided with the police and there was little sympathy for the woman. Many people were angry that she was said to be drunk and had vandalised her car.
When her father came on Breakfast to tell us his daughter was not drunk but had suffered an epileptic fit, there was a lot of scepticism.
And there was also controversy when a guest suggested that there were fears that there could be a racial element to the incident. The policeman was white, the woman of mixed race.
The chief constable of South Yorkshire Police Med Hughes told us he wanted the case fully investigated. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is doing just that.
But some texters were angry that we put the guest on to express his fears about racism. It's a difficult call. Many people felt the race card was being played unnecessarily. Others responded to say they feared the colour of the woman's skin may have played a part.
No doubt that will be a question considered by the IPCC investigators. Even as people were considering the issue of race in this case, another story emerged, this time of Tory MP Patrick Mercer talking about how black recruits in the Army are treated.
And so the debate starts up all over again.
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Comments
Patrick Mercer's remark? I refer the honourable ladies and gentlemen to my post on today's earlier thread.
The term Patrick Mercer was so criticised on is in my case factually correct and I must have puzzled would be school bullies who came and addressed the term "black b*****d" to me as a child.
I bridled at the term at first but used to check and suddenly realise I was a person with dark skin and born out of wedlock. I fought the good fight for my name but usually because I was assaulted rather than name calling. I hope I didn't insult too many people myself but you know what memory can be sometimes. You are always innocent of bad behaviour when you recall your past life.
So said child charmer calls me the name and I stop and think "how astute, do they know me?" Normally they didn't. They just saw a weakness in another child to exploit.
Later when I became more literate I pinched the last line from Lee Marvin's film, "The Professionals" about my being a "b*****d" being an accident of birth but the accuser was a "self made man". It was too clever for some people unfortunately - wasted.
Sad really.
Dear BBC
I would like to highlight the current trend by BT when sending a bill of charging a £5 'late payment' fee. There is a mention of this on the reverse of a bill, but it indicates no date as when a bill is deemed to paid too late to avoid this charge, and I am sure the general public are daft enough)predominently) to query this and just pay it. Now aren't BT making enough money already without cheating people out of even more money when calling in their payments?
I have just experienced this and immediately (being very incensed) wrote reusing to pay this extra amount. I was refunded by return, but how many people don't? It must boost the BT coffers by millions, at a guess.