31 January (Part 2) - Police & Crime consultation postscript
That useless chairman, Richard Mann of the Bexley Community Policing Engagement Group didn’t just reserve his boorishness for the luckless Victor Olisa, all and sundry were in his firing line. Three of the first four questioners were pulled up sharply for allegedly not formulating proper questions within their first two sentences, after which I stopped counting.
Most
outrageous of all was his attempt to prevent the Deputy Mayor from
answering questions towards the end of the meeting because he said that 3,600
seconds had elapsed and Mr. Greenhalgh must go home. Mr. G was more flexible
than that but the chairman knew best and a small argument ensued before
Greenhalgh prevailed.
The Deputy Mayor is a big fellow not to be argued with and from my angle of view a Nick
Griffin lookalike. Definitely not to be messed with. But as I said yesterday
Stephen Greenhalgh came across as a decent enough fellow you would happily
travel in a lift with and Mr. Griffin is reputed not to be.
During the meeting the chairman recommended a questioner address Simon Byrne afterwards, apparently oblivious of the fact that Ass. Commissioner Byrne was due in
Greenwich at 8 p.m. for a repeat performance.
While I lurked in various corners for half an hour after the meeting ended, the irrepressible
Elwyn Bryant was asking Borough Commander Olisa when he was expecting
to meet with me
as per his offer nearly two weeks ago. He said he was awaiting
my email of acceptance.
How disorganised can they get?
Elwyn also found the Detective Inspector who decided to pursue councillor Peter
Craske no more. The DI (now an Acting CI I understand) was asked in my presence
how he would reconcile having the suspect’s IP address for at least three months
before applying for a search warrant. He didn’t try. I don’t think he even knew.
I wonder what he will say when Elwyn lets him know that the Crown Prosecution
Service has told him that they said Craske should be charged but the police sat
around twiddling their thumbs instead?
I overheard a a few slightly interesting conversations myself while hanging around.
I detected a certain disenchantment among two or three councillors one of whom
indicated that the leader had told them all that Craske is innocent. He’ll be
back in Cabinet soon, mark my words.
Elsewhere I witnessed an exchange between Mick Barnbrook and James Cleverly,
London Assembly member. Cleverly constantly addressed Mick as Richard. Is that because
he regarded it as an insult or is he simply not very bright? Richard Barnbrook was
elected to the Assembly in 2008 on a British National Party ticket and resigned
the party whip two years later when the first of many whiffs of BNP corruption began
to surface. James Cleverly knows exactly who Richard Barnbrook is and my guess
is that the use of his name was just a petty insult. It matches his style.