Muammar Al Khadafi

A member of staff at Sainsburies superstore in Bridgwater has related a recent incident in which police allegedly refused to respond to a crime on the premises - because it involved travellers.

According to the member of staff, who does not wish to be named, three travellers vehicles arrived on the forecourt of Sainsburies petrol station, filled up with fuel, and left without paying.

The police response when contacted over the crime was to allegedly say that they would not respond to the incident. Currently, further information as to the reason given by the police for not responding is unknown.

Why is that - because it was believed the crime was committed by travellers? Could the police just not be bothered, or simply didn't have resources available?

One would assume that Sainsburies has CCTV adequate enough that it could furnish the police with the number plates of the vehicles involved.

Would either Sainsburies or the Bridgwater Police care to make an official comment on the alleged incident?

As our un-named member of Sainsburies staff commented, the police would have been quick enough to respond, and have had no qualms about turning up on someones doorstep, if it had been any 'ordinary' motorists who had committed the theft.

Are police, through either delusions of cultural sensitivity, or fear of confrontation, afraid to deal with crimes committed by travellers?

Does this mean that some people are effectively above the law?

Police failed to recover stolen property or to make arrests after tracking a van which had stolen vehicle parts, and during which a shotgun was apparently brandished - because they needed to complete a 'risk assessment' before entering the travellers site.

The farce began when father and son Paul and Sean Stanley, who owns a farm in Northamptonshire, gave chase to the van after neighbours alerted them to a break in at their farm on Sunday night.

During the pursuit a passenger in the van appeared to brandish a shotgun, but Mr Stanley continued to follow until the van entered the Ecton Lane travellers site.

"I saw them wave a shotgun at me but I was so angry I carried on following them until they pulled up at the traveller’s site. I had been on the phone to the police the whole time and they asked me to meet them back at the farm" said Sean Stanley.

Police later visited the Ecton Lane site, and confirmed that the van was there - but refused to recover it and made no arrests.

"After describing everything to the police they said they would go down there. I followed a little while later to find them sitting outside. They told me they couldn’t recover the van because they hadn’t had a risk assessment." Sean Stanley said.

"Three police officers did enter the site at Ecton Lane and located the suspect vehicle but an assessment was made not to recover the vehicle in the early hours of this morning" said a spokesman for Northamptonshire Police.

So, if it's not safe for police to recover the van, is it fair to say that police do not regard these travellers as the 'quaint and friendly' folk with an alternative lifestyle that we're always getting told about by officialdom?

Is it that bane of common sense and equality, 'cultural sensitivity' at play again?

Isn't it likely that there would have been armed units despatched under other circumstances since a firearm was involved?

Or, altogether innocent of such prejudices, is it just that the police are hamstrung by an 'elf n safety culture?

Take your pick, any or all of the above. Either way it doesn't look good for the police there.

So much for law and order, and swiftly dealing with crime and criminals.

The bill to clean up the mess left by travellers who camped illegally at Riverside Valley Park, near Countess Wear, has reached an estimated £5,000.



More than 60 travellers descended on that land, leaving an army of rubbish and abandoned trolleys in their wake.



We reported on that mess just a week ago - SWN : Riverside Valley Park Enriched by Travellers



Now, the costs of the cleanup to the owners of the land, the Environment Agency, have reached approximately £5,000 and caused a little bit of a stir as debate continues over whether the mess was entirely down to the travellers.



That's right, of course, travellers have an unblemished track record of leaving the land which they occupy, often illegally, in a spotless state once they depart.



If you believe that you'll believe anything.



Full Story - Here