Public Enemy Number One

Does Craig Buckley look like a hardened criminal? Does he look like a threat to the public? If you spotted him walking his dog on a Saturday afternoon would you shrink away in fear? No. Of course not. You really couldn't meet a more mild mannered young man.He's a real asset to Instanta. But on Saturday afternoon he found himself held in a police car for thirty minutes after being stopped by an armed police response unit.

This was the scene near Craig's house after no less than seven cars and a helicopter turned up. Craig was watching TV when he heard the helicopter hovering in the area. The dog was due for a walk so he put on her lead and took her to the local recreation ground. Whilst on the field, an armed forces policeman yelled at him to stand "*******" still - which he did. He then screamed at him to take his "*******" hands out of his "*******" pockets and beckoned colleagues to search him and the area where he had been walking. Whilst this was going on, another young man who was also on the field was being held by more officers. The policeman who first approached Craig then put his face into his and both threateningly and in  a foul mouthed way accused him of speaking to the other detainee. Craig was initially bemused by this and smiled when he denied speaking to the other. That was a bad move and only got the policeman more riled. He was fuming at Craig's denial and insisted that the helicopter had CCTV footage of Craig liaising with the other bloke. He repeated this again and again asking (almost telling) Craig to confess to speaking with him. As Craig had not spoken to him he continued to deny it but by now was starting to worry. The police told him to tie his dog to a post and took him to a police car and pushed him inside. They kept him for thirty minutes.


When his ordeal was over, the first armed response officer took Craig out of the car and asked him to walk back onto the field. When on the field he told Craig that he didn't trust him, thought he was a liar and on other days would have arrested him but had bigger things to do. Craig remained silent and went home angry.


On a day when the police armed response unit has been in the news for one of their officers trivialising the recent inquest into the death of London lawyer Mark Saunders by trying to get as many song titles as possible into his evidence, this behaviour sadly does not surprise me. What worries me though is that these officers are believed to have been armed (Craig did not see any guns but the local website has reported other witnesses that did), and if Craig had made a suspicious move he might not have been here to tell the tale. Exaggeration maybe but that's not what John Charles de Menezes found. So here's a few song titles for the police to mull over. "Sorry seems to be the hardest word", "Another One Bites The Dust" "Thick As A Brick" and, of course, this one. Ok it's obvious but hey it's one of my favourites and that's what my last month of blogging here is all about.