A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, Transforming the garden to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep. In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, And I crept to the door just to see who was near. Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight. A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. "What are you doing?" I asked without fear, "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here! Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve, You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!" For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.. To the window that danced with a warm fire's light Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, That separates you from the darkest of times. No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me. My Grandfather died in France ' on a day in December," Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gran always remembers." My dad stood his watch in the jungles of Burma And now it is my turn and so, here I am. I've not seen my own son in more than a while, But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile. Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, The red, white, and blue... a Union flag. I can live through the cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my home. I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I can sleep in a trench with little to eat. I can carry the weight of killing another, Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.. Who stand at the front against any and all, To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall." ”So go back inside," he said, "harbour no fright, Your family is waiting and I'll be all right." "But isn't there something I can do, at the least, "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast? It seems all too little for all that you've done, For being away from your wife and your son." Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, "Just tell us you love us, and never forget. To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone, To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For when we come home, either standing or dead, To know you remember we fought and we bled. Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, That we mattered to you as you mattered to us." Chris Smith (Skipatrol) Royal Marine Ret

SOME UNTOLD TRUTHS ABOUT JEAN CHARLES MENEZES

What is written here does not seek to justify nor condem the shooting of John Charles Menezes. What it does attempt to do is put into perspective some of what has been said, and publish some untold and deliberately withheld facts.

• FACT: He was an illegal immigrant.
• FACT: He had entered UK from Brazil by first going to France, then travelling to Ireland because there are no passport checks. All border controls are gone for interstate movement between Schengen countries except UK which has not signed up to this agreement.
• FACT: He then travelled to UK from Ireland. Traditionally these two countries have had their own agreement about unrestricted travel.
• FACT: This is a well known avenue for people to illegally gain access to UK who normally would not be granted access.
• FACT: Menezes must have been aware of this loophole otherwise he would not have needed to go to the extra expense of using it.
• FACT: He only applied for a student visa when his presence was discovered. (How was he sustaining himself)
• FACT: He was not an electrician as has been repeatedly stated by the press, and he was not on his way to work on the morning that he died.
• FACT: No one has given any evidence to prove that he was in fact an electrician, and no one has come forward as his employer, or his client on this day.
  
• FACT: He lived in the same block of maisonettes as bombing suspect Hussain Osman, who shortly afterwards fled.
• FACT: He would probably have known Osman.
• FACT: Many local people and informed observers believe that Menezes was being used by Osman as a decoy to enable his escape.
• FACT: Menezes used a typical anti-survellance tactic in alighting and re mounting a bus to see who gets off with him in an attempt to throw off persuers.
• FACT:The excuse that he only got back on the bus because the station was shut is only an assumption. How would anyone possibly know that is the case.
• FACT: Menezes would not normally have used this tube station (Brixton) because it is on the Victoria line. He eventually went to platform 2 at Stockwell which is the Northern line going to a completely different part of london.
• FACT: This information has been repeatedly ignored and subdued. Why?
• FACT: The media persistently refer to Menezes as Innocent. Why?

Only one thing is sure. Jean Charles Menezes is dead.
Justice has not been done.
He could well have been just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However the brave Police were doing an extremely difficult job.
Nothing was mentioned in the enquiry of Menezes convoluted background and where he was going on that day.

Let this incident be a lesson to all.

Four Killed In Stolen Car Takeaway Smash

Four people have been killed when their stolen car smashed into a fish and chip shop in Bradford.

Killinghall Road has been cordoned off following the crash

The vehicle may have been involved in a police pursuit, according to local television reports.

The Subaru burst into flames after slamming into the takeaway in West Yorkshire.

Police confirmed that there was a crash at 4.35am on Killinghall Road, in the Laisterdyke area of Bradford.

The matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Ashamed? I am. (Lets have your comments please.)

Anyone who doubts that the Police State does not exist should think again. A BNP-supporting publican has been arrested because of commercial newspaper cuttings he pasted up on his pub walls which a visiting senior police officer did not like.

Mr Peter Mailer, owner of the Black Bull in Warkworth, Northumberland was arrested on ‘suspicion of committing a racially-aggravated public order offence’ because of newspaper clippings on the wall.

Mr. Mailer was arrested after a complaint from a senior Nottingham Police officer who visited the pub while on holiday.

Mr Mailer, who is an active supporter of the British National Party, was hauled into the nearby Alnwick Police Station.

He has been bailed to return to the station on December 23, when he will learn whether or not the Crown Prosecution Service will charge him.

The 52-year-old said he was stunned to learn that the complaint had been made by the Notts officer.

He said the officer had been in the pub with a friend and their wives. They chatted to him, but never mentioned the cuttings, which are mainly from national newspapers. Three days later, police arrested him and took everything off the walls.

The newspaper cuttings were all from commercially published daily newspapers. Journalists from the papers who read this, had therefore better be aware that the state which they have helped to create, will ultimately come for them as well.

Police fury over fast track for graduate inspectors

Home Office plan to attract brightest and best angers rank and file
A controversial 'fast-track' scheme that would see university graduates and middle managers enter the police force as trainee inspectors, instead of starting out as constables pounding the beat, is being quietly drawn up by the government.

According to an internal Home Office document seen by The Observer, the government wants to attract the brightest graduates who have usually opted for professions such as accountancy or the law but are put off by the idea of entering the police as a 'lowly' constable.

But the plan has alarmed rank-and-file members of the force who claim it will create a generation of senior officers with insufficient experience in policing. 'You can't simply bring in people from other sectors of the economy and expect them to run firearms operations or complex public safety operations,' said Bob Quick, chief constable of Surrey Police who speaks for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on workforce matters. 'We want a system where they come in as constables and can quickly move to senior positions if they prove they have the skills.'

The plan will be discussed by the Workforce Modernisation Board, which oversees policing matters and is composed of civil servants, union officials, and police officers, this month. The Home Office document, 'Multiple Points of Entry and Exit to the Police Service', suggests many graduates do not see joining the police as an attractive career. 'There is evidence that the police service could improve its appeal as a graduate employer,' the document notes. 'The UK graduate careers survey 2006 found that 78 per cent of students thought the service was either "not very" or "not at all appealing" as a graduate employer.'

To tackle this problem the document says the government plans a new 'entry route... aimed at both the best graduates and experienced individuals from other sectors with proven leadership skills.'

The government believes the plan would allow more women and ethnic minorities to gain promotion within the police faster. It also believes it would bring in new perspectives and attitudes. Graduates could achieve the rank of superintendent within two and a half years, a prospect that concerns the Police Federation, which represents the interests of more than 130,000 police officers in England and Wales. The federation points out that, under the current 'High Potential Development Scheme', it takes five and a half years for high-calibre candidates to achieve superintendent rank.

'This document shows that, under the government's plans, graduates would go in as trainee inspectors rather than as constables,' said Jan Berry, chair of the federation. 'This is elitist. Policing shouldn't be about status, it should be about experience.' And she warned that the fast-track approach could backfire in tense situations. 'At two o'clock in the morning, when the clubs are kicking people out and it's all going pear-shaped, you want someone with experience of policing, not academia.'

The ACPO has called for the plan to be replaced with a new pay scale for the most able constables as a way of attracting high-calibre candidates.

The document reveals that the government is aware its plan will prove controversial. 'There are, of course, risks associated with any change in established arrangements.' It suggests there is need to 'establish the credibility of direct entrants as leaders of officers with more operational policing experience' and 'minimise possible resistance from police forces'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/may/07/ukcrime.immigrationpolicy

The witch hunt continues . . .

Oh Dear, What on earth is the Police Force becoming.

This is not what we all joined for is it?

NEARLY two weeks after the publishing of a 2007 BNP membership list on the Internet, Merseyside Police are still busy scrabbling around trying to accrue enough evidence in order to persecute one of their own officers.

The family of the officer concerned asked us to co-operate with the investigation, so we have done so, and over that last fourteen days have answered numerous enquiries from DC Tony O’Brien who seems to be in charge of this particular witch hunt. Yesterday, there was another officer asking questions, but when our membership office refused to discuss any information with him, it was O’Brien back on later in the day, this time wanting to know about the Freedom newspaper, how often it was published, and whether it was sent in a plain envelope.

He also wanted to know if someone had taken out a subscription to Freedom, whether its was possible for that newspaper to be addressed to someone else living in that household????

Can you believe it? It is obvious where he is trying to go with this line of questioning and it makes me very angry to think that there has been a team of officers who have spent two weeks trying to gather such information because they are so desperate to hound one of their own out of a job. There is something radically wrong with a society when a police force believes that this should be a such a priority.

There’s more on the witch hunt in Martin Wingfield’s blog this morning here.

Scotland Yards Latest Most Wanted List

Farouk ABDULHAK	Juris TETERIS	Hayman MUSTAFA	Grant FINDLAY
Iqbal ZAFAR	Ibrahim ADAM	Lamine ADAM	Magdalena ZAJDEL
James Walter TOMKINS	Youseff Ahmed WAHID	Noel Francis CUNNINGHAM
	http://www.met.police.uk/wanted/