MARVELLOUS, innit? What a surprise to find out after all this time that the police do have double standards after all when it comes to the travelling community.
I refer to the story on the front page "Police not using full power to evict travellers" (August 18).
When it comes to moving these people on, it seems that the police have always been powerless to do anything. Now we find out through this paper that they do indeed have the power to act but have chosen not to do so. The law is already in place but it would appear that section 61 of the Criminal Law and Public Order act 1994 is only there for everybody else and not travellers. No doubt it would be quickly applied to half a dozen members of a caravan club if they decided to park up on Chester Green over the Bank Holiday weekend. And they certainly wouldn't be able to drive away and leave their rubbish behind.
And what about the person with the bolt cutters cutting the chain off a gate to gain access to a field at Spondon a few weeks ago? What about criminal damage and trespass?
And the council is no better. We've seen countless stories of fly-tipping in the city with various council officials saying there's nothing it can do because it can never find the culprits. But then along come the travellers for a week or so and leave all their filth behind and both the police and council just stand back and let these culprits go. Who picks the bill up for this?
Come on, you lot – get some backbone and start doing the job the rest of us expect you to do instead of just going after easy targets all the while.
S Radford
Rowditch Avenue
Derby
