Rotherham child rape gangs: At least 1400 victims

[brogdale]

Rotherham council cabinet has resigned.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

So should the filth. From Louise Casey's report...

There were numerous occasions in which girls were not believed.

They were threatened with wasting police time, they were told they had consented to sex and, on occasion, they were arrested at the scene of a crime, rather than the perpetrators.

Police did not understand the terror which many victims lived in and their consequent fear of testifying and their anxiety over whether police could protect them. Some of the crimes we were made aware of included rape with a broken bottle and girls being ordered to kiss perpetrators’ feet at gunpoint.

 

[not-bono-ever]

fuckin police and councillor scum- and they wonder why we dont have any faith in them, vermin

 

[bluescreen]

Hard not to be outraged:
This:

Ms Casey said the local authority was "repeatedly told" by its own youth service what was happening.
It chose, she said "not only to not act, but to close that service down."

 

[brogdale]

Yes, fuck resigning...this is more important...

Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency’s independent investigation examining criminal allegations of non-familial child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, is to examine a number of potentially criminal matters identified during a recent inspection of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

 

[Sprocket.]

As appalling as the council's part in this is folks don't forget the other party in inaction is none other than South Yorkshire's finest.
It's not as though they haven't got previous!

 

[brogdale]

Terrible things happened in Rotherham and on a significant scale. Children were sexually exploited by men who came largely from the Pakistani heritage community. Not enough was done to acknowledge this, to stop it happening, to protect children, to support victims and to apprehend perpetrators.

Upon arriving in Rotherham, these I thought were the uncontested facts. My job was to conduct an inspection and decide whether the council was now fit for purpose.

However, this was not the situation I encountered when I reached Rotherham. Instead, I found a council in denial. They denied that there had been a problem, or if there had been, that it was as big as was said. If there was a problem they certainly were not told – it was someone else’s job. They were no worse than anyone else. They had won awards. The media were out to get them.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

As appalling as the council's part in this is folks don't forget the other party in inaction is none other than South Yorkshire's finest.
It's not as though they haven't got previous!

Yep the institutional culpability of the police needs to be brought to book...but don't hold your breath.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[brogdale]

As appalling as the council's part in this is folks don't forget the other party in inaction is none other than South Yorkshire's finest.
It's not as though they haven't got previous!

Different authorities, but same lodge.

 

[bluescreen]

Fuck the racism. What's heritage got to do with it? Isn't it just a dog whistle?

 

[Sprocket.]

Different authorities, but same lodge.

True, I am posting this from outside Doncaster police station and feeling somewhat paranoid!

 

[Pickman's model]

True, I am posting this from outside Doncaster police station and feeling somewhat paranoid!

better than posting from within donnie police station

 

[Sprocket.]

better than posting from within donnie police station

Again, well it was a phone call actually.

 

[Pickman's model]

Again, well it was a phone call actually.

and at least not made after arrest.

but was it made after work?

 

[sojourner]

Two Rotherham councillors and police officer accused of having sex with abuse scandal victims - Independent

Reckon there'll be a fuckton more than just them, too

 

[Lurdan]

The Casey report lambasts many aspects of the Council's functioning but its criticisms of the Children's Social Care Service in particular are excoriating. I would imagine staff at all levels will be facing a fairly torrid time.

 

[brogdale]

Reckon there'll be a fuckton more than just them, too

Would not be surprising, would it?

 

[Sprocket.]

and at least not made after arrest.

but was it made after work?

A bolt through the heart from our drive-by archer!

 

[Pickman's model]

A bolt through the heart from our drive-by archer!

i'm not looking for a quarrel

 

[Lurdan]

And in the you-couldn't-make-it-up department :

South Yorkshire Police officer suspended over claims he used force helicopter to film activity at dogging spots - Sheffield Star

A South Yorkshire Police officer has been suspended over allegations he used the force helicopter to hover over dogging spots to video people having sex.

Adrian Pogmore, aged 48, was suspended in December over ‘unauthorised use of force visual recording equipment’, police chiefs have admitted.

An investigation is underway into allegations he recorded activity at dogging spots and took the footage home to watch.

The allegation led to a search of his home in Rotherham, but police chiefs said no footage was found.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Reckon there'll be a fuckton more than just them, too

Which is possibly part of the reason so many council employees appeared to be in denial - the fear that deeper examination would reveal complicity and/or participation.

 

[bluescreen]

I don't get it. Maybe I'm naive but I just don't understand how this abuse was going on on such a massive scale. I'm not doubting it, just incredulous at the scale of the cover-up.
Meanwhile, what a lovely chance for the government to take charge of local government.

 

[bluescreen]

It's awful even to suggest this but I will: is the Casey report politically motivated?
Let there be no doubt. Girls in Rotherham have been abused. And let down by the very people who should protect them. (See what I did with grammar there?) There has been a lot of burying heads in sand. Is the abuse still happening? Who would know, who should know? What is being done about it?
Repeat for every council district in the UK.
And, whoops, who has found out and is there an election soon?

 

[bluescreen]

E2A I'm conflicted about this. If Casey is right, this stuff needs to be out there and acted on soonest. But it can't help but be a win for big government.
Not that local government has covered itself in laurels here. This story is about (at least) 1400 tragedies, and failure of local action and accountability. Watch the Tories make hay, with a side order of racism.

 

[Lurdan]

It's awful even to suggest this but I will: is the Casey report politically motivated?

If you read the report this is one of the reasons used by Rotherham Councillors to dismiss the newspaper reports in the Times which made the issue public. And I suspect this is how some of them will be reacting to Pickles sending in the Commissioners.

There has been a lot of burying heads in sand. Is the abuse still happening? Who would know, who should know? What is being done about it?
Repeat for every council district in the UK.

The report doesn't answer the question of how - at different levels - Councillors and Council Officers distanced themselves from the reality what was going on and justified inaction even after the quantity of shit heading towards the fan should have been blindingly obvious. How could the response to the Jay Report have been to find reasons to reject it ? But it does describe some of the culture in the Council which made that degree of denial possible.

This undoubtedly should be a 'there but the grace of good fortune' moment for other local authorities because while (hopefully) not many have the scale of CSE and the scale of failure to acknowledge and respond it as Rotherham, I believe this does reflect a widespread set of issues and failures.

 

[bluescreen]

I have my own guess at the reasons for Councillor inaction and that guess is ungenerous. I'm ashamed of myself for even thinking such things.

 

[Lurdan]

If you mean that it's because they are all involved in abuse or in deliberately facilitating it I think that would almost certainly be completely wrong. And to follow that line of argument would mean avoiding addressing the lessons of what has happened in favour of a simple narrative of good and evil.

If you haven't done so it would be worth looking at the report. It's quite long, although that reflects the range of issues Casey was told to look at, but it's clearly written and divided into manageable sections, so it's not necessary to read the whole thing. I have to say that aspects of the culture it describes (sadly) rang a lot of bells.

 

[bluescreen]

Thanks. I wasn't thinking of Lakin, who sounds decent but deceived. TBH I have problems with the impartiality of the Casey report, starting with the very first paragraph. She seems to bring a lot of prejudices.

Terrible things happened in Rotherham and on a significant scale. Children were sexually exploited by men who came largely from the Pakistani Heritage Community. Not enough was done to acknowledge this, to stop it happening, to protect children, to support victims and to apprehend perpetrators.

Extraordinarily judgmental language throughout the report. One would have hoped for something more judicious - as it is, it openly betrays its political origins, instead of concealing them in references and footnotes.

The report is written with an almost novelistic relish. Sensationalist, even. Cliffhangers at the end of sections. I have no reason to doubt its findings but its rhetoric is questionable.
I suppose I am suggesting it should be a more boring read and that the government is incapable of ever getting anything right. It requires some mental realignment to accept that Pickles got it right here,

 

[Lurdan]

She seems to bring a lot of prejudices. Extraordinarily judgmental language throughout the report. One would have hoped for something more judicious - as it is, it openly betrays its political origins, instead of concealing them in references and footnotes.

The report is written with an almost novelistic relish. Sensationalist, even. Cliffhangers at the end of sections. I have no reason to doubt its findings but its rhetoric is questionable.
I suppose I am suggesting it should be a more boring read and that the government is incapable of ever getting anything right. It requires some mental realignment to accept that Pickles got it right here,

Well Casey is who she is and it reflects her style. I have no doubt that she was selected in part because of that style. But I don't agree with the suggestion that this means she is simply a Tory shill consciously engaging in doing their dirty work. Her report will undoubtedly be used to further a lot of different agendas but I think it would be wrong to project that all back on to her. (I don't say that because I have any immense sympathy for her).

And in any case are the political games going on really the most important aspect of this appalling affair ?

I'm afraid I'm a little baffled by the suggestion that it would be better if it was written in mandarin speak. Better for who ? Better for the Council Officers in Rotherham's Taxi Licensing section, to take one example, who clearly lied about what they knew and what they had done about it ?

Do you mean it should be written like the long list of reports and inspections - all listed in the report - which Rotherham Councillors, Senior Management and - let's be clear - also junior staff, found ways to ignore, or deny, or even worse accept in multiple ways (some of them 'well meant') which led to no significant change ?

The consequences for some people who did mean well and who tried, however inadequately, to do something about things may well be 'unfair'. But they will scarcely be at the head of the list of people who have been negatively affected by this.

 

[likesfish]

1400 odd raped kids and your worried this is political and dodgy writing style???

Ffs corrupt and incompetant politicions safe from challenge because whats the alternative the torys?
Sorry racism doesnt hide what happen the abusers were brown although the council and police who were suppoused to stop this instead allowed it to happen.

The police have no excuse and whoever was in a leadership postion at the time in rotherham needs to be held to account as they had evidence and washed their hands.

 

[bluescreen]

Thanks, Lurdan. You bring this down to earth. I meant that more impersonal language would be - um - more impersonal. It would seem less parti pris. You're right that focusing on the language is a distraction. Just feeling that all this is politically convenient.