Im absolutely stunned, 3 fatal shootings, in one week, in one region.
I find it hard to believe there isn't some link between the shootings.
The primary duty of policing is to protect life!
Sean Rimmer, 22 years, shot and killed on Tuesday 16th August 2022.
This was the first murder with a gun in Merseyside in more than a year.
Ashley Dale, 28 years, shot and killed on Sunday 21st August 2022.
Now we have a further tragic death of a beautiful 9 year old child, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, in the most horrific set of circumstances. Shot and killed in her own home, and her mother injured, on Monday 22nd August 2022.
Three gun deaths on Merseyside in a week and the police say there is no connection! Maybe not directly but it all flows from the same filthy, putrid source.
Gun crime is the domain of organised crime and to narrow it down, the battle for supremacy, territory and control in the supply of drugs.
Government, policing and society is failing catastrophically in the war on organised crime and all the dark, demonic places that it inhabits....drugs, people trafficking, modern slavery, forced prostitution, fraud, kidnapping, torture, serious assault and murder.
Police only respond to urgent calls, as they are stretched well beyond capacity.
Community policing is now a shadow of what it once was. It used to provide valuable intelligence from petty theft to terrorism and everything in between. People tell their local Bobby the things they would never report otherwise, because they are the visible, engaging and trusted face of the police service, and they know and care for the community they serve.
School, youth club visits and other opportunities to engage with our youngsters and positively influence them are no more. The police command need bobbies in cars firefighting the urgent calls because the resources just aren't available to build safer communities.
There is no hard hitting national policy, with ground breaking resources to target gangs and gang crime head on in all the ways it hurts. Target them mercilessly at all levels, harass them, harangue them, arrest them for the slightest misdemeanour and make them feel at the mercy of the police 24/7.....give them nowhere to hide.
Gang 'membership/association' should be a criminal offence per se and invite arrest, intelligence collection, parental sanctions (if under 18) and the opportunity for diversion away from gang culture with the support of educational services and local authorities.
This will only get a whole lot worse with more lives lost to guns, knives, drugs and torture unless the powers that be grab it firmly by the scruff of the neck and take back control.
We get the society we deserve. Apathy is not an option. Lobby your MP, your Chief Constable or Divisional Commander.
Make these public servants feel uncomfortable with the responsibility they have chosen to accept when they have failed to deliver. Let them be in no doubt what is expected of them.
