Police watch a kid drown and do nothing!

[mstriumph]

.................
Facts that matter are plain enough. Boy drowned. Men stood and did nothing. There's a picture of the scene. Dunno what more "facts" anyone could want.

with respect, that's not the facts as reported in the article? - if they had been as per above, everyone's outrage here would be justified - as it is, i believe it's misplaced

.................
(One caveat: The article didn't make it clear that the PCSOs were men. They might have been female, which is a different matter)

call me a heathen - i don't have the quaint, peculiarly western, notion of chivalry that seems implicit in this post........

do you REALLY mean that a person's gender obviates any requirement for them to behave like a human being??? .......

i'm shocked.

[sunhuntin]

No, you shut up.

No, YOU shut up!

heheh... brother bear

[Manxman]

There isn't enough information in that story to form an educated opinion on the matter.

Who knows why they didn't jump in, perhaps they froze in fear, perhaps there was something else the media (read: fuckwits) easily ommitted.

Perhaps two other people in the same situation would have done the same thing.

Why do people blame first, then recognise tragedies later? It's bad enough being in a PC world without having people furthering it by looking for someone to attack. Something the media is exceptionally good at.

"The alarm was raised and the PCSOs arrived on the scene. Police said they could see no sign of Jordon in the water, so they radioed trained officers for help."

That implies that he was already under. What do you people expect the police to do? Jump in there and search for the boy as they hold their breath?

I think you people have seen one too many movies.

It's not like they watched him struggle on the surface and refused to go in the water.

...well done you two - these are the most informed & balanced comments I have read on this. However, it is fairly typical and human nature for us to jump to conclusions on what we initially believe to be factual reports, so I'm not flaming everyone else.

Reality is, the media are invariably to blame in cases like this by putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 45p (about the price of a newspaper). BBC used to be factual and balanced, but are now barely better than the rest. My parting shot is about NZ media, who IMHO, are being infiltrated by ex-pat pom editors/staffers/journos, who are bringing this sort of shi*tty "reporting" technique with them. You just have to watch TV1 and read the Dom to see how often slow news days are filled with what can only be described as Daily Mirror-like and deliberately inflammatory opinion (note...opinion, not fact).

[Ixion]

Some have suggested that the "media" have omitted significant information to sensationalise the story. I have reviewed the quite extensive media reports Unless all the news media in Britain have joined together in a conspiracy, I can see no basis for such an opinion. Nor were the salient facts rebutted in the official statement of the local Assistant Chief Constable, Dave Thompson.

Some further information that was not in the original link.

The two elderly anglers (63 and 66) did in fact wade into the water to rescue the little girl.

When the PCSOs arrived they radioed for help (OK so far). One then cycled back to the road to wait for the police to arrive. The other stood and watched.

Some five minutes after the arrival of the PCSOs , the boys stepfather arrived (with a friend) and immediately entered the water and started searching. The anglers who had retrieved the girl had also returned to the water to search. A few moments after the stepfather , a police sergeant arrived, but was delayed by the need to remove his body armour. During this, the two PCSOs were standing at the water's edge, watching.

It was the step father who retrieved the boy.

The boy was still alive when brought out of the water , though unconscious and not breathing. The police sergeant applied CPR and the boy was airlifted to hospital , where he died in the early hours of the next morning.

Minutes count in drowning. Had the PCSOs attempted to retrieve the boy, several minutes might have been gained. That might have made the difference.

Of course, it might not have. Or they might have been unable to find him. (Though they knew exactly where he went under, and the boy's stepfather who did find him had no fancy gear). But, they could have TRIED. One can always try.

On consideration, I stand by my condemnation. That has nothing whatsoever to do with whether they were police or not. Nor has it anything to do with who, if anyone, should be blamed for the children being there unsupervised.

The facts seem clear and irrefutable to me. And the two , guilty of cowardice, forfeit the right to be called men.

I am glad the two anglers, men of my own generation, were of bolder stuff.

[mstriumph]

but Ixion
you didn't answer the second part of my post ......