Nottingham police have blood on their hands they need to forget about diversity targets & focus on solving crime
THERE is only one word to describe the police’s behaviour over the horrific Nottingham attacks: despicable.
For too long now, I have watched in horror as our forces become preoccupied with tick-box diversity initiatives and arresting online keyboard warriors, while missing the vital red flags that let real criminals like Valdo Calocane bring bloodshed to our streets.
And I mean this when I say it – because my own son was in the same nightclub that Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, were walking back from when they were brutally stabbed by Valdo Calocane in the early hours of June 13, 2023.
But it’s not about me, or my own family.
It’s about Grace, Barnaby and the third tragic victim, Ian Coates, 65, as well as the other people so dreadfully injured by Calocane and his deadly rampage.
Their families are well within their rights to say that the blundering cops have blood on their hands after The Sun revealed no less than 11 shocking mistakes made by the force ahead of the attack.
Sickeningly, this included failing to properly investigate Calocane’s attack on two work colleagues at a warehouse weeks before his rampage, according to a watchdog report.
The police’s rampant neglect left a dangerous, drug-taking man free to kill.
Meanwhile, if only Nottinghamshire Police had performed a routine drugs test after arresting him, he might be in a jail where he belongs – not a hospital.
The beast was given an indefinite secure hospital order after a manslaughter plea, but had any drugs been found in his system it could have wrecked his lesser sentence.
Unfortunately, given the state of policing today, it is little surprise how dreadfully they are failing at their basic job of keeping the public safe and secure.
And I say that as a former Scotland Yard detective who worked in the force for 21 years.
Last year, Nottinghamshire Police were placed into special measures following a damming inspection.
And what in particular were they rated as inadequate at? Preventing crime, and investigating crime.
The two most basic things the police should be doing.
Turning back on hard crime
The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Senior police bosses for the last 20 years have willingly encouraged the police service to become some kind of social service that will deal with all of society’s ills.
They go for their hits that satisfy DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), arresting people for causing “offence” when they are simply telling the truth.
When the police become so afraid of their own shadow, is it any surprise that they’re afraid of criminals?
They waste time recording “non-crime hate incidents” when they can’t even carry out basic checks that could have saved Barnaby, Grace, and Ian.
Then there’s the nonsensical drive to reach out and “engage with their communities”.
There are only two communities that the police should engage with – victims of crime, and perpetrators of crime.
And who suffers? It’s us – the public.
Our high streets are so ravaged by shoplifting that shops won’t even bother calling the police anymore.
There’s rampant drug dealing, which now means drugs are available in every village, town and city the length and breadth of the nation.
Then there’s the knife crime epidemic, which shows no signs of slowing down, because officers are too afraid to stop and search for fears they may have allegations of racism thrown at them.
The public are sick and tired of the force not doing proper, professional policing.
They’re sick and tired of coming home to find their house burgled.
They’re sick and tired of their wives, their girlfriends, their partners being sexually harrased at best, raped at worst, on public transport.
And they’ve had enough.
They want robust police officers who are not afraid to call it how it is.
Neglect at the top
Also rated inadequate in the inspection was Nottinghamshire Police’s leadership and force management.
So it’s little surprise that in the aftermath of Calocane’s terrible attack, the Chief Constable was accused by the families of hiding away behind emails and is now facing calls to step aside.
With that kind of absent leadership, is it any surprise that the force is held in such low esteem?
When the police become so afraid of their own shadow, is it any surprise that they’re afraid of criminals, and instead focuses on things that please DEI?
It’s the good cops I feel sorry for, because it really is lions being led by donkeys.
So where are the senior police voices supporting the frontline officers?
They are conspicuous by their absence, because the chiefs haven’t got the backbone to stand up and call out this nonsense for what it is.
Of course, plenty of senior police officers in the corridors of power are all university educated these days, indoctrinated with the same lefty nonsense.
I hope that I live long enough to see the day when policing reconnects with the general public, gives them the service they want, and what they desperately need.
Senior policing is no different to our politicians – living in echo chambers where their underlings tell them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.
The public are telling them what they need to hear, but they’re not listening to us.
If they get out of their ivory towers and ask, they’d find out the truth.
BUNGLES THAT LEFT HIM FREE
1. THE police officers assigned to investigate Valdo Calocane’s attack on two warehouse work colleagues took 18 minutes to arrive at the scene — exceeding the target minimum response time of 15 minutes.
2. ON arrival, they were reportedly told by a witness that Calocane had grabbed for a safety knife before he was escorted off the premises — but they are accused of failing to act on that information.
Both officers deny ever being told the suspect had reached for a blade.
3. THE investigating officers failed to download CCTV footage of the attack on a USB stick.
Both claim the other recorded the CCTV on their body-worn cameras, but neither saved it evidentially and the recording was ultimately wiped from the warehouse firm’s servers.
4. THE police officers also failed to save body-worn camera video footage of the initial verbal accounts given by the victims.
5. NO written statements or accounts were taken by cops from either victim at the scene or following the incident, as the officers were assigned to another job and had to leave.
6. ATTEMPTS to contact the training co-ordinator who called 999 and the two victims of the assault in the weeks that followed were limited to email and telephone. Neither officer visited them in person after the incident.
7. DESPITE one victim speaking limited English and the other speaking no English, a translator was not called in to help them communicate with police.
8. OFFICERS were also given a list of witnesses to the assault, but there is no evidence any of them were ever contacted or had their statements taken.
9. NO Police National Computer or Police National Database checks on Calocane were completed at any stage of the investigation.
As a result, the officers were unaware there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. They were also unaware of several other recorded mental health and assault incidents.
10. NO attempts to arrest Calocane were ever made during the police probe.
11. THE sergeant supervising the investigation was responsible for conducting a crime review of the case, but failed to do so.