June 15th, 2007
Crash Driver Who Left Cyclist To Die Is Jailed For 10 Years
Greater Manchester Police are rightly blowing their own trumpet at succesfully convicting a young offender to 10 years for killing a cyclist in Leigh. John White has been sent down for ten years for the killing of Barry Hilton.
However there’s more to the tale, and it is telling about GMP performance and priorities.
“Throughout the day there were a number of calls to police about the car being driven dangerously. There were three people in the car, drinking alcohol and being aggressive to members of the public.”
Wave a lethal weapon around in public and they’re down on you with terminal force, but drive around pissed up in a lethal weapon and you can get away with it.
Until it’s too late.
Now, thanks to GMP inaction, Barry Hilton leaves a widow and two step-children.
Compare with the recent honour killing of Banaz Mahmod.
In that case an inquiry is now being carried out into why police did not act earlier. Is an inquiry being carried out by GMP into why they didn’t act earlier in this case? I doubt it. Sweep another cyclist under the carpet.
When queried about it GMP contradicted their own press release and those calls became “alleged calls”. The police don’t take kindly to suspects changing their story but here they are pulling the same trick.
GMP do not think very cleverly - if at all - about their PR. Here in the North-West they promote a local TV show featuring their traffic cops scaling the heights of crime-fighting such as returning a stolen car to it’s owner when they finally twig - after alerts from the public - that a new car has appeared on an estate and then it hasn’t moved for five weeks. Yes, it’s a great result for the car owner, but the hidden subtext is that GMP cops aren’t particularly observant or bright.
Unfortunately in this case Barry Hilton paid the price for their stupidity.
/a paranoid cycnic thinks: how long it will be now before I’m harrassed by the police when I’m out driving?
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