Just heard this on the now show podcast. This is a real email, sent by a member of the public to Devon and Cornwall police. All I can say is bravo to this member of the public



The police responded



The angry member of the public then responded



Absolutely brilliant

Thanks Stephen, that was superb!

Now HE should be in the Government!!!

Gotta love sarcastic writers

While some parts did make me chuckle, does he not remember being a child? Or was he just as arrogant back then that games and socializing were above him?
The police even offered to help (even when these children I assume weren't actually braking the law...) and he threw it back in their face - it seems like he didn't actually want the police to do anything but was simply bored and wanted to annoy someone...

If you accept/agree with such behaviour then I simply pity you.

You guys like taking little jabs at us yanks on occasion, so I'm happy to return fire!

As someone who receives such sarcastic e-mails, I have little respect, much less sympathy for the guy. Perhaps it's just yet another cultural difference from across the pond, but in my opinion, brits go about civil and consumer affairs all the wrong way. I'll go out of my way to assist someone who says "hey, I understand things happen, but I have this problem... can you help?" For some reason, many brits like this guy go straight to sarcastic, snide remarks and/or threats of legal action over problems that the rest of us consider normal. Maybe I'm the exception, but I won't deal with the latter. My willingness to help or even entertain conversation with difficult people is zero, regardless of how right they may be. You always hear of people with the same issue getting different results from companies, large and small... approach is everything. If you're a jerk just because you can be, you'll be treated as such (at least by me) - if you're civil and polite, that tone will be returned as well. 25 minutes on hold in a non-emergency situation is certainly not justification to be as rude as he was.

I can't imagine that situation ending well here. First, I'd likely go talk to the kids myself first. Second, if I did need the help of police, I surely wouldn't hide behind my computer asking them for help while calling them worthless. I'm not saying his complaint is unfounded, I just find his approach ... for the lack of better word, lame.

Apparently when failing "call my council!" it's escalated to "email my council!"

Thing is, sarcasm and irony are essentially what British humour is about. I certainly agree that Brits seem to complain more than is necessary, but the sarcasm is Brit nature. Whereas Americans see this as a snide, sarcastic attack, to Brits it's a guy trying to inject some humour into the situation

HOBBY BOBBYS!

Fat lot of us PCO's are. They are legally allowed to detain people for up to 30 minutes, but may not use force. So they detained can go "Up yours, I'm off" and the PCO can't do nothing.

Every single law in the UK contradicts another, and the legal system is more damaged than a burning building

I love the cynical side of this guy. He's got my vote

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Lindy. You're forgetting the first Law of Billable Support:

"Hourly Rate varies with customer attitude."

For the people who actually understand such things, at least.

Really quite funny! You can fully understand the man's frustration.

What, the behaviour of the children? You must have at some point in your life kicked a football against a wall... as Lindy said, the guy would have got much further simply going and asking the children to stop.

Probably get stabbed for doing that in alot of places!

Yes, Bodmin is a cesspit of violence and knife crime.

I hear they had a very nasty incident recently where an old lady answered the door to her postman wielding a large and dangerous butter knife.

She said she was making a ham roll, but I for one don't trust her for a minute, obviously a psychopath.

It might have been a letter opener...

</internal joke>

Wasn't really thinking of in Bodmin though to be fair!!

That was so terrible I actually feel pained.

How do you know what I was referring to? o_O

Oh is there a further story behind that. My bad.

If they are yobs/chavs, you have to be truly joking. In fact, actually asking nicely could very well be much worse than being aggressive. It is a sign of weakness - a Mr. "Nice Guy", a "softie". I know a few people who tried the "nice" approach and ended up much worse off because the yobs saw it as a weakness and thereby carried out a campaign of terror. If you scare them, chances are much greater of them backing off. The moment yobs know you are the one who is scared of them, you are in real trouble. That is why a lot of guys act "tough" - to look like they can defend themselves and instill a little bit of fear ensuring no one mess with them. When I was in school, the "chavs" and "yobs" were my friends so I have a fair knowledge how they think. I remember the people we would never cross would be the ones we feared. I have never been picked on by youths or anyone because I look like I can defend myself.

I think this part of the current problem with our society. I say this with an advantage that I spend a lot of my day controlling "chavs" so I find it a lot easier to say something in public. I do occasionally have to stop myself saying "or you'll go stand outside the classroom!".

Firstly, the 'chav' is the only group it's acceptable to bully in our society. If we talked the same way about working class, black males we'd be arrested for being racist, if we referred to gypsys as pikeys then we'd certainly be frowned upon. It's OK to 'hate' chavs and to regard them as the evil of all society. A chav is a person who dresses a certain way, they're often white, working class teenage males. They aren't violent in many cases, and they're often approachable.

We live in a fear that if we attempt to speak to a teenager, or reproach their behaviour they'll pull a knife out and a stab us. There is always that possibility, but that same possibility exists if I tell a black teenager off, or a white girl. These kids often don't have guidelines at home, but also aren't aware that what they are doing is annoying somebody. A few weeks ago I was in McDonald's and a young (13/14) year old male was being really rude to the guy behind the counter. His friends noticed I was staring at him, told him so and told him to shut up. He turned around and asked me what I was looking at. I told him I was looking at one of the rudest people I'd ever met and that he needed to treat other people with respect. He was clearly shocked that somebody was actually telling him what to do, but when he ordered his burger he said please and thank you!

We have no need to be scared of anybody else in society, and a lot of the problems we had could be solved if people were willing to go outside and speak politely and with respect. Children/Teenagers/Adults will 9 times out of 10 respond respectfully if you're respectful to them, they won't pull a knife out. We need to get out of this 'snitch' culture where our first move is to ring the police because somebody is kicking a football. If we do this then next time somebody is trying to break into my house the police will turn up, rather than me having to wrestle the guy to the ground and scare him off. On that occasion the guy did have a knife on him, but I didn't find that out until the police picked up later that day. They were probably busy down the road confiscating a football off a bunch of a bored teens.

Hey Dan!

I feel it's important to have humour in life so I don't really have a problem with chav jokes - it's really no different from poking fun at a Northerner, Southerner, your friends, a "foreigner" etc. I agree with you that it is seen as acceptable to bully chavs - it's not something I condone. It's not right to bully a person for simply being a part of the underclass. My experience of them is mainly a very negative one due to the things I have witness and seen on a regular basis - lack of manners, consistently obnoxious behaviour (like on buses, trains and public places), rowdy behavour, anti-social language and behaviour. It's funny how much my attitude has changed. When I was at school, large proportion of my friends were the chavvish, yobbish types. To give you an idea, some of them were violent - got expelled, at least two of them tried to blow up the school - many did drugs, most smoked yada yada. Since leaving school to join a good college, followed by good universities, being exposed to good decent mature people changed me (although I am from a middle class background). It's weird that today I actually very much dislike the people who were for most of my school years, my good friends. This is in spite of the fact that if I do get respect from the chavs and they are quite friendly towards me. I still don't like most of them though because of the lack of respect they have for others. As you quite rightly mention, many of them are not violent, in fact I would add that most are not.

I don't fear chavs at all and don't even feel unsafe - even at night if I am walking alone in a quiet street. Most people seem quite paranoid in my opinion.

My previous comments are really towards the yobbish types - they are pretty much everywhere and through experience of others and what they have told me, the nice approach almost always never works. It often prompts the situation to escalate into something much worse. If you send out a strong signal that you will not tolerate their behaviour you have a much better chance of peace. You don't have to be rude but you can be stern yet respectful in my opinion. The only case where the "nice guy" approach will work is if the youths you are talking to are decent people, otherwise be prepared for a backlash.

By the way, do you know what I think is a HUGE part of the problem in our society at the moment? The media. I personally think the reason why so many youths are carrying knives is because they are very tensed up by all the hysteria whipped up by media over knife culture. They feel unsafe therefore carry knives for self protection, not to go out looking for trouble. All this coverage over knife crime is not helping but instead making things worse. We know that the perceived threat of violence is always much higher than the actual threat itself and this isn't helped by frenzied reporting we are getting day in, day out. It creates massive fear.

I have to admit, in the past year or so I have greatly cut down the amount of time spent watching the news and reading tabloids. The result of this is that I feel much more at ease and have a greater feeling of peace. I would advise everyone give it a try. They greatly influence your state of mind.

Norris McWhirter wrote the Guinness Book of World Records.....I had to look it up. I figure someone else might have pondered the reference.

Hilarous