Madam, it is seldom that I congratulate the police but I feel the Ross police need to be congratulated on their display of arrogance and ignorance in basic community policing on Sunday, January 31st.
Several law-abiding members of the public were abruptly, and without good reason, refused permission to photograph a pile of rubble where a wall collapsed in Archenfield Road.
To be told a blatant lie, that a body might be under the stones was ludicrous in the extreme. There were no ambulances or paramedics at the scene, the firefighters were not moving the stones and an eyewitness affirmed no one was passing when the wall fell down.
We were also told the firefighters did not want to be photographed at work. Maybe if we photographers had been TV camera crews they would not have been so shy.
High handed, arrogant, self assured dictatorial behaviour from the police offends and alienates ordinary townspeople going about their lawful business. Are cameras illegal now?
We only wished to photograph a collapsed wall in the street. Did they think it was a terrorist attack, or were we, the onlookers, terrorists?
A little power certainly affected the judgement of the policewomen at the scene so much that three generations of my family will give very serious thought to ever helping the police in future.
Congratulations for causing our quick and thorough alienation. The police must remember community policing works both ways or else collapses.
Tim, recorder of the passing scene.
Name and address supplied