The earlier post about London's Strategic Emergency Plan has led to an outbreak of disturbing memories of When The Wind Blows and Threads. Please, London - REMAIN CALM. Yes there is a threat and yes we are a plump target, but we must never forget that we have a noble body of people working to protect us and while they may not wear black rubber and drive around in souped up tanks like Batman they are still our first line of defence in the war on terror.
Some of them are so valuable that we won't even lock them up when they are caught with their pants around their ankles and a fistful of kiddie porn.
Alan Pickwell, "a Ministry of Defence official with high security clearance in the war on terror", escaped jail last week despite being in possession of some 185 films and photos "featuring young girls and boys being tied up and raped".
We would have thought that a Ministry of Defence expert would have no problem in outwitting the local constabulary when hiding his illegal stash of filth, but apparently a high security clearance does not automatically relate to a high IQ. Pickwell was arrested after he threw some of the photos in a skip while police found the rest hidden in his garden shed.
Pickwell, it seems, was a small fish compared to his pal Leonard Young who had a collection of 10,000 images of child pornography and was sentenced accordingly.
Rest assured that although Pickwell has served no jail time his security status has been reduced from high to very low. Great.
Strangely it was only a month ago that District Judge Anthony Evans warned both men that "he felt his powers of sentence - a maximum one year's prison - were insufficient". But then it seems it hadn't come out that Pickwell worked for the M.O.D. and a new judge was given the task of sentencing; Judge Timothy Lawrence, described the men's actions as "mischief" and let Pickwell off with a community order because of his good character.
Gets off watching children being raped, but apparently he's still a top bloke. In fact his defence attorney pointed out:
"In this day and age with terrorism and everything going on, this country needs good people in these important jobs."
Mischief. Good character. Terrorism and everything. Good people. Important jobs.
Now we know why no one ever asked questions of Bruce Wayne's relationship with young Dick.
Over to Commissioner Gordon for the last word on turning a blind eye for the greater good:
Well we could arrest the Dark Knight for raping his ward, but then who would protect us from The Joker? It's just a little mischief and Batman's shown good character in every other aspect of his fetish heavy lifestyle so far. Gotham agrees with London that in this time of terrorism and everything we need these good people in these important jobs...
(Banner image taken from superdickery.com)
