Is This An Unnecessary Witch Hunt?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22231653
Ok, like millions of others she's a dopey teenager. She's resigned, clearly mortified by the whole process. I see no reason to villify this young woman further.

[Sharingan]

No I'm in Shropshire at the moment.

[Zacs-Master]

She made the comments when she was 14/15. Teenage years are years of intense development. I certainly wasn't the same person at 14 as I was at 17. If the press and police are not careful, we will be having another debate on an unfortunate suicide.

[Svejk]

They took her comments out of context and blew them out of all proportion. Imo.

[Gromit]

// They do not have to advertise the posts and many have handed them to friends and political allies.

It has raised concerns that the PCCs, who themselves earn up to £100,000  a year, are not as accountable as they were meant to be.

The row over the cost of Britain’s police commissioners grew last night after a Mail on Sunday investigation found that more than a dozen of them have appointed deputies on wages  of up to £68,000.

Just weeks after the £75 million vote  that saw a record low turnout for  a national election, a third of the crime chiefs are giving jobs to councillors, magistrates and former police officers to help them in their roles.
Some are being paid £68,000 a year – more than backbench MPs earn and almost enough to pay for three constables, who start on £23,500.

The new unelected jobs are being created even though police and crime commissioners (PCCs) have offices full of staff from the Police Authorities they replaced.  //

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2241613/The-new-police-commissioners-appointing-friends-deputies--68-000-year.html#ixzz2R1oDlEDE

[Orderlimit]

'It is amazing what action a mention of those two words 'racist and homophobic'' will conjure up.'

That is certainly true in police 'service' AOG, and probably a lot worse than people realise. Even the most ridiculous report of one 'ism' or 'ic,' being mentioned is capable being treated as a higher priority of even serious crime.

[boxtops]

It has also come to light locally (and she was a Kent appointment) that the tweets were not as long ago as the original reports made out.

[Zacs-Master]

Is that right box tops. I hadn't heard. Have you got a link to any info?

[boxtops]

Probably not - it was on the local radio news a few nights back.

[boxtops]

This says some were made last year when she was 16 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-22070354

[Zacs-Master]

Ta. I'm sure it will all come out in the gutter press.

[modeller]

She is stupid but the real person/s equally to blame are those who appointed her. W

[jim360]

At one level I agree with you andres -- racism and sexism and homophobia should not be tolerated. But it seems that so many people say nasty things on Twitter. I've found horrible stuff about myself on there for some reason. Paris Brown is just one girl among the crowd who has been caught out because she wanted to take on a relatively low-profile job that has suddenly been brought out into the open. Now the media and the police are all over her and it smacks of her being made a scapegoat.

I completely dislike her comments and twitter attitude but it's so typical of a particular group of young people on the internet that it's worth overlooking. Her life is slowly being destroyed, and yet there are so many other people who are equally bad if not worse on twitter than her who will pass unnoticed. Any further action taken against her will be an injustice.

[FredPuli43]

What makes this so bad is that she wasn't even pushing a bike and speaking to a policeman in Downing Street.

Still , she's had an early introduction to the ways of politics and the press. That may stand her in good stead later in life

[DaisyNonna]

So do let the government lower the voting age! What a stupid idea.

[askyourgran]

The Commissioner who selected her for the post is the one who should be lambasted. Paris is a naive young woman who wouldn't think that her whole background would be investigated as far as that, there's always someone looking to dig up some dirt. Now she will have to live down the publicity, plus resigning from a £15.000 pa. job which could have set her up for bigger things in the future.I feel sorry for her.

[shaneystar2]

I don't feel sorry for her .Why should the taxpayer have to stump up extra council tax to pay for these non jobs .Ours has gone up 2% .Not much in the grand scheme of things but that 2% was purely for the police and obviously to pay the over inflated salary of these police commisioner,who then employ hangers on .
I wish I could have easy money at seventeen .

[askyourgran]

I'm sorry for the young girl being dragged into this this, and now pilloried. The whole Police Commissioner business is what is wrong with it. Our Police Commissioner earns £100.000 pa, he has already asked for, and receives £2.6m for extra police and selected a deputy who happens to be a Labour party member just like him, all paid for by our local taxes. I didn't vote for this, but it seems like a runaway train, all the other Counties seem to say the same.

[shaneystar2]

She should have engaged brain before opening her mouth .
If she was bent on pursuing a career in this sort of field she should have a bit more dignified and sensible in the first place .
All this money sloshing around for this fiasco could be spent on more officers on the streets .

[joko]

its obviously all gone pear shaped, because they obviously did no research or checks whatsoever on this girl.
had they checked they'd have realised she was not remotely suitable for the position and was actually the complete opposite of the sort of person they should have chosen

its a shame it didnt work out - in theory it could have been a good idea.
whilst they cant choose a snooty little brainiac prefect type, they also cannot choose a scummy little braindead chav.
it needs to be someone in the middle somewhere - someone who is intelligent, fair minded and dedicated, but also cool and knows about how teens 'work' and the streets etc.

regarding the police involvement, i think she should be taken to task about this, but this is a bit over the top - there is much worse stuff going on on the net, but i suppose this case has been most public and they have to be seen to coming down hard on her, to discourage people.

[emmie]

no need for special branch i would have thought, however she tweeted some very unpleasant things, engage brain not working perhaps. The person who appointed her should come under scrutiny as her judgement led to this.