Do you remember? A couple of years ago, Fandango used to publish this prompt every Sunday. I used to enjoy taking part, and tried to highlight news stories from the UK. At some point during the week, there was always some story or other which won the week, either literally or tongue-in-cheek.

It was always a good idea, and miss taking part in those posts. Now that I have some more time on my hands, I asked Fandango if I could revive them. So each Sunday evening I’m going to post some UK story which struck me as either admirable of totally crass. I’ll leave it to you to decide which.

My first week, and already I have two winners, Sussex police officers Stephen Smith and Rachel Comotto. Faced with a fierce offender, they bravely used a taser (a lethal weapon), a baton and pepper spray in order to subdue him.

The offender? A dinner-knife-wielding man, Donald Burgess. The location? He was in his own bedroom in his care home in St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, a popular seaside home for retirees.

A dinner knife? A care home? Retirees? Are you starting to smell a rat? Two, perhaps?

As well you should.

You see, Mr Burgess, pictured above, was 92-years-old, a single leg amputee not only with dementia but with delirium from an undiagnosed bladder infection. He was apprehended while sitting in his wheelchair.

Unfortunately, it was June 2022. Following the attack, Mr Burgess was taken to hospital, where he died of COVID just 22 days later.

Now, although this case seems open-and-shut, it wasn’t, because when both officers faced a criminal trial for assault, they were acquitted (unanimously) by a jury, apparently on the grounds that the force they used was not excessive. Also, they were not deemed “responsible” for Mr Burgess’s death. Without further knowledge of the incident, which was four years ago,, all I can say is that the force seems pretty excessive to me! At the very least, I think their judgement was open to question. Not to mention the PR nightmare they must have caused.

And so it transpired. Last week in further proceedings against the two, both were sacked without notice.

Their actual offence seems quite lightweight. As a result of their training, they should have at least attempted to diffuse the situation. But instead they went straight in with full force. Bodycam footage shows only around a minute passed from them entering the bedroom, to firing the taser. For that, they were found guilty of gross misconduct and dismissed.

I have to say, it terrifies me that police officers can behave in such a way. Okay, I realise that now they are former police officers, but even so, this seems to be a terrible abuse of trust, and they have finally been dismissed on what seems to be a technicality.

I worry that if the police saw me in the street, would they protect me? Or just kill me? And would the law hold them to account, or would it cheer them on?

Because neither instills confidence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r1pyxy09zo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwe8ry2dn6z7o

What about you? Do you have a story, perhaps from your locality, that you’d like to share with us? If you’d like to join in, just tag it FWWTW (this was the original tag which will help you find the earlier posts) and/or ping back to this post, so we can all read it.