| Police, Politicians, Cyril Smith and Probes |
| Tuesday, 17 March 2015 | |
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A past head of the Met says he finds it incredible and unbelievable that police were surveying a flat in which children were being abused, without going in and arresting criminals within hours. Quite right. The obvious answer in this Cyril Smith connected latest drama is that it wasn't children but young men and the police were reluctant to arrest or prosecute men who were over 18 and were having consensual sex. They were probably waiting to see if younger men were involved. When they saw MPs they informed bosses who probably told them to abandon the operation as they, too, didn't want gay MPs (and sometimes police - gay men are in all walks of life) prosecuted for an absurd anomaly in the law.
Since then, of course, historical exaggeration has erupted. Much better story. So men have become children in the telling of the tale. It's always seemed unlikely (to say the least) that such serious crimes as child abuse and murder would ever have been ignored. Not just by top cop bosses but by the lower ranks who simply would never have remained silent. Not saying that the law wasn't being broken. Just that sex between men, consensual or not, was totally illegal until the late 60s and illegal for anyone under 21 until the middle 90s. But, quite rightly, most politicians, police and media people thought that absurd and "turned a blind eye". |