Response to the recent incident in North End
Many of you may have seen reports in the news of a nasty incident which occurred in North End last week. Here is the link to the BBC item
Simon Ellingham, our Town Centre Unit Police Inspector writes:
“It was disappointing that last week the incident reported widely in the national press received such focused attention.
The officers involved were indeed shocked by the ferocity of the individuals, and left battered and bruised, and it certainly merited reporting as an incident of interest. However, it really was a ‘one-off’, and such events are of such rarity that when they do occur the media quite rightly dissect all aspects, but unfortunately this is done in a public arena and everyone seems to want to have their say.
Every single person I have spoken to in last few days about this incident who actually works in the area affected agrees that this incident should not be seen as indicative of the average Croydon day.
Many good people are working hard to improve Croydon, and the image, and a huge number of positive signs are there to see; but these incidents can set all that good work back when splashed all over the national and local papers. I am fully aware that Croydon Town Centre cannot ever claim that it is a sleepy little town where nothing dangerous or challenging ever happens, but vast improvements have been made in recent months and it is only natural that sensationalists will seek to glorify the negative, ignoring the small good pieces of effort.
Please pray for all those who are involved in law enforcement in our town. Not only police, but community support officers, security guards, Neighbourhood Enforcement officers, store detectives etc. Those who work in this borough genuinely do it as part of their call to serve, with very little to gain from it, and even find themselves all over the local papers when all they did was robustly challenge a young school girl to pick up some litter.
Your prayers do count, we have already seen the evidence for that. God has won the victory, but there are several skirmishes still to be had. “
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