English cops can’t even catch a robber but found time to charge Sam Kerr over hurt feelings | Caleb Bond

Of all the things I’ve been called over the years, Sam Kerr’s alleged atrocity would qualify as one of the least offensive, writes Caleb Bond.

Have you ever heard something so stupid as charging a soccer star with being mildly racist?

Sam Kerr is entitled to the presumption of innocence as much as anyone else.

Her crime is alleged and she should not be hung, drawn and quartered before the case has taken its course.

But for heaven’s sake – charging someone for allegedly calling a London Bobby a “stupid white bastard” has to be the worst possible use of police time and resources.

It took them a year to charge Kerr in the first place.

Presumably they had to thoroughly interrogate those words, paying attention to every intonation and inflection to determine just how vicious it was.

Samantha Kerr’s alleged crime was so offensive it took an entire year to decide to charge her. Picture: David Clark

Months and months on end replaying the tape, bringing in the forensic listeners to determine precisely what happened.

Not to mention the lengthy and numerous interviews with the copper.

Word has it they had to keep stopping the interviews because he’d break down in tears, suffering PTSD from the vile, racist attack.

He required intensive counselling and all.

I kid, of course. But that’s how mad this whole thing is.

Yes, you know what the reaction would be if she called someone a “stupid black bastard”.

And yes, you can be racist to white people – racism is simply discrimination or prejudice based on race or ethnicity and Kerr’s alleged comment fits that brief.

But to treat it as a criminal offence – worthy of summons a year after the fact and a four-day trial another year down the line – is absurd.

What are they going to do for a full four days? Debate whether “white” or “bastard” was the more offensive word because the cop in question was born out of wedlock and finds that word particularly triggering?

Is there no real crime for the London Police to deal with?

Actually, there is. They’re just not doing anything about it.

Police data released in the UK this week showed that the coppers have failed to solve a single burglary in nearly half of all English and Welsh neighbourhoods in the past three years.

And no wonder.

They have more important things to do like taking a year to charge Kerr with hurting a policeman’s feelings.

Of all the things I’ve been called by readers and viewers in correspondence over the years, “stupid white bastard” would qualify as one of the least offensive.

If someone hit me with that at the pub I’d either laugh or give them a mouthful back.

I certainly wouldn’t want them charged.

Heck, I received a veiled threat of violence mid-last year and I was worried enough about it to report it to the police.

Only this week did they finally tell me they’d been able to locate the state in which the sender lived – but the threat was unlikely to meet the standards of a criminal offence.

In England, however, you face trial for calling someone a “stupid white bastard”.

Make it make sense.

Originally published as English cops can’t even catch a robber but found time to charge Sam Kerr over hurt feelings | Caleb Bond