Skycops

csl

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Did anyone just see Skycops on BBC1? Quite worrying to say the least...

This episode was dealing mainly with firearms and they had reports of armed 'poachers' in a park after the deer. They gave a local deer 'enthusiast' some air time to say how these 'poachers' had reduced the numbers of deer he had been seeing whilst putting feed out for them, and then one of the officers mentioned how he wanted to catch them as he is an animal lover.

By now they are describing people with silenced rifles in broad daylight, doesn't sound like your average poacher does it, but they persist with the line about how dangerous the situation is, people in possession of illegal, high powered rifles, must get the situation under control etc etc. One of the officers also says that wild deer 'belong to the queen'!!

In the end they find the 'poachers' concerned and, after one of the men phones the police on his mobile to find out why the helicopter is hovering over them, the commentator mentions very very briefly that they were part of an 'organised deer cull'. The police then went on to claim what an 'excellent result' it was catching up with the men concerned. Later they simply say 'the men were not charged with any offences'.

So basically the men were not poachers, they were stalkers who were shooting legally, with permission and with legally held firearms and yet this wasn't confirmed.

I can imagine that this will leave the average layman viewer believing that deer stalking is illegal in some way and that these men got away with it somehow. Not responsible journalism and quite worrying really!

You can view it on iPlayer here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dqflk/b00dqfh8/
 
I thought the same as you mate.
I'm quite sure had an offence with a firearm occured charges would have been brought. They weren't so I would deuce no offence was commited?????

Think I might put it to Swampy that a complaint should be made to the BBC. Probably peeing in the wind, but worth seeking his opinion.

Mark :mad:
 
Just watched it. Never gonna get good press from a programme like that with the whole emphasis being on making the sky cops look great.
Did make me laugh when the cop thought the chopper was far enough away at 500 feet not to take a round from a rifle!
Paul
 
csl said:
one of the officers mentioned how he wanted to catch them as he is an animal lover.

... One of the officers also says that wild deer 'belong to the queen'!!

The first bit is hardly objective on his part is it, I though they would want to catch them in case they were breaking the law. Not because of a personal whim of a policeman.

The 2nd part is technically true - wild deer are not owned by the landowner.

Ultimately the govt has the last say on what can and cant happen with them - so they i.e. the queen, owns them.
 
Paul O' Deer said:
Just watched it. Never gonna get good press from a programme like that with the whole emphasis being on making the sky cops look great.
Did make me laugh when the cop thought the chopper was far enough away at 500 feet not to take a round from a rifle!
Paul

I had a chuckle at that as well.
Very worrying if the sky cops think that people in broad daylight shooting are all poachers.
Too much fluffy bunny syndrome i think.

So when they cull in Richmond Park the sky cops and the armed response must be bloody busy then.

Jonathon
 
snowstorm said:
The 2nd part is technically true - wild deer are not owned by the landowner.

Ultimately the govt has the last say on what can and cant happen with them - so they i.e. the queen, owns them.

I was under the impression that by law no one owns wild deer whilst they are alive. I think he was confusing deer with mute swans!
 
Ownerships about control and who can decide what happens to them - that's the govt.

Let's face it - you and me couldnt pass a law saying deer belong to landowner - the government can! We only own rights to do certain things, which the govt lets us have and can take away.

Even the right to shoot them is granted to us on a non-permamanent basis - the govt/police can and do take it away at a moments notice, and put all sorts of restricitions on how we do it.

Why do you think they wont let us have a Bill of Rights and let us become citizens instead of subejcts? Because once they do then we have more right to fundamentally determine more about our lives and they have less.

If it weren't for Europe and the Human Rights Act we'd be well stuffed.

They own everything apart from your life and the ideas in your head!
Incidentally, that also why they hate and try to control the web - it's where we can say what we want to as many people as we want - major sin! that's the govts job!
 
sky cops

csl just watched it on the i player link you provided yes it does seem over the top but there dealing with nutters with guns every day and i suppose they have to treat every case as the worst possible outcome untill proven otherwise . the **** world we live in at the moment .
just my thought pete.
 
Just been speaking to Wada's while the show was on. Show being the right word by the looks. Typical TV Bo......ks again.

We couldnt have the sky cops looking stupid now could we, :eek: after all think how much it cost for those idiots to find out that the stalkers concerned were going about their business legally.

How much of the tax payers money have they wasted running a helicopter out there and the ground crew as well. Which idiot took the call and who pressed the go button for all of this to kick off, without first checking it out. :rolleyes:

And then the good old anti hunting, shooting, TV company tells all its happy viewers how well these police officers have acted :rolleyes:

Pity they dont act as quick over other crime and it would make a change if the tv Companies reported the correct information for a change :rolleyes:
 
Re: sky cops

Roedinator said:
csl just watched it on the i player link you provided yes it does seem over the top but there dealing with nutters with guns every day and i suppose they have to treat every case as the worst possible outcome untill proven otherwise . the **** world we live in at the moment .
just my thought pete.

Absolutely, I can't argue with that, they have to respond to reports of potential crimes involving firearms.

However, what I took exception to was the way they glossed over the fact that what these people were doing was totally legal!

Not only that but now it will be all the more likely that if a member of the public sees you stalking in broad daylight they will report you to the police as they will assume you are illegally poaching the 'queen's' deer!!
 
2 things puzzle me
1 why in such a public place did the deer managers not tell the local police control room what they would be doing? afterall they had plod out all day and the helo out twice that day like they were after major bad guys!
2 There were 3 rifles and a shotgun why a shotgun?
Or am I being sensible.
Though as always the bbc were as anti gun as ever if you got 1 your up to no good.
Dickie
 
sky cops

csl i totally agree i think they should have explained better at the end of the programme . and another thought if the guy had,nt have phoned on his moble they would have all been face down in the mud :(
 
Thanks for posting the link csl, i was wondering whether i would get to see it as i was on the phone to Malcom.

Well, i am bloody livid :mad:

Who do these people think they are, commenting on issuse that they know absolutely nothing about, DEER HUNTERS ! :eek: Me thinks they have been watching too many films of the same name.

What kind of poacher walks about with bins around his neck and a landy in the middle of the fields, i have to say it made my day as the cops were really disapointed that they couldn`t do em for anything. :p

To top it off, that stupid woman cop sat in the control room also saying they had been shooting dogs at night :eek:

No, deer are not owned by the queen, no one owns deer and that is fact :confused:


Is there an e mail we can send to the BBC and complain?.

wadas
 
csl and Wadas are on the nail as far as the ownership of wild deer are concerned - they are the property of no-one until they are 'rendered into possession' ie killed. Then they become the property of the person on whose land they die. So for example ........ if you shoot a deer and it crosses onto your neighbours ground before dropping, legally the carcase is his.

As for the programme - well, what did you expect from the BBC these days? Although I think the title 'Sky Cops' says it all.
 
The Mole said:
csl and Wadas are on the nail as far as the ownership of wild deer are concerned - they are the property of no-one until they are 'rendered into possession' ie killed. Then they become the property of the person on whose land they die. So for example ........ if you shoot a deer and it crosses onto your neighbours ground before dropping, legally the carcase is his.
.

Here's a question - what does 'owning' a thing mean you can do with or to the 'owned' thing?

The government has the right to 'do' things with and to deer on a landowner's private land (i.e. anything it chooses to do) that that the landowner cannot.

If the deer are not 'owned' by any party, then then how can one party have rights over them and deny those rights to another party ?

Furthermore - the only reason the landowner is deemed to not 'own' the deer is because the government say they do not.

That is the govt exercising rights of ownership - even if you do not use the word 'own'.

The govt should get this out into the open and pass a law which formalises what they can do by default anyway. At least they'd be honest.

The law would say 'we own the deer, and as long as you own the land they are on you can shoot them, at which point they you own them'. Because that's what happens now.

Sorry Im off topic here but this is my pet hobby horse!
 
wadashot said:
Just been onto the Beebs website and made a complaint.

Could i suggest others do the same. ;)

wadas

What's the link for that Ian? The bairns got the browser going to Cbeebies.
 
sky flops

Guys,
please complain to the BBC about this.... Also to the police service that was in the chopper.

It is quite likely that the officers interviewed had been quite carefully editted by the BBC. But, whilst i admit that the law is an awfully big set of books, the officers should know better than this.

We all have our personnal opinions- even sky cops. but as long as it does not impinge on our work then there is no problem. there is no room for your personnal prejudices in police work. So to show them on the TV is not good at all.

the sad thing is there is no good explaination of what the stalkers were doing at the end.

swampy
(deskcop)
 
Re: sky flops

swampy said:
swampy (deskcop)
:lol:

Aren't you all these days? :lol:

I happen to know one of the cab drivers on this show and also been at incidents subject to media reporting. As Swampy says it is all heavily edited with little or no regard to the facts or accurate information. It is simply about making "great TV!"
 
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