At last, the Met Police (MPS) responded to my request for an explanation …

At last, the Met Police (MPS) responded to my request for an explanation …

At last, the Met Police (MPS) responded to my request for an explanation to provide specific reasons why an Exemption under the FoIA is being used for my research. Sadly, the reply did not provide an answer and made an excuse they replied to another email so I wrote again requesting specific reasons. This time I received a quick retort with joined-up words and sentences. It stated they don’t have to give a response to my complaint as they have fifty days with twenty days to go.

Well there’s one in the eye for proactive, open public service and best practise working! It’ll be six months and counting next week since I applied to undertake research.

How on earth can the MPS expect to secure the respect of the public when they refuse to clean-up their own backyard it simply isn’t good enough! In the London Evening Standard (28 May 2012) the headline said ‘the Met tries the personal touch to repair public trust’ after a survey asking victims of crime how they were treated by the police and The Met (MPS) came bottom of the league of large city police forces. Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne was quoted “ We are trying to change the whole emphasis of what we do.” It is all so grubby and unconvincing for public service and decent law enforcement officers too!

As for reasons for blocking access for my research under Exemptions of the FoIA, well I can make-up my own for all it matters. As the timeless piece of drama Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John La Carré so accurately summed-up:

“Reason as logic or as motive, or reason as a way of life?

They don’t have to give me reasons. I can write my own damn reasons and that is not the same as the half-baked tolerance that comes from no longer caring.”

Superb achievement for human dignity and justice (USA) but further changes are needed …

This is a supreme, achievement for human dignity and justice Denise; warm, proud congratulations to you and your supporters!! Simon (Copy of message)

Victims’ Rights Sign-Off Sheet passes into law

Victims’ Rights sign-off sheet passed into law! Since 2003, I have proposed that victims receive information and an explanation of their rights at the onset of the criminal justice system and a sign-off sheet to prevent other victims from facing a he said/she said dilemma which Jasmine and I experienced as a result of the prosecution against her rapist who was convicted and sentenced in 2003. She and I never received information or knew we had rights throughout the entire criminal justice proceedings.

When I first learned of our rights, two weeks after the case was closed, I filed a complaint against the prosecutor with the Attorney Registration Disciplinary Commission and the prosecutor “claimed” that the child advocate gave us our rights which he never did. On May 22, 2012, HB5187 passed both Illinois Houses unanimously.

However, Victims’ Rights still remain unenforceable in Illinois. Law enforcement officers will need to carry out this law by furnishing victims with their rights on a ‘good-faith basis’ since we have not been successful in our attempts to remove the language in Illinois Victims’ Rights laws that denies victims Appellate relief, or a cause of action for damages, when their rights are violated. That effort is still in the works! Congratulations Jasmine for improving the laws on behalf of other victims of violent crime!!

Click on this link to read the new law 
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=5187&GAID=11&GA=97&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=65321&SessionID=84

Denise Rotheimer 
Founder 
Mothers On a Mission to Stop Violence 
www.momsv.org 
++ 847-406-8566

Did Free Copies of My Handbook get to Victims of London Bombings via Police?

To All the Courageous Victims and Survivors of the London Bombings, 2005!!

In the days after the horror I contacted the Task Force and made an offer, a small gesture. After going before a scrutiny the executives of the Task Force welcomed my offer of free copies (170) of my handbook to be freely distributed to those affected by the bombings. The curious unanswered concern for me is that no one can tell me what happened after they were collected by the police several days after the Bombings, or if, as I fear they were thrown into the Thames. It’s a simple enquiry to a huge public need.

Did any one affected by the Bombings get offered a copy of my handbook along with other aids to assist them manage with the horror?

It’s strange a silence from those in control of the incident, after an appropriate scrutinized assessment and strong welcome towards my small gesture as Londoner. The only feedback I have ever received over the years since is from two survivors stating “if only we had had some thing like this at the time”. Did they get to the people or were they thrown away?

If any of those people affected by the Bombings can help unravel and provide the answer the authorities and agencies cannot I would be interested. My website shows the handbook cover and I may have placed one below this message if I’ve clicked the correct buttons.

With Very Best wishes to all of those affected!

4 victims of London 2005 Bombing still not received CICA compensation

4 victims of London 2005 Bombing still not received CICA compensation. It was reported today in the London Evening Standard how four victims of the London Bombings have still to received final settlement.

In the shameful and uncivilized cost-cutting scheme Blair failed to Repeal these citizens having already suffered so much have had to be subjected to Appeals and tribunals. It is the CICA parliamentary approved set of hurdles to force and drain applicants to have to fight for ultimately a needed but paltry sum of money; excluding the legal fee they must pay. Where is the justice for crime victims? This draconian and degrading Scheme and Act must be abolished and fairness restored for the innocent.

Still no response or courtesy email from the MPS, nothing!

Still no response or courtesy email from the MPS, nothing! Such a lack of basic courtesy and administration.

If the MPS rejects my research request about a murder case dating back to 1994, it should know the reasons why they rejected my request. When exercising my obvious right to complain about the time wasted and request the specific reasons for the MPS’s decision this should be a simple matter especially as they are citing the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). Why is justice and ‘openness’ always a fight in the UK?

Thank you Mr Paul McKeever / Congratulations to the Police Conference in Bournemouth!!

Congratulations to the Police Conference in Bournemouth!!

The Home Secretary needed to hear and see what ‘it is really like’. Still, the cynical posturing of a despised government that has achieved only greater suffering across our society. This toxic and redundant government must go, a long with its litter of ill-conceived policies that benefit too few and harm too many.

Time for a new Party, a new government or start an election campaign; Labour wake-up and get some fresh talent!!

Hopefully, the UK courts will be diligent and robust with Rebekah Brooks, ex-head of News International

Hopefully, the UK courts will be diligent and robust with Rebekah Brooks, ex-head of News International when her trial begins. This will be in contrast to the embarrassing performance from the Leveson Inquiry team when they appeared to relinquish control of the purpose of the formal interview and allowed Rebekah Brooks to trivialize and dominate her ‘interview’. Helps if your friend the prime minister has prior cite of the statements beforehand!

Lest we forget, the grubby type of people that go about taping others and intruding into their lives, including a family in early deep grief following the murder of their teenage daughter. These people did so because the culture and hierarchy of News International condoned such grubby conduct; implicitly, or explicitly.

The public will expect the courts to evidence best judge-craft and appropriate prison sentences for those that allegedly undermined a murder investigation, trespassed on victim’s grief, invaded the privacy of many and attempted to conceal documents required for the News International hacking investigation.

Hopefully, all those found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt aside from prison may be stripped of their wealth with all proceeds going into a new national fund for compensating innocent victims of violent crime. This will make some small recompense towards the massive cuts in crime victim compensation and resources that Rebekah Brook’s friend; David Cameron’s government has merrily and cynically pushed through. Rebekah Brooks was quoted as stating, “ we deplore this weak and unjust decision.”

Justice must be diligent! It is costing the people of this country too much and we must learn to act more swiftly in removing the unacceptable and this includes our shambolic and oppressive coalition government!

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Take 4 months to Respond to Research Request – Rejected! A Call to Documentary Film Makers …

13 May 2012

There’s a risk with being patient and polite as agencies often misinterpret this and perceive it as passivity. In January 2012, I wrote requesting research access to an old murder case that took place in 1994 and included a standard research plan. An explanation and rationale was also made clear as to why I was writing a book to set the record straight and to provide an opportunity for those affected to state what they have gone through. It is a piece of work in the public interest.

It has a personal special interest for me as one of the most seriously injured to survive the arson attack in which approximately thirteen men were murdered. My wish is to dispense of the rubbish I have read and heard from Wikipedia to YouTube. As mentioned, I remain interested in those that may wish to comment about what the violent legacy has left for them. No one  no agency came willingly to help other than the police. Naturally, I am not going to impose myself or do anything uncouth as the gutter media did at the time, or at the Old Bailey trial, and crash into private grief. But, there may be some including emergency services that wish to be offered a voice and be heard.

I got an email response from the MPS that kindly included all my letters with confidential data still included as though I don’t know what I’ve written or my date of birth! The Freedom of Information Act Exemptions (FoIA) were cited for rejecting my request. I exercised my right to challenge this unreasonable decision and one month on my follow-up request for an update to my complaint has been repeatedly been ignored. Silence winter, spring and summer is approaching!

The case is closed, the arsonist died in prison and it was over a decade ago so what is it that makes the MPS so obstructive? It simply is not good enough and will not do! My book title is simple – Burn.

The MPS is not improving, it remains insular and institutionally belligerent forgetting it is a public service and as we see daily, and depressingly, in the Leveson Inquiry an institution mired in its alleged conduct with News International. Makes me recall a line from Macbeth: ” … All causes shall give way. I am in blood steeped so far that, should I wade no more …”

So what to do? if I can walk through fire I’m sure I do not need to be glued to the mediocrity of the MPS! I don’t know any media moguls so I think I will put a call out here now and for documentary film-makers and make a film instead. Any film makers do make yourselves known!! A story is waiting to be told about a mass violent loss of life. It’s much more than about the sex venue, it is about what happened to all those people afterwards who were affected. May be there may be people wishing to talk about the legacy of carnage ….

Death of PC David Rathband – crime victim provision

The news of the suicide of PC David Rathband must be faced with a sense of inevitability and genuine tragedy. His life was literally blown apart by a psychopath in 2010. PC Rathband’s bold struggle to carry-on and strive towards rebuilding a meaningful life was mirrored by the predictable lack of state and organizational provision for crime victims in the UK.

PC Rathband made his needs and dissatisfaction about his police authority very clear and it seems in his post-attack took to using social media and media. Increasingly, and up to the days before his death he used networking to relay to the world, and by default his police authority, his psychological and practical turmoil. How can any of us dare to imagine the utter desolation and physical pain this man was enduring?

And now, the sickening parade of political soundbites from the UK prime minister and Home Secretary. The same government that only a few weeks ago announced huge cuts in state criminal injury compensation along with the on-going massive cuts in health and social care services. Shame on all those, that even in PC Rathband’s lonely death, they have shown a lack of political integrity, common sense and genuine humility to look at the mess this country is in and that they have actively made worse, and their failure to sufficiently make improved provisions for crime victims.

In a police magazine PC Rathband stated:

” … the federation had refused every request he has made for assistance and that he and his wife Kath have had to cope on their own with his disability … and went on to say that ‘’ Northumbria police federation had ‘abandoned’  him adding they should hang their heads in shame because the way they have treated me is just disgraceful. Since I got shot they have done very little. In fact, they have done next to nothing.” Russ Watson chairman Northumbria Police Federation said his organisation’s aim has ‘ always been to attempt to assist PC Rathband … Mr Watson said the federation had ‘ never refused to assist David in any way adding that he had pointed out obstacles  within processes such as claiming disability living allowance, and the offer to assist with any Department of Works + Pensions issues ‘will always remain open.” ( Police Review; 26 November 2010; p26)

PC Rathband was a man screaming out to the world for help!. How can some one survive without considerable, consistent and high quality rehabilitative care and provision after becoming profoundly disabled and traumatized? How can any person so soon after repeated life traumatic events and emotional turmoil make clear and consistent plans in their lives without the highest quality professional help, and time?

Let us all in the UK demand nothing less as an act of remembrance and respect for PC Rathband to expect from this government that it makes robust and immediate changes. These changes are for the needs of professionals and innocent members of the public in access to appropriate standards of health, compensation and on-going care who are innocent victims of violent crime: Repeal the CICA Act 1995, retract the punitive cuts of CICA compensation for severely injured crime victims made in January 2012 and to stop the glorification of perpetrators of violent crime in the media! Let us remember PC David Rathband for the man who against all odds wished to be allowed to live with safety and dignity.

Cuts can kill – compensation

The government’s implementation of cuts can only have a direct detrimental effect upon people affected by violent crime. Compensation was never substantial, with the underlaying principle of a welfare state there to make provisions. This no longer the case in the UK.