Cheerleaders

Kinell Fordy

Sauce is what you put on your chips. Sauce man. Sauce.

 

See you Saturday.

 

I know but I wanted your mind to be dirty.

You continue to pump your juices over the thought of sauce.

 

Look I was suspended once. Without boring you with too many details, money went missing at work police assumed an inside job and lazily arrested the 3 people that could have had something to do with it including me. 4 months later two of us were reinstated and one sacked. I had nothing to do with it and my employers knew it. They had no choice to suspend me however once the police decided on a scatter gun approach with little investigation.

I know, therefore, what it's like to have the finger of suspicion pointing at you and it's not pleasant. Let's just say you get to know who your friends are. Even when the official investigation comes to an end it's not over. It damages you. I'm not the same person now. I distrust people and for a long time I was bitter about the whole process that allowed an innocent and up-standing person to go through all that.

Example; Once we decided to go on a family holiday to the USA. American rules state you have to apply for a visa if you've been arrested even if you weren't charged. I had to travel to London to get a visa and incurred extra costs of around £500. When you get to the US you're questioned at border control - why are you travelling on a visa? They have a look that assumes guilt. It never goes away - you're forever tarnished.

I don't want to comment on the current situation that has led some of you to condemn, speculate and snigger. My experience will hopefully lead some of you to reassess your attitudes. Suspension does not mean your guilty of anything and anyone in that position should have the same respect shown to them as anyone else.

 

Where though ? Blue Pelican has shut down hasn't it ?

 

Ouch, that's not good is it. For future reference the ESTA application doesn't actually pick up arrests that don't lead to charges and you can get an ESTA online. I know someone who was arrested (never charged) and went to London only to be told he needn't have bothered because he wasn't charged.

 

My wife kept telling me to do that but I kept having visions of being turned away at the gate. (paranoia brought about by the arrest I suppose) so I decided not to leave anything to chance.

 

I suppose you can't be too sure with the "storm troopers" America have on customs. On one hand they are ruthlessly efficient, yet when we went through JFK there was a rogue bag left on the floor in baggage collection for 15 minutes with no-one reporting it.

The customs at Boston were ridiculous, each person taking up to ten minutes to get though, but is was 18 months after 911

 

It was actually Philadelphia we went through customs because the flight to Boston was internal

 

That’s really shit mate. But I’m struggling to see what the alternative would be...?

 

Very good point

 

That’s the exact point I was making. Until convicted a person should be allowed to continue in their normal lives no matter what they are accused of.
Furthermore it should never be made public until convicted.

 

Only way of doing that would be to have all trials behind closed doors with jury’s sequestered for the trial and punishment if anyone was named

 

And the alternative is that many innocent people’s lives are ruined especially if the vigilantes and keyboard warriors get to work on them

 

Would you also have to ban photo fits and cctv footage to keep the accused identity secret?

 

So in the case of Ben Stokes where CCTV clearly showed he was in a fight did not prove he was guilty.
In fact it turned out he wasn’t and as a consequence he missed an Ashes tour.
So my point remains the same, why couldn’t he have been allowed to carry on his business until the case was heard and he was cleared.

 

My point was about naming people before found guilty. If you are saying people shouldn’t be identified until conviction how would that sit with publicising crimes when you are looking for the offender via CCTV and photo fits

 

I think for minor offences such as burglary or car crime then maybe so but when it’s a sexual allegation which is word against word then it should be investigated in private.
What’s to stop any vindictive person making an allegation against anyone knowing their life could be destroyed because of it? Is there any punishment for these people who make false allegations

 

If they have done it maliciously then yes they can be charged with a crime and people do. The problem would be then proving that they have done it maliciously