Towns worse than Rochdale?

ROCHDALE, April 2011 - August 2013.

Total cost - £520,415.14
Total employees - 54
Average cost per employee - £9,637.32
Average length of suspension – 27 weeks   

? + the cost of temps, or consultants, to cover during absences ?

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/greater-manchester-taxpayers-spend-3m-6470056

News spotlight on Rotherham today, a similar story to Rochdale, but worse? An open question, which is worse, Rochdale or Rotherham?

Neither. Each has the same problem and not a surprise to us who have known of this trade for decades. There are many, many other places that have yet to surface. Time to get down to it - the Asian community has to adapt, as soon as possible, to educating their young men that it is not acceptable to view females of another racial background as inferior beings and therefore of lesser worth. They wouldn't dare exact this sort of treatment within their own communities on their own race of people - and it is about time they were told to ACT on the problem. And quickly. Before something really goes haywire and we end up with blood on the streets. We have a lot of hot-heads within the Caucasian communities who wouldn't stop at using these (so called) revelations to foment trouble. Stop shilly-shallying. The time for REAL action has already passed. The clock is ticking.

You don't need to be a caucasian hothead to be disgusted and appalled this has been allowed to go on for so long, and even now is not being effectively dealt with, you just need to be a human being.

I echo your sentiments Cyfrifia, this news is appalling!  We are not just speaking about rapes, there has been intimidation and violence too.  They have shown total disdain for their victims.

Might make you wonder if all these people were "in somebodies pocket"?

What other reason can there be for intelligent police officers and many council employees to miss 1400 odd incidents?

The people who allowed this, because you cannot miss all of this, they need to answer for all the suffering caused - what jobs are they doing now I wonder?

This is such a serious subject it's difficult to know where to start with it. Certainly professionals who were paid to protect children, but failed to do so and ignored or supressed information should suffer some sort of penalty, if only financial. 

Systems and procedures of councils and similar organisations are very well designed to protect those working within them from taking responsibilty for their actions, neglects and failures. That needs to change.

According to interviews with people who worked in child protection in Rotherham that we have heard, it was accepted as normal that children in 'looked after' care would be involved in child sexual exploitation. That is obviously a scandal in itself, the care home system needs massive dismantling and reconstruction.

Attitudes have got to, and hopefully are, changing. The pattern of mainly Pakistani gangs and the methods they use is well documented and public knowledge. With police and politicians admitting that, with so very few prosecutions, great numbers of child rapists are walking the streets, this has to be recognised as an unpalatable everyday reality, and grooming type behavior seen and understood for what it is.

Those who work in child protection tell us what is revealed in reports on Rochdale, Rotherham, Oxford, Derby, Telford, Peterborough and so on is only typical of many other places.

Somehow the fear of being called racist, identified by many to be at the back of what has happened, as outlined in reports, needs to be tackled. The powerful hold that political correctness can have on society is surprising, but undeniable. We have a multi-racial society, each culture has strengths and weaknesses, we need to accept that and have systems in place to deal with the practicalities.

Expense and effort are needed to tackle this and similar deeply embedded, long term, socially destructive problems, our politics need to change focus from foreign policy to domestic matters, which have been too neglected for too long, with the disastrous results now apparent.

Well, despite the fact and evidence and discussion we are all having on here about child abuse in Rochdale and Rotherham, there are still concerted efforts to stiffle conversation and refusal to face the facts on other social websites.

I can't make informed comment on what social media sites may be saying, but in broad terms, there is a popular argument to forget the past, forget established ways of getting things done, and concentrate on the superficial, fashionable and transient, in accord with the superficial and transient nature of our increasingly internet based society. This may be presented as positive thinking, but it is a thin and superficial argument, serving to divert attention from the needed reform of established and dysfunctional sytems, which continue to form the real fabric of what goes on and the realities we live with.

Positive thinking is an essential method, but only works if combined with some tenacity of purpouse and ability to face the facts, otherwise it becomes a weakness, a harlequined pied piper, leading the children away in a merry dance to an unhappy destination.

Well versed cyfrifia. Waxing lyrical there. However the point is taken and one must agree with the thrust of your complaint.

It has been common practice to 'sweep' the undesireable under the carpet and leave to fester, especially if it involves the lower ranks - you know the ones - the common people. They are after all only cannon fodder and there's plenty more where they came from. Breed like rabbits. No problem. Better not to stir the waters or the scum will rise to the top. - -------Or am I being just a bit 'bitter' there?

Is central Manchester worse than Rochdale?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7CSrQ6OpM
Or is it all much the same?

No worse. Larger population = larger number of incidents. Doesn't matter where you go - idiots lurk in every corner of the globe. Don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Society is no less or more violent than it has ever been given the conditions of the day. Personal safety relies very much on personal regard for the dangers. You're born - - - and then you die. The bit in-between is a lottery.

Certainly knowing the patch and knowing where and when to avoid is essential. Each town and city has it's own particular dangers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7CSrQ6OpM
This first-time visitor to Manchester met a seriously vicious gang.

The first priority of any government is the safety and well-being of its citizens. Any citizen should be able to walk and ply their trade anywhere in this country without the fear of abuse or death. The government is to blame if one cannot. Secondly the local government always and providing that the central government has provided the wherewithal for the primary function. Don't blame the people. It isn't their fault.

The point about government is quite correct, however, some people do need to be locked up. The man who delivers the (almost) 'killer punch' to the head of the stunned, staggering and obviously semi-concious victim towards the end of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7CSrQ6OpM
Moves and acts like a trained and ruthless assassin.

Maybe he was - then discovered the lads young age and drew back? Who knows? Then again maybe he was just an opportunist bell-end with good karate moves. Whatever - he should be found and incarcerated and psychologically renovated - with a barbed pole.

Realistically, it just has to be accepted that it isn't safe to be in Manchester city centre at night. Is it worse than it ever was? I don't know, and having seen the movie, I won't be going there to find out.

Given the lack of coppers on the beat it is bound to be worse to some degree. A police presence is always better than none. However - CCTV given the adequate coverage can be more helpful for convictions than belated arrival of the law. This however is reactive as opposed to proactive. And as we always say - prevention is better than cure. When will we learn -----?

When will we learn? Learn what? With . . .
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/man-stabbed-12-times-during-12465673#rlabs=1%20rt$sitewide%20p$2
Learn to avoid the place seems best.

I only ever wandered around Manchester city centre once at 3 - 4 am in the morning and then I was walking off a surfeit of red wine taken at a midnight feast at the Beaujolais before attempting to return to the restaurant where the wife was wondering where I had gone. She found me eventually. I would never walk around any area at that time of the morning without accompaniment - and then I would still be apprehensive. It's like everything else - life has its dangers - everyone should be aware and take the necessary precautions. It's all a lottery at all times. When does self-responsibility not become obligatory?

Not everyone is as mature and sensible as you A, with your wealth of experience. Young, inexperienced or generally vulnerable people need a safe city centre. If it's too dangerous for them there ought to be street signs up saying 'Designated Violence Area".

People learn quicker by making their own mistakes - as much as you may wish to assist by giving advice. Street-wise - remember that saying? Drilled in from birth. Parents cannot protect children by trying to keep them away from 'life'. It doesn't work that way. The fairy tales should stop as soon as is applicable and certainly long before teenage. It's not as though it isn't all available on their lap-tops if they took the trouble to look. Agreed it doesn't make them street-wise but at least they should have some sense of 'danger' and how to avoid it. Too much reliance on the 'State' and the 'Authorities' and how it's never the fault of the individual. Time to get real.

What sort of "real" would that be?

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/108389/rochdale-is-a-hotspot-of-schizophrenia-and-psychotic-illnesses-study-finds

Statistically, Rochdale is a 'hotspot' of schizophrenia and psychotic illness, Coventry and North Kelverston are slightly worse.

Does the statistic of how many anti-psychotic medicines are being prescribed show a "real" picture of the mental health of a place and population?

Is it over-prescribing, is there some other reason, or, does the population of Rochdale really have almost the highest proportion of schizophrenic and psychotic people in the UK, and if so, what are the causes?

The town's people suffer from Labour lamentitous - brought about by too many years of entrenched labour values and is taking too long to 'wake-up' to the fact that being losers doesn't get you what you want. Prior to that it suffered from Liberal lamentitous - a very similar syndrome. A complete clear-out of all present councillors and a fresh start with a majority of conservative councillors (whilst suffering the present incumbent Labour MP - who is useless to say the least) would give a 'jump-start' to renewal of the town's people values. A period of 'keeping' on the winning side would do no harm as things presently stand. But above all - dump the old and as soon as possible.