"The writer is a serving police officer in a non-metropolitan English police force..."

Well, he probably shouldn't be, if this is his attitude towards his colleagues:

“The thing is, Sarge, she’s already made one allegation of rape tonight so there’s no way I’m going out on my own to her house. I’ve got my own safety to think about.” The detective’s words left me momentarily speechless.

It was the early hours of a busy weekend, and I was the CID night sergeant on duty. A local woman had been out with a new boyfriend and allowed him to walk her home but not to enter her flat. He had pushed her inside and raped her, then left. She had called 999 and reported the rape and was waiting for a police response. All our uniformed colleagues were tied up with the usual, “night-time economy” domestic abuse incidents, mental health crises and custody duties that fill response officers’ night shifts. And I’d had the temerity to ask an experienced male detective to make contact with the woman, visit her to reassure her that she was now safe and to begin to record evidence in his notebook while a female colleague travelled from the other side of the county to assist with forensic evidence recovery.

Note that there's no 'she alleged', or 'she reported' there in his statement. And the lack of imagination that anyone could be concerned at the prospect of having the same accusation levelled at them is breathtaking.

I’m about to retire after decades in the force...

Your colleagues will be safer with you gone. 

Don't Blame The Tech, Blame The Idiots Working It...

The man, only identified as Mark by the New York Times, took pictures of his son’s groin to send to a doctor after realizing it was inflamed. The doctor used that image to diagnose Mark’s son and prescribe antibiotics. When the photos were automatically uploaded to the cloud, Google’s system identified them as CSAM.

As the system is programmed to do. But it's OK, because humans are in ch... 

Two days later, Mark’s Gmail and other Google accounts, including Google Fi, which provides his phone service, were disabled over “harmful content” that was “a severe violation of the company’s policies and might be illegal”, the Times reported, citing a message on his phone.

He later found out that Google had flagged another video he had on his phone and that the San Francisco police department opened an investigation into him.

Oh.

Mark was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, but Google has said it will stand by its decision.

Wait, what..?!? 

“We follow US law in defining what constitutes CSAM and use a combination of hash matching technology and artificial intelligence to identify it and remove it from our platforms,” said Christa Muldoon, a Google spokesperson.

And when that proves to be in error, you...refuse to acknowledge it? 

“These systems can cause real problems for people,” he said. “And it’s not just that I don’t think that these systems can catch every case of child abuse, it’s that they have really terrible consequences in terms of false positives for people. People’s lives can be really upended by the machinery and the humans in the loop simply making a bad decision because they don’t have any reason to try to fix it.”

They need to be given one, then. Perhaps by passing a law that says if your software makes an error and you don't resolve it to the customer's satisfaction, you face huge, swinging fines?  

"Wait, No, Now It's Affecting People I Like!"

Sonia Sodha is finally beginning to wake up, I think:

A few years ago, when I was still getting to grips with the vagaries of Twitter, I inadvertently took part in a social media pile-on. Someone well known said something stupid and I enjoyed tweeting to that effect.

Of course you did. It's great to be part of a mob, isn't it, whether that's physically, or via the safe medium of social media.

But mobs are fickle things, and suddenly your side is targeted, and it's far too late to say 'Hang on..!' isn't it? 

Some people are desperate to see the world cast in black and white. Clanchy’s worst crime is not to fit this mould. Of course she doesn’t: none of us can rise above the imperfectly human. Look at her in the round and it’s obvious she’s done more good than most. This is why the strand of anti-racist thinking that is obsessed with the blame and shame all white people should bear for structural discrimination is so corrosive to common cause and understanding. White people who do nothing to challenge racism are terrible, but white people who trip up when trying to do something about it are even worse. The societal misogyny that infects this movement means it sees older white women as the very worst of all. Any expression of distress is the weaponisation of “white women’s tears”. The witch is not permitted to have feelings; they distract from her role as lightning rod for anger at all of society’s ills.

That's the thing when you call down lightning, Sonia. It doesn't care who gets scorched. 

What has happened to Clanchy is a sad tale for our ages. No individual is to blame: it is the product of brittle and cowardly institutions, and the collective social media frenzy that prizes heads on a platter over change.

The very 'brittle and cowardly institutions' that you've spent your career at the 'Guardian' railing against? That's like beating a dog for years and then complaining that's it's cowering in the corner... 

Sorry, Essex County Council, There's No 'No Smoke Without Fire' Clause In Employment Law...

A former primary school headteacher who was cleared of sexually abusing seven children could receive compensation after a tribunal ruled he was unfairly sacked.

He was sacked before the trial? That's unusual, isn't it?  

He faced six charges of sexual offences against children at the unnamed school in Essex in June 2018, but due to the way the youngsters were interviewed the case was dropped when it reached the crown court. Despite being acquitted when the CPS offered no further evidence in May 2019, the teacher was still dismissed by Essex County Council.

Ah! There was no trial. 

A tribunal judge criticised Essex Police's handling of the case as well as Essex County Council that took over the disciplinary proceedings from the school governors over fears they would not be impartial. But the authority's executive director for corporate and customer services, Margaret Lee, was slammed for 'shooting from the hip' and not reading the teacher's legal statement from his QC.

Another council investigator who carried out the disciplinary probe did not look at any of the adult witnesses' statements and ignored that many of the children making the allegations were friends, according to the tribunal.

So...if there was no offence, why was he sacked? In fact, why was he even charged?

Judge Samantha Leigh (Ed: and if you can't win over 'soft touch Samantha'..!) at Basildon Crown Court said had the full extent of the initial interviews with the children been known the teacher would probably not have been charged with any criminal offences.

/facepalm 

Employment Judge John Crosfill in his ruling said, 'there was evidence from children that suggested some inappropriate behaviour'. But he added: 'Against that there was considerable evidence that went the other way.

'What was required was a reasonable and careful evaluation of that evidence. I regret to say that the combined efforts of Norma Howes, Jo Reed, Clare Kershaw and Margaret Lee fell far short of that.'

Norma Howes, a child protection expert, Jo Reed, an external HR advisor, Clare Kershaw, director of education at Essex County Council and Margaret Lee, carried out the authority's probe.

Badly, clearly!

And let's hope that any compensation due to the wronged man comes directly out of their pockets, and not that of the poor long-suffering Essex taxpayer... 

Essex County Council said it would take legal advice about the judge's ruling.

Dig deep, Essex ratepayers, there's more money to shell out!