[OLD STEVE] [WORLD OF THE CONTENT] [THE RE-WRITTEN LIST] [LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS] [THE THREE LEVELS]
CHAPTER 29.
Pubs and the Law.
MY BIOGRAPHY.
1. Whenever it was necessary to decorate we would do so during the night and lights on and no curtains up, at the windows, attracted every policeman for miles around, who could smell the coffee and appreciate the warmth and hospitality.
2. An off duty policeman, of the type who let the side down badly, refused to do anything when a punter snatched a card of 'Roasted Nuts' and legged it out of the pub and when I rang for his 'colleagues,' he drank up and left before they arrived.
3. Now the CID and Drug Squads were something else. To suss out a CID man, that you didn't already know, who was working, was dead easy. To start with he would order a half pint of beer and then make no attempt to drink it while he looked round the bar and awaited his opportunity to either question you or to show you photographs and ask if you recognised anyone. Then, before leaving, he would either drink the beer or leave it on the bar and as soon as he left everyone in the place would want to know what he wanted. Now that is subtle yet they still always seemed to be good at their jobs especially when it came to solving serious crime in the area, but the amateurs and minor 'Tea leafs' often got away with quite a lot because of stretched resources.
4. Drug Squad Officers could, on occasions, be much more subtle as was demonstrated one day when two, that I knew, came in and sat at a table and from the way they were drinking and chatting away I assumed they were off duty. Turning and looking in their direction, but not intentionally, I noticed a scruffy guy playing the Fruit Machine and demanded to know who had served him as I was going to have to tell him to go. As I approached the smell rising from him was atrocious and he was filthy. I told him to stop playing the machine; to finish his drink, make it his last and the door was over there. He cursed and swore and slopped his beer about and after making several threats staggered out. The two Drug Squad Officers said nothing and then a few minutes later, as they brought their empty glasses back up to the bar, thanked me for chucking out their 'plain clothed' contact man and informed me that he would have to hang around outside, waiting, until they re-established themselves in another pub. One of my less successful attempts at assisting the law in their fight against drugs.
5. Drugs were a constant problem and as a licensee you stood to loose a lot if you turned a blind eye, which often was the easy option because of the ever present threat from both the dealers and the users, of repercussions and retribution but I had my own very strong views on the subject and would always cooperate in any way that I felt I safely could. One night, again when we were busy, the phone rang and a member of staff told me the local 'nick' wanted a word. I took the phone and was informed that they had one of their men outside and would I go out and have a word with him. Thinking nothing of it I went outside and a uniformed Sergeant beckoned me over. As soon as I reached him he shouted 'Go' into his radio and what appeared to be thousands of them emerged from absolutely everywhere and massed in through my front door. Seconds later two, big white vans appeared with more coppers, as people, handcuffed and from within the pub, were hurled into these vans in a most undignified manner. I got 'Thank you Sir,' and they were gone as quickly as they had arrived. The pub was almost empty, with some having been arrested and taken away while others had, for what ever reasons, cleared out and of those who did remain, they all wanted to know what had happened and found it difficult to accept that I knew little more than they did. Days later a Drug Squad Officer came along to thank me for my cooperation and to explain that they had been following, what was, a fairly big distribution network, who would meet in different pubs, and that mine had been selected for the next big one and by targeting me they had bagged some fairly big fish. I was disappointed to notice that this also included a couple of my regulars who, had I known about them, would have been 'barred' out of the place, but then, I suppose, they might not have got caught. The idea of asking me to go outside on the night of the 'raid,' apparently, was to save them from having to send someone in to ask my permission to come in, which they had to, in those days, if I hadn't specifically sent for them. But if I, as licensee, was not on the premises at the time then no such permission was required. The Law and Licensing could be very strange and a few years back it was the practice to send a Police Inspector and a Constable round to do routine checks of Licensed Premises and the Constable always had to come in first and ask permission for them to officially enter. You think that unusual? It maybe but then that is British Law for you. But what about the cold, wet, winter night when they asked permission to come in and then hinted that a hot drink would be appreciated. I took them into the kitchen and then watched the Constable take off his tall helmet to reveal wrapped up Fish and Chips, balanced on his head, and you thought those pointed, hard helmets were designed to deflect blows. We provided buttered bread, salt and vinegar and a little something stronger to go in the coffee. They were part of the OK bunch and a lot different to some of their colleagues who would go to great lengths to avoid doing their job and not because they didn't necessarily want to do it, but because the system would not allow them to. For example if a riot broke out, which it could do quite easily when two rival factions got going. Two visiting coach parties feeling safe while away from home for example, or visitors and locals, or the girls stirring up the lads and innumerable other reasons, and we would be obliged to send for the law and they would take their time, without ever openly admitting to it, to get there, in the hope that it would all be over and they could perhaps radio for an ambulance and clear up the wounded, unable to flee the scene, the damage being yours and for your insurers. The reason for that being the fact that they would be stretched to the limit, the local 'nick' would be full, as it was most Saturday nights all year round, and all week during the summer season, and to make charges and fill out the paper work would take them off the streets for anything up to an hour and a half. But when the law was administered it could be swift. One night I saw a bloke break a glass and jam the jagged remains into the back of the neck of another and we all ended up in York, at the Crown Court. In walked this little guy who introduced himself as 'Judge so and so' and told us that he would be hearing the case. He turned to one guy, dressed in a wig and gown and shaking hands with him, asked if he would be proving his case. When he said yes, the judge turned to another guy, similarly attired and, shaking hands with him, asked if that was so and was assured it was. They were the Prosecuting and Defence Barristers. When he enquired if they were certain that neither would be coming up with any surprises that he should know of beforehand he passed summery judgement by saying he would allow forty-five minutes for the case and give the defendant twenty-one months. The rest, in court, was a public performance, for which I received some very substantial expenses. So much so that I would like to have been a professional witness as expenses alone paid out more, per hour, than I was earning at the time.
6. But talking of violence and one occasion where the law and the courts were not involved, happened when a young couple got into a violent argument and I tried to come between them. He had subject her to a quick but severe beating and was at that point swinging her round by her hair and attempting to kick her. I was pushing him away and desperately trying to stop him getting past me to resume his onslaught when she screamed, 'Get off him,' and my 'lights' went out. When I came round there was a ring of faces, all looking down at me, as I laid on the floor, and they were all desperate to tell me that when I got hold of this bloke she had taken off her high-healed shoe and had hit me, with the pointed heal, square on the top of the head. The only time I have even been knocked out in a pub and then because I had interfered with a bloke who was expressing his love and affection for his woman and she resented my interference.
7. A youth ran out of our front door, one night, right into the path of an oncoming car that spun him up in the air. He landed in a heap with blood everywhere and an ambulance carted him off. A few weeks later he came back into the pub with only his jaw wired. So much for booze and its relaxant qualities!
8. Another youth was savagely attacked outside and although it had nothing to do with us, it did not stop my wife from going out and attending to this guy and comforting him until the police and ambulance arrived. Later he came back in the pub and accused my wife of stealing a gold bracelet that he claimed to have been wearing at the time. It takes all sorts.
9. Then the gang of youths who created havoc and did damage to gardens and cars. To cut a long story short it ended up in the local Youth Court and my wife and I were called as witnesses. When we arrived and got into court, the defence were obsessed by trying to find out if they had all, being underage, drinking in the pub and that their behaviour was the result of us having served them. One of the older ones said he had been in and after that he and he alone had done all the damage and the magistrate accepted this. When it came to be my turn to be questioned I asked if they were all under age (18 years being the 'legal age limit') and was assured they were and I in turn assured the Bench that I had not served any of them on that night. I might have unknowingly done so on other occasions, but definitely not on that particular night, and I and they were only interested in that night. I then asked that if that was so, that they were all underage, where were their parents and the Clerk told me that all the parents had been informed and none had bothered to turn up for the hearing. They then decided, after a lot more waffle, to have an adjournment, to establish whether the parents of the one who was pleading guilty should be required to attend. When they came back and resumed, it was to declare that they would proceed and only involve parents if a guilty verdict was likely to result. When my wife was asked if she recognised any of them she stunned them all by saying NO. They then turned to me and asked if I would re-identify the perpetrators of this heinous crime. I felt as my wife felt, that under the circumstances, I could not, without 'reasonable doubt.' What I meant and should have said but didn't, was that I wouldn't. It was a farce. Here were these kids, admittedly having done what they should not have done and we had actually seen them all do it, but without any parental interest or support and where the group were all happy to let one of their number take all the rap, so that the rest, equally guilty, got away with it. I for one and my wife for another, were not going to add to this shambles and go along with this so called court of do-goodies, who did not appear to be even street wise. Also it makes you wonder what things are coming to when parents are no longer interested or concerned that their kids have been charged with offences and are up in court.
