Below is the text of a complaint I made to the BBC on 27th October 2010. As yet, I have not received any reply.

complaint title: Failure to report bias by police & collusion with police

You have completely failed to report the fact that the Police and Crown Prosecution Service are refusing to enforce the law impartially, and instead are giving special favours to those who have money and political connections.

In your report "Huntingdon Life Sciences hate plot campaigners jailed" ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11599380) you reported that six SHAC activists were given sentences of up to six years.

In "Huntingdon Life Sciences supplier's life 'under siege'" ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11584029) you said that "The group's conviction is the result of a lengthy multi-million pound police investigation". I understand from other reports that six police forces co-operated in the investigation, which lasted many years.

You failed to report that the crimes that these SHAC activists were accused of were less serious than those perpetrated against many ordinary people up and down the country. For instance, the SHAC activists did not physically attack any of their victims. They simply showered them with abuse and threats, vandalised their property, and circulated false rumours that they were paedophiles.

An even worse example of this favouritism for the well connected, occurred when the Conservative Party Charirman, Baroness Warsi, was hit with an egg. The police arrested the culprit, charged him with causing intentional alarm and distress, and held him on remand until the case came up in court. The CPS prosecuted the case with vigour and secured a six week prison sentence.

You failed to report the contrast between the extraordinary efforts the police went to in these cases, and what happens when ordinary people are the victims. Even if there have been of years of abuse, threats, vandalism, and physical attacks, the police lie, insist that no crimes have been committed, and refuse to take any action. There are many documented cases where this has happened. The BBC itself has generally gone along with the claim that these are 'not crimes'. For instance, in a recent Newsnight program, when talking about a Bristol housing estate, Jermey Paxman drew a distinction between crime and "antisocial behaviour".

I myself have suffered years of abuse, having the windows of my house smashed, false and malicious rumours that I am a paedophile being deliberately concocted and circulated, plus physical attacks. The accusation that I am a paedophile is particularly alarming in my case because, as I explained to the police, I have a cousin who was left paralysed below the neck after a false rumour was circulated that he was homosexual, and he was attacked by a large gang. The police insisted that circulating false and malicious rumours like this is not a crime. This is of course a lie, but I don't have the resources to tackle the police on my own. The Police were initially evasive about the physical attacks, but when I politely asked three times in a period of two weeks, how their enquiry was progressing, I received and angry and abusive phone call from the local police sergeant saying that since I had no bones broken they were not going to do anything.

I got my MP to write a letter of complaint to the Chief Constable, but all I got was a 'go F*** Yourself' letter. My mental health then collapsed to the point where I was unable to pursue a formal complaint, not that I have any faith in the system anyway.

The BBC is paid for by the licence fees of ordinary people, but you are not serving the interests of ordinary people. You are parroting the lies told by politicians and the police, (that serious crimes committed against ordinary people are not crimes, but merely antisocial behaviour) and refusing to report the truth


PS In "Police 'need to reclaim streets', police chief warns" ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11394354) the BBC said:

"About 45% (3.5m) of police calls relate to anti-social behaviour, but the Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Denis O'Connor said officers did not regard it as real crime and were slow to act."