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See also

 

1a. Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner: Complaint
1b. Same content as (1) but in single column
1c. Alan Billings: Ichtheology, the Billingsgate Challenge
1d. Police and Ethics Panels
1e. S. Yorks Police: IOPC
1f. S. Yorks Police, PCC, Panels 
1g. Alan Billings: 'Hate Crime' 
1h. Capability in education and policing

1b. Capability in education and policing

and these pages

Christians: employment

 

PCC Blog 102 gives the information that the Blog is 'written by Dr Alan Billings,' the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.'

 

https://southyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/blogs/pcc-blog-102/

 

Extracts:

 

'It was quite moving to go to Robert Dyson House, the police training centre near Wath, to be part of a swearing in ceremony for the latest group of new recruits ...'

 

'The Chief Constable reminded them that policing is based on values.'  [Bold print supplied]

 

'

Police officers have to swear an oath in the presence of a magistrate and then receive their warrant cards.

 

The heart of the ceremony was the declaration – which is called an attestation. Each new officer called out their name and then collectively they said this:

 

“I do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the Queen in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law.

 

'There are many things of interest about this declaration. There is a strong emphasis on values, such as fairness, integrity, diligence, impartiality and respect. I am not sure that all members of the public would be aware of the commitment to uphold human rights or to prevent crimes and not just enforce the law. And the attestation also makes clear that the police have operational independence. They serve the Queen and not politicians. That includes police and crime commissioners. And government ministers.'

 

Did Sergeant Kirkham swear this oath or a similar oath" Did he swear on oath to uphold the value of impartiality? Did he swear to uphold fundamental human rights? Did it occur to him that he was breaking his oath by imposing sanctions on me for mentioning the Christian beliefs of Lu Skerratt-Love? Does he imagine that South Yorkshire Police has a duty to uphold the values of the Christian Police Association, which include a fundamentalist view of the Bible and the doctrine of damnation for everybody, except the elite who accept Jesus as Saviour?

 

The Police and Crime Commissioner also mentions that the police 'have operational independence.' The independence of the police is now subject to drastic restriction. One very important area: Police and Crime Commissioners now have grossly excessive power, including the power to dismiss Chief Constables. Alan Billings sacked one of them, David Crompton, and was found to have acted in an unfair manner. He was heavily criticized by the courts.

 

Keeping Safe, the Police and Crime Plan for South Yorkshire 2017 - 2021 includes a 'Chief Constable's Message.' The Plan amounts to some personal opinions of a Church of England clergyman with naive and superficial views on many of the topics he has chosen to discuss.  The Chief Constable at the time was Stephen Watson. who wrote,

 

''I have an unshakeable intention to ensure that the plan is implemented.'

 

Alan Billings swore an oath too when he was appointed South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

 

From

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-and-crime-commissioners-to-swear-an-oath-of-impartiality

Police and crime commissioners (PCC's) will be required to pledge an oath to represent 'all sections of the public without fear or favour'.

 

'

The oath is designed to provide a platform for PCCs to set out publicly their commitment to tackling their new role with integrity.

It will also echo the commitment police officers make to serve every member of the public impartially, while at the same time recognising the importance of the operational independence of the police service.

 

• This charity has substantial unrestricted reserves available and so may not be able to utilise additional funding

 

 

 

Impartiality

Nick Herbert, Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice, said:’Police and crime commissioners will be important public servants and it is right that they make a formal public commitment to the communities they will serve.

‘Although police and crime commissioners may stand for a political party, the public will expect them to represent all the people in their area impartially, without fear or favour.

‘The swearing of an oath will be an important symbol of this impartiality, emphasising both the significance of this new role in local communities and that commissioners are there to serve the people, not a political party or any one section of their electorate.

‘An oath will also underline the particular importance of even-handedness in an office which holds to account the local chief constable and police force who themselves are bound to serve impartially.’ 

 

I can easily justify including yet again an extract from the 'Community Protection Notice - Written Warning' issued to me on 15.02.2022. The person who took the decision to issue the warning was Sergeant Simon Kirkham, a member of the Christian Police Association.

 

Details of the conduct: ' ... being satisfied that your conduct is having a detrimental effect, of a persistent or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality and the conduct is unreasonable now issue you with a WRITTEN WARNING.'

 

The 'WRITTEN WARNING' includes a section, 'Details of the conduct:'

 

The Police have become aware of you contacting Lu Skerratt-Love via email and hand delivered letters ... In some of these correspondences you make mention of her personal faith.'

 

By this Written Warning you are required to cease this conduct immediately.

 

If from this time and date, the conduct is still having a detrimental impact on the quality of life of those in the locality, you will be served a Community Protection Notice. It is a criminal offence not to comply with this Notice ...

 

Other pages where I comment on statements and actions of the Police and Crime Commissioner give evidence - a great deal of evidence - that Alan Billings hasn't upholded the principle of impartiality. The breaches are impossible to ignore - I very much hope they are impossible to ignore. I've every intention of doing everything I can to ensure that they're not ignored.

 

He has used his office to promote Christianity, in effect, to evangelize. In a newspaper article - written in his public capacity, not in a purely private capacity - he quoted a Biblical text about the Second Coming of Jesus (to judge the people of the world), one of the texts used by Evangelicals and many others to warn people of the certainty of judgment of sin and the penalties for sin - although in the newspaper article, it was the starting point for a grotesque argument - that the second coming of Jesus required people to be 'awake,' because Jesus could come back to earth at any time, and that being 'woke,' accepting political correctness, also required people to be awake. The argument from 'wake' to 'woke' was worse than feeble, much worse. It was no argument at all.

 

In the Foreword to 'Keeping Safe,' the 'Police and Crime Plan,' Alan Billings gave a quotation from 'the prophet.' The prophet was Jeremiah and the quotation left out words to do with prayer. The quotation was misleading and in any case, there was absolutely no need to include a quotation from an Old Testament prophet in a document written for the public of South Yorkshire and the police of South Yorkshire.

 

In my page Capability,  I give information about a former Headteacher of Tapton School, Sheffield, David Bowes. He came to the school from Crompton House School, Oldham, a Church of England school. Tapton School, was and still is a state school without any 'faith' ties. Crompton House School, has regular and frequent prayer sessions, not so in the case of Tapton School. But at a staff meeting, David Bowes launched into a fervent prayer which ended with ' ... through Jesus Christ our Lord.'

 

Employers, or many employers, in what I'll call the 'secular sector' could do more to make it clear that the place of work is not the place for evangelizing or public prayer. Christians may well take the view that these places are full of people who need to know about the 'redeeming work' of Jesus Christ. Christians employed in the 'secular sector' need to be reminded that they are not able to conduct any form of mission in the workplace.

 

The setting up of a garden church has importance in the sequence of events described on these pages. I knew of a garden church which was set up in some allotments. It was visited by the Bishop of Blackburn. I give information about some of her fundamentalist Christian views in these pages, the contribution she made to an evangelical video which condemned same sex relations.

 

Allotments are provided by local councils and other bodies for growing food and for other benefits. I take the view that they are intrinsically secular spaces, not places for evangelizing, for attempting to convert other allotment holders or the general public. They aren't places for public prayer and for church services. Christians have many, many other venues available for those ends.

 

Extract from article published in the 'Yorkshire Post.'

 

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/
crime/controversy-over-yorkshire-police-tsars-aps31500-appointment-1788300

 

EMBATTLED South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner Alan Billings has prompted controversy by appointing the wife of his former election agent as his official part-time assistant, on a £31,500 salary.

 

 

 

 

The Churches: donations

 

 

Churches receive donations on a massive scale. Many people donate to a Church because they believe that everyone is destined to spend eternity in hell, except for the minority of people who accept Jesus 'as Lord and Saviour.' Many of these people also believe that children are not exempt from the wrath of a 'righteous' God who punishes sin. Many of these people believe that the punishment for sin is the same whether the person has devoted his or her life to the care of a disabled child, or is a member of the police killed on active service or is a member of the armed forces of a democracy killed on active service, or is one of the war criminals these armed forces have prevented from carrying out further massacres and executions. On the other hand, if one of these war criminals accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, then the war criminal is destined for heaven.

 

But many people give money to Churches because they have a vague idea that by giving the money there are 'doing good.' An awareness of the theology of the Churches would be very helpful in making an informed decision.

 

Anyone who attends a Church may well be not just encouraged to give but pressurized to give. A very long time ago, in my teens, I attended a Church service at St Thomas Church in Sheffield. The vicar - I knew him quite well - gave a sermon which was all about giving money. It was uncompromising, and very, very disturbing.. He made it completely clear that the congregation should give ten per cent of their income to the church. As I remember, this was ten per cent of gross income, not net income.

 

I very much hope that more and more people will have fuller information, more generally available information, to allow the making of a free choice based on awareness of the issues involved.

 

Many of the Church activities which attract donations are activities in which secular charities are involved, such as holiday activities for children. I hope that many more people will consider giving money to organizations other than church organizations.

 

This is an extract from my page, 'Alan Billings: Hate Crime.' I give information about a South Yorkshire Church, not named, which had received a donation from a business, again not named, for its work with children. I spoke with one of the Pastors at the Church.

 

I simply asked a very few questions and this particular Christian, a pastor at a South Yorkshire Church, answered at some length. I knew what answers to expect, and I wasn't surprised by the answers.

 

One of the questions was about an issue I've addressed quite often in these pages. I asked him about the Jews who went to the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other extermination camps. I didn't mention the Jews who were killed by many other methods. Apart from the tiny minority of Christian converts who were killed, what was the fate of these people in the Christian scheme of things?  He made it clear that in the Christian scheme of things, all these people would spend eternity in hell.

I said that very many of these people would have been orthodox Jews, with a belief in the God of the Old Testament. He made it clear that these people too were damned.

I asked about children, not not Jewish children but all children who die without having accepted Christ as 'Lord and Saviour.' I mentioned the fact that in humane legal systems, there's an age of criminal responsibility. Below that age, children are not punished at all or not given the penalties applicable to adults. I said that I knew of no Biblical texts which address this issue. I asked him, can ten year olds be sent to hell, or five year olds, according to Christian faith? I could have asked him about the fate of even younger children, but didn't.

 

He said that he didn't know of any Biblical texts on the issue. He seemed completely unconcerned about the horrific implications of such young children being sent to hell, just as he had been unconcerned about the horrific implications of the victims of the Holocaust being sent to hell - for eternity.