Maybe It's Time It Cost The Police Money Instead..?

The incident ended shortly before midday when the pair gave themselves up.

However, by that point, it had cost businesses in the town thousands of pounds in lost trade.

Mr Scott said: “Grantham town centre had to be shut. A lot of businesses lost revenue.

Thirty businesses in total were closed, with a loss of sales of between £25,000 and £30,000.”

And why did it 'have to be shut'?

Well...

Mr Scott said “Hanes and Neve refused to come down. The stand-off between these two and the police lasted about six hours.

“The police were forced to close down the centre of Grantham because missiles were being thrown off the roof.

“Neve was almost entirely passive throughout the stand-off. He was not seen to throw anything.

“Hanes was argumentative and aggressive shouting threats to the police. At one point he threw coins at the police and he was also throwing roof tiles at parked cars.

“In some sort of defiant gesture he pulled a number of bank notes from his pocket and tossed them in the air.”

All because, when these 'sieges' develop, the police immediately go into 'hands off', containment mode and wait for the situation to play itself out without injury to the poor little criminal darlings.

And why not? They know they aren't liable for the losses, so why should they care?

But maybe if they were to be made accountable, these sieges would be resolved a lot quicker. And that, surely  is good for everybody?