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Snowballs ‘a serious crime’

Date published: 22 February 2010

Police have been slammed by their own bosses after logging snowball throwing as serious violent crime.

A total of six incidents were recorded across Greater Manchester during January’s big freeze but no-one was injured and no arrests made.

It is believed the incidents were classed as serious violent crimes, which normally relate to murder, rape and injury with a weapon, as snowballs could been seen as weapons if thrown at someone.

However, the force’s Chief Constable Peter Fahy criticised his own officers for failing to show common sense. He said that throwing a snowball was not a violent crime but the culture at GMP was to play it safe.

Comments

Put a stone inside a snowball, throw it at the window of a moving bus, shattering the glass over commuters.
How does that rate as a crime? Is that an act of violence, or just child's play?

While snow balls used to be a game played by children it has now become a teenage thing to throw snowballs at anyone or anything. If we talk about very young children playing with snowballs then that is good exercise, however, it has now progressed to hard objects being placed inside and thrown at cars, and even people.

This is when being told you are too "PC", is taking the wrong stance.
Snowball throwing can be violent, some idiots threw one at my car in the recent snow whilst i was driving down Whitworth road, left a huge dent, if that had been 5" higher it would have gone through my window and seriously harmed my 6 year old child.
So because it is a snowball (maybe made up with ice and/or stone) it is not serious??