tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post1068804482987457398..comments2024-03-27T04:46:33.198-07:00Comments on Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: Nightime Artefact Hunting in Shropshire CemeteryPaul Barfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10443302899233809948noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-10209252085650376152010-11-03T02:27:19.389-07:002010-11-03T02:27:19.389-07:00"the moment a metal detectorist does a crime ...<i>"the moment a metal detectorist does a crime he is no longer allowed to be called a metal detectorist but a nighthawk, thus no metal detectorist has ever committed a crime and never will".</i><br /><br />What do they call it when something is within the law but clearly wrong? What is the official PAS term for that, please?Paul Barfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10443302899233809948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8174756573570334952.post-21209984814073002192010-11-03T02:19:41.765-07:002010-11-03T02:19:41.765-07:00I know this place and have some direct knowledge o...I know this place and have some direct knowledge of it all.<br /><br />Park Road is a cul de sac with the battlefield at the end. People with metal detectors are constantly going up the road and are tend to be aggressive to the locals when challenged evidently. <br /><br />Immediately adjoining the field is not the main cemetery but a green cemetery which has some marked but many (I assume) unmarked interments and it looks like an area of grassland. I presume these people jump over the wire fence from the field thinking no-one else will have thought to search there but of course they all think exactly that.<br /> <br />The awful thing is that the green cemetery is pretty new so all the graves are very recent. I have been told by Park Rd residents that soon after it was opened metal detecting went on in the battle site one night and in the morning three holes were found around the graves of three children from the same family that had recently all died in a car crash. <br /><br />On a more general note:<br /><br />PC Sparrow is under fire from metal detectorists for besmirching their good name! I guess the poor chap thought that since everyone openly admits there are “bent coppers” no-one would be averse to him pointing out there are also criminal metal detectorists. How wrong could he be!<br /><br />According to them and PAS the moment a metal detectorist does a crime he is no longer allowed to be called a metal detectorist but a nighthawk, thus no metal detectorist has ever committed a crime and never will. PAS will confirm this reputation-saving duality – and transmits it to the public every day, which I think is utterly scandalous. Some metal detectorists are criminals; it’s a fact; some of them are in the metal detecting clubs (detectorists confirm) and some get unwittinglt backslapped by PAS at rallies. Why should a government agency not admit there are "criminal metal detectorists" when the Home Office admits it about policemen? Well that’s easy – policemen aren’t blackmailing the Home Office and the country by threatening mass misbehaviour if anyone says any of them are bent!<br />In the Gospel according to detectorists and PAS PC Sparrow shouldn't have called these thugs metal detectorists but nighthawks. Orwellian or what?!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com