Thread: British Gestapo Kidnaps Grandmother

'I was so numb I couldn't even cry': Daughter blasts 'Gestapo' social services as they bundle mother, 86, out of family home | Mail Online

Placing a tea-time meal of beans-on-toast in front of her frail 86-year-old mother Betty, Ros Figg glanced out of the dining room window to see two squad cars and a police van pull up.

Thinking there must be a major incident going on nearby, she pulled back the net curtains hoping to see what had prompted such an impressive show of police manpower.

One of the officers was carrying a battering ram. Was there a criminal on the loose?

A suspected terrorist in hiding? A secret drugs den, perhaps?

None of the above, as it would turn out. The person they'd come for, armed with a warrant, was poor old Betty - a once sprightly great-grandmother who'd recently succumbed to dementia.

'I couldn't believe my eyes when four police officers, flanking two social workers and a doctor, walked towards my house,' says 55-year-old Ros.

'One of the police officers was holding a red battering ram and I thought: "What on earth does he need that for?"

'It's the sort of thing they'd use to raid terrorists, not people like us.

'I was so frightened I didn't want to let them in so I leaned out of the window and asked them what they wanted.

'One of the social workers said a doctor had come to examine my mother. When I opened the door a warrant, giving them the right to search for and remove my mother, was put in my hand.

'My poor mum, when she saw the policemen kept asking: "What have we done wrong?" and I was desperately trying to stay calm and reassure her, saying: "We've done nothing wrong, Mum."

'I was shaking with shock. I was so numb I couldn't even cry.

'Two policemen remained stationed at the front door the whole time. Did they think we were going to do a runner?

'My mother has a wheelchair - she can't even walk.'

And so on Monday, with neighbours hanging out of the windows to see what was going on, Betty - who was diagnosed with dementia last June - was wheeled by social workers from her daughter's house in Coventry to a waiting car and taken away.

The almost Orwellian operation was captured on a very sad series of pictures - one showing a blanket thrown over Betty's head by social workers to shield her from photographers - which have since been published in newspapers, prompting a public outcry.

Betty was then returned to the residential home which Ros removed her from last Saturday, believing her Mum would be better off in her care.

Social services had opposed Ros's request to care for her mother at home, arguing that the level of care she could offer was not sufficient, and swung into action with the full force of the law when Ros defied them and took her home.

'I didn't try to stop them taking my mother because I didn't want to panic and upset her,' says Ros.

'I felt so guilty that I had brought this on her, but also complete disbelief.

'I told her: "Don't worry, Mum, I'll be seeing you soon." Then I watched from the window as they threw a blanket over her head to stop people taking photographs.

Rosalind Figg said her mother perked up after they took her out of the home

'How could they do that to an old and confused lady? As soon as they put the blanket on her head, she threw it off again and I thought: "Good on you, Mum."

'They were so keen to get her away from me that they reversed into a bollard, leaving it bent.

'I still can't believe it's happened. I was made to feel like an enemy of the state rather than a daughter who just wants to do the best for her mother.

'I can't believe these Gestapo tactics can be allowed to happen in our society.

'After they'd gone, I read the warrant they'd left behind, and I felt even more upset. I was insulted.

'It said Mum was being removed under Section 135 of the Mental Health Act 1983 because she was at risk of neglect or ill-treatment, with no evidence to support that at all. I've never been in trouble with the police.

'The doctor took her blood pressure, which was normal, said her skin was a bit dry and said she had some bruises on her leg.

'But they were marks which had been there before she came home. As far as I know, she wasn't on any medication at the home.

'What kind of country are we living in where social workers appear to be quite capable of leaving children with parents who abuse them, but not elderly women with the children who love them?

'What they have done is a complete travesty of human rights.'

Ros, a mother of four sons aged between 21 and 36, still looks shaken by these events.

Softly-spoken, she shows me round her terraced home, pointing out the wheelchair ramp she had put in at the front door and the den she turned into a downstairs bedroom in preparation for her mother's arrival.

On the bed is a mattress with sensors to alert Ros should her mother get up in the night and leave the room.

All of this was considered by social services to be completely inadequate.

Ros was yesterday consulting with solicitors to see what legal action to take. She also visited her mother, taking a legal representative with her.

Ros says: 'It was lovely to see Mum, but I could see immediately that she'd lost her sparkle again.

'She told me she missed me and asked if she could come home again.'

At least this woman now realizes that she is an enemy of the state...or rather, the state is the enemy of all decent human beings.

Why do people these days, especially in the U.K., act surprised when this sort of thing goes on?

Having spent the last two years trying to look after two demented elderly adults I find your thread very annoying,

You took a sad situation out of context to twist it to suit your own politically partisan and narcissistic agenda of presenting yourself as a misunderstood persecuted victim of society. This has nothing to do with you or anyone else being a victim of the state.

Millions of adults now find themselves faced with having to look after aging seniors with dementia. Some are abusing vulnerable seniors, others find themselves overhwlemed by their demands but unable to be able to get assistance and still others deny they are unable to look after seniors and endanger them by not properly looking after their needs.

To suggest this is a black and white issue as you have and suggest the state simply kicks down doors to retrieve the demented simply evidences you can not understand the complex range of issues faced by adults and society as our all our societities age and we live longer and we all struggle to try manage the affairs of seniors.

What goes around comes around. You will be the first screaming for the same state you spit on to intervene and rescue you one day not as far off as you think.

Originally Posted by roobarb

Having spent the last two years trying to look after two demented elderly adults I find your thread very annoying,

You took a sad situation out of context to twist it to suit your own politically partisan and narcissistic agenda of presenting yourself as a misunderstood persecuted victim of society. This has nothing to do with you or anyone else being a victim of the state.

Millions of adults now find themselves faced with having to look after aging seniors with dementia. Some are abusing vulnerable seniors, others find themselves overhwlemed by their demands but unable to be able to get assistance and still others deny they are unable to look after seniors and endanger them by not properly looking after their needs.

To suggest this is a black and white issue as you have and suggest the state simply kicks down doors to retrieve the demented simply evidences you can not understand the complex range of issues faced by adults and society as our all our societities age and we live longer and we all struggle to try manage the affairs of seniors.

What goes around comes around. You will be the first screaming for the same state you spit on to intervene and rescue you one day not as far off as you think.

You have a lot of nerve tell me anything, let alone anything about taking articles out of context. Where or who said anything about abuse. It seems to me that the woman was quit shocked, and upset. Then the fucking thugs all but blacked bagged her, and she threw it off. It sounds like the woman was thinking rationally, but you and these pigs are not.

Originally Posted by Defensor

'I was so numb I couldn't even cry': Daughter blasts 'Gestapo' social services as they bundle mother, 86, out of family home | Mail Online

At least this woman now realizes that she is an enemy of the state...or rather, the state is the enemy of all decent human beings.

Why do people these days, especially in the U.K., act surprised when this sort of thing goes on?

It is shocking, but actually im not surprised.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that agreed with you conclusions, im not sure I would like where that would take me, but I certainly feel its a good indication of how the nanny state has taken over.

Do you live in the UK defensor by the way?