Strangely Unsettling

It has been an unusual week in The Peoples Republic. The road I live on has been closed since Tuesday lunchtime and it looks like that situation will continue for some time to come. Here’s a view looking down the hill towards the area where the road is closed….

On Tuesday at around 10:30 a male was assaulted close to the junction of Long Lane and Trinity Road. Ambulance and Police were summoned to the scene at 10:46. Alasdair became aware of the incident mid-afternoon from one of his ex-school friends, I, on the other hand, only became aware when Epi called home to complain that no one had told her that the Lane was closed! And that’s part of my alibi – I heard something like the Air Ambulance around 11am, but concluded that the sound was actually the washing machine spinning up as Alasdair had put on some washing that morning. I was, at the time, playing Fishing Planet as I have a follow-up blog post planned…

When Epi came home on that Tuesday evening there were a lot of Police Officers searching the area, presumably looking for clues / a weapon. I predicted that come Wednesday, the cordon would still be in place as I expected that further search activity was likely in the better morning light – A prediction that proved to be correct. But, I certainly didn’t expect that the road would still be closed this evening and with proper barriers put in place rather than the ‘Police Line – Do Not Cross’ tapes that had sufficed until now.

This has caused a lot of disruption to traffic in the area and, because there are so many selfish drivers using these side roads as a rat run, a number of altercations at one of the junctions. If the Police aren’t careful, they could wind up with another assault!

Taking the information that the Police released to the local press, the assault resulted in a serious head trauma to the victim – Explains why the Air Ambulance was called although the victim was ultimately sent by road to a major trauma unit. No further information has been forthcoming

Which leaves us with speculation… And it would be easy to do a lot of that! But the reality is that most of us know nothing about what has occurred. I have my own suspicions about who’s involved based on the location etc, etc… But the one thing I will speculate about publicly is the reason for the lengthy road closure – I’m guessing the Police are waiting for the victim to regain consciousness so they can get more information that might lead them to a possible suspect or a weapon.

I’ve lived in The People’s Republic all my life – These incidents are very rare as befits the bohemian nature of the area. Stabbings happen outside the Bookies; Broken noses outside the Pub. The one shooting happened inside an individual residence. This is normally the way things are. This assault doesn’t fit the normal pattern for where I live😒