But this is a perfect example of an anecdotal straw man argument.... I have had a friend, I have seen this... therefore I can make a generalized statement saying that the stokes case is.... but when somebody points out (who`s expertise is in law) that you generalized assumptions and opinions are not true you continue to beat your drum. Yes people are going to get irritated...
Simply try not make broad generalized statements that you only have anecdotal evidence for....
I've never known
any of these incidents be investigated that long, and I have (and I know some think I am lying here) seen incidents like that frequently where I live at the weekends late at night. But maybe Somerset police operate differently from Northumbria police?
Maybe Somerset police are more thorough and simply better? Maybe there is something about this case we do not know about? My original post which - it goes without saying - was sarcastically scrutinised by a certain poster who follows me round everywhere was that the ''ECB have been left with their dicks in their hands''. This was my original post which sparked this off - you can go back and confirm it. A fairly innocuous post really. This comment is irrefutable (I think Strauss would certainly agree) so long as this is not wrapped-up and the ECB cannot implement their own decision, Ashes series imminent. It was not as if I was even assigning blame to the ECB (a first perhaps) for their decision to suspend Ben Stokes, and my joke about the police taking longer than The Great Train Robbery and McCann disappearance was obviously
just that: a joke - as were some of my sordid descriptions about British late night urban culture.
But then this further again got skewed to the extent that some implied I was
defending Ben Stokes - ''keeping on making the same wrong thing doesn't magically make it right'' - and that Stokes should be allowed to ''fly out and play a couple of warm up games'', police investigation pending. I was clearly not defending Ben Stokes and believe the ECB's suspension justified. I wouldn't have called him a 'wanker' if I was defending him. I wouldn't have recently criticised Stokes and his PR agent (or at least the people around him) for certain post-facto photos
guaranteed to leak to tabloids of the ilk of
The Mirror. I even argued with a well known fellow Durham supporter who posts here - you know who? - who
was defending Ben Stokes.
So where does that leave everything? You mentioned 'straw man'? I've been
bombarded with straw men at every stage.