Monday 19 September 2011

Anti Terror Raids


The latest action against terrorism is going on in Birmingham, with arrests taking place. What strikes me though is the way the police talk about it. As usual they cannot give us any detail and that is fair enough, no one wants to prejudice a case. But the phrase 'I believe it was necessary to take action at this time in order to ensure public safety', hardly inspires confidence.

If there was a serious plot and this is what is being suggested, then why such a weak statement? 'Police speak' was always the butt of jokes, along with a meticulous form of speech; 'Ay was proceeding in a Westerly direction when I became aware....' However, the latest is clearly not in that vein, it is very much of a modern nature. Careful speak, I suppose you could call it, but it is usually deployed to cover the possibility of impending failure. As in, no proof whatsoever being available.

And that exact state of affairs has been the case in a surprisingly large number of operations 'keeping the public safe'. Suspects arrested with much fanfare later released quietly with compensation payments. Or the deadly ricin plot that turned out not to have been a plot and that there was at no time, any ricin involved. At all.

Let us see, but I am just jaded with the exceptionally low standards that pass for any type of standard, these days. If our senior police officers were not such political animals they might not make the same kind of idiotic mistakes politicians are justly famous for. But they are and they do.

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