Coppers

I hate the term 'Coppers' as I find it disrespectful, but perhaps I should admit it is probably a better description of the current lack of standards and discipline in our police. Last night for our televisual pleasure we had some interesting views of modern policing. Interestingly it was an 'old boy' who had something like a correct attitude to the job the public expect of him, as opposed to the revenue obsessed, social-worker oriented, lazy, dictatorial policeman that our current crop of useless Chief Constables prefer.

The 'Old Boy' was watching out for 'speeders' at the side of the A6. He explained he wasn't interested in those doing 5, 10 or maybe 15 mph above the speed limit, but those driving dangerously, likely to cause an accident. This was then proven as he and his colleague ignored a car going past at 88. The road wasn't busy and that is just someone driving a modern car, capable of such speed and not causing any problem. The guy registered at 116mph (and braking at the time) was clearly a different matter, he was driving fast for the sake of it and was pursued. He turned out to be a garage employee using a customer's car.

In a later programme we saw the other side. Police who, talking to camera seemed to have their heart in the right place, but otherwise not terribly sure about anything in particular ('is the Hulk the one on the sweetcorn tin?').  And a police officer who was very sure of his attitude, but not of a need for professionalism. He, quite correctly arrested an oik, bleeding heavily from the nose who was just making a nuisance of himself and swearing at the officer. However, we may have barely heard what he said but the street soon became aware as the officer bellowed it several times, to show his outrage. Had I been walking past with my wife, I would most certainly have expected someone repeatedly shouting obscenities to be removed from the streets, but he wasn't because 'he is the law'. The whole episode showed (apart from the fact that young people today have no respect for themselves, let alone anyone else and cannot drink to any level below excess), that police today cannot police sympathetically as they arrive with a sense of importance they don't deserve, nor is it any part of the role of police in British society. Though of course it does fit left-liberal social engineering and a state-led society.

(Footnote: the nature of policing in the UK is that the law is owned by the people and the police are citizens in uniform. In the state into which we are being taken -without being asked or it being explained-  the state exists in itself and the people exist to serve the state. The key difference being that in the historic Britain everything is legal except that which we make illegal. In the French led EU, everything is illegal unless the state says it is legal. A very different balance of power, and why the arrogance of the police, now much more political, is on the rise.)