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This page is under development: If you have entered this page of the 'Plague Year' website from Google, it has been listed earlier than I intended. It's meant to be a 'hidden' page. (Except that it obviously isn't, since you're here...)
The site is a personal commentary on UK politics and the environment.
Please visit the Home Page.
(Or follow the progress on this page of one [law-abiding] man's disquiet...)
If you support your local policeman, keep him on his toes.
I am a white, middle-class, middle-aged and law-abiding male; therefore, I'm firmly within the natural constituency of the police force. And I do support the work of the police - within a well-ordered legal, judicial and political framework.
So why have I become increasingly hostile to my local policeman? It shouldn't be happening.
I've come across the police from time to time - I have no reason to assume that my contacts with them have been particularly unusual in number or nature. Too often I've come away disappointed, or worse.
So I've decided, over the next few months, to write some of my police stories here. What I do then depends on whether what I say rings any bells to visitors.
A political note, before I start.
It is understandable that police officers will sometimes get things wrong:
1. The police are human, with a human share of incompetence.
But it's worse than that;
2. The framework within which they operate is not always well-ordered: particularly the police suffer from the bureaucratisation of the force, and the setting of poorly judged targets.
And worse:
2.1. I believe that our police have become increasingly politicised, especially since Thatcher employed them against the miners 20 years ago; and that this has become more dangerous under New Labour.
2.1.1. I believe that they have moved substantially from a role of crime prevention - or, more realistically, apprehending criminals after the event - to a role of social control.
But, for now, some of my own experiences, in no particular order yet of date or significance.
#1: After the Lawrence report.
On 30th September 2007, the Mail on Sunday printed a letter from the Chief Constable of Hampshire, referring to the training in, and the absolute absence of, racism in his force. This was surely a hostage to fortune.
Recently, I saw youths who had clearly taken drink verbally abuse and physically threaten Asian workers in a local petrol station - in Hampshire. The youths drove away (drunk) without paying for their fuel. I sympathised to the staff and, thinking of the Lawrence Report, said that police would treat the abuse seriously. I offered to report it myself if that was what they would like. Without ado they gave me piece of paper with the car registration noted on it.
I duly phoned the police. Due to police station closures, there were no local officers. The police said they would get back to me. It took a fortnight before I could press them into agreeing to accept my complaint, and several more days of my insisting before an appointment was made for me to speak to an officer.
I had made it clear that I had regarded the incident as fairly serious by the police's own published guidelines. The first thing the officer said to me when we settled to talking was that this was a very minor episode. Well... okay, he's the professional.
But the next thing he said to me, and I quote, was, "These people tend to complain about nothing at all."
This was after the Lawrence report.
I pointed out that "these People" hadn't complained - I had; and that the incident had seemed to me very far from nothing at all. Is it just me, or do others find that phrase significant, and significantly offensive?
In the light of this, and one or two more comments by the officer which reinforced the impression that he had never heard of the Lawrence report, I sent a letter outlining my concerns to - guess who? - the Chief Constable. I received an anodyne reply from an Inspector saying that there had clearly been some degree of misunderstanding.
This was one of the so many occasions - when, to my regret, I did not pursue an issue to the end - which have led me in part to initiate this weblog.
#2: Assault and Cover-up.
During the 80s, I was a teacher in North London. Apart from my classes, I had a Tutor (registration) group whom I saw every day.
Two boys I've taught, that I've known of (neither of them in my tutor group), died in police custody while still teenagers - one while still at school. One was overlaid by an intoxicated adult while in a cell and asphyxiated; I'm not sure about the other, though it appears to have been a similar story. One of these young men was simply a member of one of my classes; the other, however, I had not only taught but taken abroad on a school trip with 20 others, so I was beginning to get to know him.
To Be Continued.... (Please also look at the Journal Archive - Police)
9c.