Another Day…

The media only ever reports – or spins – something that makes a good story. Everything else goes unreported.

I can’t say i’ve ever had dealings with police officers that i would class as unfair or unprofessional, personally.

Lawyers used to say with tongue in cheek that if you were arrested and cautioned by a policeman you should reply “it’s a fair cop guv.” When you appear in court the policeman will produce his pocket book in evidence and referring to it will say something like “when cautioned the accused replied its a fair cop guv.” Such is intended to affect the credibility of the prosecution witness.

I always thought we had got rid of the bent coppers with the demise of the likes of the Krays, evidentially not…. They should be pursued, brought to justice and jailed…. No parole, no molly coddling, but Jail.. They are in the position they hold to be upholders of the law, to abuse that is in these eyes far worse than a simple criminal element breaking it…… I’d also issue them some extra slippy Teflon based soap.

I don’t trust any police these days… As ex services I used to look on them as a similar status, but now….. Nope.

Jim, you’re quite right in what you say. Sometimes the public, or should I say those caught doing wrong, don’t want to take responsibility and blame everyone else.

I agree with what you say about starting off nice. Being respectful often gets the best results. Obviously there is an exception to the rule when a suspect isn’t cooperative!

I totally agree with you, Skeeler. Good and bad everywhere. It wasn’t so long ago that the public was showing a lot of compassion for the police after the tragic loss of PC Nicola Hughes and PC Fiona Bone.. but now it’s back to complaining about the police.
Trouble is though is that the public tend to assume all officers are bad. When I told my friends that I aim to end up as a police constable a few of them said ‘why do you want to be one of them, they’re no good’ Well I’m sure the corrupt few are no good but it doesn’t mean the honest ones are no good.

It’s the same old story Ash, if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to bother about, Do a 100MPH drive down the Motorway and get caught, whoes fault is it?, not the
Coppers, as your friends may say, it’s yours.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Tar all police officers the same due to the behaviour of a very few?

Like saying all teenagers are drug taking, thieving useless scumbags…

Just hope you never have to call on the people you hold in such contempt……

As an X Copper myself Bob, I couldn’t agree more.

I had an old saying, you could always start off being nice, then get nasty, but you could never start off nasty, then get nice. Unfortunately todays Coppers seem to think the opposite, I tried to give others the respect, that I would like to expect from them, respect these days, has seemingly gone out of the window, on both sides, and this I believe is where a lot of the trouble stems from.
Just my opinion.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Seconded, John.

Well said John!

Police standards of behaviour have to be the highest of the high. Like Caesar’s wife, they have to be totally above suspicion.

I and Skeeler have referred to the fact that the Police are drawn from and reflect our society. There you have it.

One way to return to a standard of policing that generates the kind of trust that actively encourages the public to actually like and help the Police is to reform their training syllabus and remove the pernicious taint that they are all really social workers, albeit with a truncheon.

The behaviour of the Police cannot be compared with the behaviour of Press barons, MPs, bent bankers or bent lawyers. The reason why most of us are angry and disenchanted with the Police is because we expect more of our ‘Thief Takers’.

We do not expect them to be like the rest of society – they have to be above that. When we watch those seductive Police action programs on TV we do not expect our Police to address a potential criminal as: ‘Mate’ or, to joke and smile with some tearass joyrider or Saturday night drunk who has just caused havoc on some High St, somewhere.

What kind of mad, crazy, perverted equality legislation is responsible for putting women into dangerous situations that are sometimes more than a handful for male Police?

I’d like to see the kind of aggressive, confrontational Chairman of the Police Federation who is so vociferous on our TV screens in defending Police actions, lobby instead, for at least some of the reforms suggested above. It would be a start.

I totally agree with you, Skeeler. Good and bad everywhere. It wasn’t so long ago that the public was showing a lot of compassion for the police after the tragic loss of PC Nicola Hughes and PC Fiona Bone.. but now it’s back to complaining about the police.
Trouble is though is that the public tend to assume all officers are bad. When I told my friends that I aim to end up as a police constable a few of them said ‘why do you want to be one of them, they’re no good’ Well I’m sure the corrupt few are no good but it doesn’t mean the honest ones are no good.

You are, of course, absolutely correct in all you say. The problem is the perception. And those “rotten apples” you refer to do seriously tarnish the reputation and diminish the respect and trust the police should be afforded. Sadly I suspect there are more “rotten apples” than you suggest and secondly the manner of the police toward the public has deteriorated.

The police were once willing and helpful servants of the public but now many are bumptious and officious. And that further engenders distrust and dislike.

All,
Having retired from a County Police ‘force’ in 2011, having spent my entire career on the so called ‘front line’, I can only say that I am ashamed of the small minority of ‘Rotten Apples’ within the Police Force nationally, both now and historically, whose dishonest and corrupt actions have totally undermined the integrity honesty and trust that the people of this country deserve to have of their Police Force. At any one moment in time there are approximately 145,000 serving regular full time Constables within the 43 different Police Forces covering England and Wales, yet it only takes a very small minority to make the ‘headlines’ in our Press and to taint all the good that is done by the majority every minute of the day. There is good and bad in everyone and good and bad in every profession. Just because a famous deceased BBC personality such as JS is outed as having been a serial sex offender, doesn’t make everybody who works for the BBC the same. The fact that a large number of MP’s have recently been proved to have defrauded the taxpayers of this country, doesn’t make all MP’s dishonest fraudsters and thieves. The fact that a very ‘powerful’ media mogul and employees of his media empire
have been bribing, corrupting, falsifying, snooping and going to any and every lengths to
dishonestly obtain information to sell more newspapers and make more money, doesn’t make every Press and Media employee a criminal by association. At least any Police Officers found guilty of a crime or misconduct or both will be rightly and properly punished for it rather than paid off with a golden handshake of half a million pounds or more and then shown the door to the next money making position that they can jump straight into. I could go on – Bankers, Doctors, Lawyers,Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, etc – every profession has it’s examples. Society gets the Police Force that it deserves – if society is broken, the Police Force will be as well. I happen to believe that our society is not broken, nor is our Police Force or any other Public Institution for that matter. Remember also, good news does not sell newspapers, nor does truth and accuracy. I could go on, but probably best not to!

As I said, law does have a form of inequality about it. You will always be able to find examples of when the rich were punished and when the poor was too, but in general the rich are still favoured. A shame really.

Can money buy you justice? Maybe, sometimes, but not always. Some years ago a wealthy business acquaintance was caught speeding. He decided to employ an extremely expensive barrister and plead not guilty in court.

This did not go down well with the magistrate who not only found him guilty but imposed a far longer ban on top of the fine, than might have been expected, for wasting the court’s time. He made the point that whilst he would barely notice the fine he would be considerably inconvenienced by the ban. Which he was.

I never actually said the law was fair, quite the opposite, John. I said it favours the rich and wealthy more so.

EGTC

The administration of criminal justice in this country is a lottery. If you can find any criminal lawyers willing to discuss such with you frankly, they will say much the same.

A judge’s summary of the evidence is, more times than not, crucial in its influence upon the jury.

Beyond the front line staff, the whole Public sector needs a good sort out. It’s riddled with faceless corruption and beaurocratic jobsworths.

Yes! And it always has been…..and not just in this country.

Indeed the police do gather evidence, but the jury are there to listen to both sides and then decide and of course the judge passes the sentence. The evidence police gather doesn’t necessarily put people in prison. I’m not saying it’s never happened, but I’d say that most cases get a fair hearing, you only hear about the ones that don’t.

EGTC

The Police gather evidence for presentation to the CPS and it is there where the problem lies. Massaging has been around for donkeys and no one has arrived at a solution.

If I’m correct, the judge at the Craig/Bentley trial was an infamous lawyer called Goddard. He, if I remember, was known as “The Hanging Judge”. I suspect some collusion was present between the Police and the Bench to ensure the correct verdict and sentence.

In the case of Evans, although innocent, he was done for by the evidence of a former friend and the actual murderer, a wretched creature called Reginald Christie.

Quis custodiet quis custodes

Beyond the front line staff, the whole Public sector needs a good sort out. It’s riddled with faceless corruption and beaurocratic jobsworths.