Another Day…

Indeed. However, I wonder if political pressure would have influenced the outcome if he was arrested? I think this whole current situation is more about getting Mitchell back in to a high up job again via the ‘poor me’ story.

Swearing at the Police and in public is a section 5 public order offence. They should have nicked him!

There is good and bad everywhere. It’s almost impossible to weed out every bad apple. The plebgate incident is slowly turning in to a ‘poor tory’ story. Even if he didn’t call the officer a pleb, he admitted to using the F word in an outburst and has been punished for it. He lost his cool over a minor request by the officer, heaven knows what he was like to work with under pressure. Another officer possibly fabricating evidence is very unfortunate and obviously is a serious thing that needs to be investigated.

Also don’t forget that with some of the examples you’ve posted those people were found guilty in court, in front of a judge and jury. The police and the courts are slightly different. If a jury finds a suspect guilty then the judge passes the sentence. There can be inequality in the law, but not always police related, some times it’s more political.

Ironically I’m studying a criminology level 3 diploma at the moment and my current assignment is based on inequality and the law. It states in some of my literature that inequality in the law has existed as far back, and long before, Saxon times, and still exists today. Predominantly the wealthy are more likely to either get away with crime or face smaller penalties than the poorer people. That’s a failure in the law system, the courts and political pressure. The police cannot be blamed for it all.

#4 Bob

Yes, it seems to be all the useless idiots who make the headlines. Just too many to be co-incidence.

No, I wouldn’t call the cops. The perception is that if I’m the victim, I’m more likely than the offender to be charged especially if the offender gets a scratch or two.

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

I don’t hold them in contempt–Next year I’ll be living with one–well one that has now been ‘outsourced’..!–well hopefully, if all the planets line up.

Still doesn’t make me trust them as a body though.

Trust and contempt are different you know.

Andy.

John Green – yes, sad but true. I have a close knowledge of the Evans case and it is troubling that elements of the police were as prone then as now to act dishonourably and dishonestly.

Yes, of course there are fine policemen doing a good job but there are a great many who are not and it is up to the police to clear out the rotten apples. But they don’t, they close ranks and protect them.

Bob you posted while I was giving my reply. Yes their are honest coppers out there but how far do you think they would get with the system as it is?

Andy if I said what I was thinking I would be banned from this forum.(probably arrested too for hurting the poor dears feelings as well)

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……

My considered answers are a single response. I have neither trusted nor respected the police, as an institution, for very many years. Individual policemen over the years, yes. But not as a public service body.

Andy, you are right to ask these questions. It seemed to me that there was always something not right about the Andrew Mitchell case and what is now called Plebgate.

The number and variety of cases that from time to time are featured in the media presents a compelling picture of institutionalised (there’s a familiar word) police corruption.

From my perspective of many years, this is not something new. The police never were to be trusted to collect and present neutral evidence. They have always enjoyed unchallenged immunity to tailor the evidence. I have a first hand experience of their willingness to step outside the law in their attempts to glean information, so as to form the basis for impugning the credibility of a prospective witness or, to add a little extra to the evidential mix.

Do you remember Craig and Bentley? “Let him have it” was reported by the police as having been said just before the policeman was shot. Was it said? We don’t know, only the police were there. The police knew, that upon conviction, Craig could not be hung – he was just 16 years. Bentley could, he was eighteen. So, someone had to pay for the regrettable death of the PC. That someone was Bentley.

Timothy Evans? Innocent but charged with murder and convicted on dubious evidence and hung. I beleive he was subsequently pardoned. These are two notorious cases.

Now Hillsborough. When they get it wrong why can’t they just say so? Why the repeated cover ups and doctoring of the facts? The police are drawn from society, and we all make mistakes.

Doesn’t all this just add impetus to a free Press? Imagine if none of this couldbe discussed – bring on the Stasi.