Makes My Blood Boil!

This weeks "Total Prat" award goes to Daily Mail journalist Peter Hitchens for his article on Sunday 15th September 2013 titled

Get rid of the guns, cars and Tasers and we might just end up with real policemen

I must admit that I don't expect anything else from the Daily Mail when it comes to police bashing which they seem to do in the most derogatory, holier than thou manner but Hitchens has sunk to new lows even for the Daily Mail.

Published three days short of a year since Greater Manchester Police lost two of its finest, PC Bone and PC Hughes (18 Sept 2012) Hitchens goes all out in an ill educated and insensitive way.

For those who can't and won't read the Daily Mail because it makes you feel physically sick, I shall sum up Hitchens words for you.

Hitchens says:

What use are the police these days? We know they have a pretty ambiguous attitude towards us, the public, avoiding us where possible by staying indoors or racing about in cars, and seldom going out alone in case one of us actually approaches them.

He then waffles on about the incident at Buckingham Palace with the Duke of York and drags up the incident with Andrew Mitchell which he conveniently fails to ask the question which we all want to know the answer:

"We know, what you claim you didn't say Mr Mitchell, but what did you say?"

Water off a ducks back, but what really angered me was Hitchens stating:

Call them all back in. Take away their guns and their Tasers and their stab vests, sell their helicopters and their fast cars with the go-faster stripes. Give them proper British police uniforms, which mark them out as the people’s servants, not their masters.

And send them out on solitary foot patrol, yes, even in the rain, where they might once more meet those they are supposed to serve.

What planet does this idiot live on?

I would love to see Hitchens join us on a late or night shift when we have to deal with call after call to fights, drunks, drug addicts threatening us with knives and needles.

When those we arrest are kicking, punching us and spitting in our faces and the calls are mounting and mounting because there are so few officers on such a massive patch.

This man calls to "take away their stab vests and their Tasers"

We all don't live in gated communities and the particular area I police is one of the roughest areas I've ever covered. I've got ten years in and I had a wake up call!

I do not go out without my stab vest, I have had many occasions when a knife has been pulled or a knife has been found on a person I've arrested and or searched.

There has been many occasions where a Taser would have finished a dangerous situation safely for everyone, especially the public but instead, people and officers have been hurt.

A year in three days time we lost two officers to a man with a gun who were tricked whilst they were attending a routine call.

Without the fast cars, helicopters, Tasers etc that Hitchens wants to remove from us this man could have and would have carried on killing officers.

Hitchens has never had to deal with a violent person day after day, week after week, race to a call that may affect someones life with the outcome.

He's never had to pick up the pieces after a road crash, literally in some cases.

He's never had a malicious complaint made against him and still has to carry on, still having to deal with the violence, the sadness of delivering death messages.

Never helped endless lost pensioners, children, adults, or dealt with mental health patients.

Never spent hours on paper work in order to send someone you know is guilty of a serious crime and if you get it wrong you're in serious trouble,

He's never seen the tears and the anguish of a rape victim.

I bet he's never heard the last words and seen the last breath of someone fatally injured.

What angers me even more about this lazy style of abusive journalism from Hitchens is that if he was ever burgled, he would expect the police to turn up with their fast cars and their helicopter and if the suspect was found on his property and was violent towards him, he would want them tasered and if we wasn't there in five minutes, he would be the first to complain.

Yes Hitchens you and I may go home to our families at the end of the day, but I treasure mine the most.

....and lets face it, the public needs the police far more than they need journalists.

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Cops Behaving Badly

This was the title of last nights BBC Panorama programme which in its description was:

"What happens when the police fail in their sworn duty to protect life, when they get it wrong, or when police officers themselves break the law?"


Less than a week after the deaths of two officers and one stabbed all in the course of carrying out their sworn duties to protect life, the BBC chose to show this, poorly timed, political hack of the police in this country.

If this week's topic had instead been about "Sudden Deaths at Home" the BBC would have probably moved the schedule, as done in the past, to another more appropriate time in the future so as not to upset the family of for example, Sir Jimmy Saville.

However, they chose instead to run with this programme, in my opinion, in poor taste and sensationalist ways.

I clearly stated my displeasure about this subject on Twitter last night and one or two of the responses I'll highlight here:

TheloniusBostik T-Bos 

@ 

@citizensmitt never! let's face it. you can't even highlight bad practice without offending the good cops... sad.

TheloniusBostik T-Bos 

@ 

@ResponsePlod we have the right to know. we're mature enough to form studied opinions.

citizensmitt smitty 

@ 

@ResponsePlod @TheloniusBostik So what would be a 'respectful' time to have shown it, then?

I appreciate this feedback and it's difficult to try and express yourself in 140 characters or less which is why I'm glad I have this.

I understand completely that the Police have to be accountable for their actions, period.  How can we provide  reassurance and law and order but be above it ourselves, it doesn't work.

What I was stating is that the programme was poorly timed at best.  If they insisted on showing this programme it could have been aired in the new year to let the dust settle for the families of the deceased.

These families could have seen on prime time television, footage of members of public, quite rightly in some instances, stating that they have lost confidence in policing and that officers are lazy etc.

Not true in the cases of PC Goodlad, PC Jay and Garda Jones.  These three put themselves first, before anything else and two paid with their lives.  Less than a week later, the BBC is showing footage of completely the opposite.

Good police officers do not make good television.  Watching grainy footage of a police officer apparently "beating" a male is shock factor and therefore, apparently, does.

The programme then went on to state that there was an issue of complaints and discipline going on "behind closed doors"

What public interest is there to hear that PC Bloggs has not ironed his shirt again or PC Doe has sworn at her Sergeant?

There isn't,

... or is it only the "juicy" stuff they want?

No other public domain company/service does it including the BBC, and I'm damn sure the Houses of Parliament will not!

A Twitter colleague wrote last night "Police officers don't go to work to do wrong" 

Unfortunately there are a minority element, like all jobs, who have the bullies, who are rude to their colleagues or customers, lazy, incompetent.

The problem with the police service is that if someone is like this, then they leave themselves wide open for complaints or severe lack of judgement calls that could cause someone to be injured or worse.

Discipline in policing has gone completely wrong, it's too "pink and fluffy"

If a Sergeant gives an officer an old fashioned "bollocking" for cocking up, that Sergeant is suddenly accused of bullying and the problem isn't solved.  Problems fester and a lazy cop, or worse, an incompetent cop isn't dealt with quickly enough.

Then you have the issue of malicious complaints.  In many cases some throw a complaint back, in order to "get off" or damage reputations to muddy the water in court.

The system is not infallible. Whilst you have humans as police officers and politicians in power, there will always be mistakes.  The IPCC and the court system are not perfect.  You only have to look at former PC Michael Bunting to realise that terrible mistakes can be caused by so called "professional people" Michael found himself serving four months after kicking out at his attackers whilst they brutally assaulted him and put him in hospital, seriously injured.  This case went before the IPCC, the CPS and the courts yet he was still convicted of assault.

In my opinion, last night's topic was a political attack on the police, designed to damage feeling towards us.  What with the cuts to the police set to be drastic, what better way of sweeping arbitration hearings under the carpets with sympathy destroying topics like that. (Which, ironically are a week away)

You only had to watch the Twitter trend for #Panorama for the immediate lack of sympathy and hate of the police.  Many stating "ACAB" (All Coppers Are Bastards) and yet they will be the first to scream for 999 if they are themselves attacked.

Well, You're Damned If You Do......

So Mark Duggan, a man in his own Obituary picture shown on national news is posing using what appears to be his fingers shaped like a gun looking like gang signs is pulled over by armed police in a taxi and during an altercation a shoot out takes place resulting in one  officer shot and Duggan fatally wounded.

What we saw last night was according to one "witness" on the BBC "The locals taking revenge for the killing of a brother" and "The Police don't police our community they only turn up when this happens"

Memories of The Broadwater Farm riots in 1985 where many of the rioters were not even born or too young to remember were being tossed about by "witnesses" being interviewed on TV.  "This memory is in our DNA where Cynthia Jarrett died after police broke into her home" said one representing the "Youth of Haringey"  "We may have not been there but it's passed down to us"

Cynthia Jarrett dying is in no way even the same as Duggan dying and comparing the two is an insult to Cynthia's memory.

People on tv last night were calling Duggan "Their Brother" and even they said they didn't even know him.

Duggan lived by the sword and by the looks of it, died by it.  He allegedly shot at officers and therefore was shot at in defence and was killed.

Some bright spark witness on Sky was complaining that Duggan didn't have the safety equipment that the armed police officers had and therefore it was unfair and a reporter on Sky even had the gall to say "We don't know who shot at who first"

There are internet rumours going round that someone who knows someone spoke to someone who saw someone see a 16 year old girl allegedly beaten with sticks by police for no apparent  reason. What angers me more is depending on who you believe is that this was used as a "reason" for a full scale riot in Tottenham last night.

There was a protest about the killing of Duggan and the way the area is policed and this was presented to the doors of the Tottenham police station.  For whatever reason after that, it went down hill from there on.

Then a police car with two officers was hijacked and pushed into the road and set alight. This was then a beacon for others to start violent disorder.

The police were then lambasted by locals and the media for not policing the riot properly and their tactics used.  Some complained that the police were only targeting black rioters and some even complained that the police were too soft.

Damned if we do and damned if we don't.

What angers me more through all of this, is the two faced cheek of the government and media.  Suddenly to the government we have their "full support" and "no justification for the aggression shown to the police" with the media it was the complete lack of support and the cutting off of anyone who dared to voice support to the police coming under attack.

The media completely ignored the fact that Duggan shot at officers, completely ignored the fact the innocent bystanders were caught up in the riot, and that the reason police let the bus and buildings burn is because it was unsafe for the London Fire Brigade to go in and put it out.

The government talk about the "aggression shown to police" but fail to realise the irony of their aggression shown to police with the cut backs to the front line and to the police pensions and pay which are about to take place.  The "thin blue line" is so thinly stretched it's fracturing at points and last night was a case in point.  I think you can expect more of this to come.

What the government and public fail to realise is that Public Order trained officers and others like myself with specialist skills in areas including firearms are all volunteers.  We get no extra money and certainly thanks to Hutton, Windsor and May we won't be getting any more for a few years.

We can just as easily turn our passes in as easy as we got them.  If I don't want to be a Public Order trained officer any more I can turn in my certificate.  Just as easy if I don't want to do CBRN or Search.  I can easily fail to sign up for the next refresher or fail the fitness test.

If this carries on with the front line being savaged by the government and public alike I can see many officers ditching their specialist training.

Why should we face a barrage of petrol bombs and rocks whilst the ones that govern us and take away our rights, pensions and wages are sleeping soundly in their beds?

I can see many officers failing to come in when off duty, the sounds of unanswered ringing phones deafening.  The number of mobiles that suddenly had no signal.

We don't get paid a call out fee, so why should we come in?

One Inspector said to me that you could face disciplinary action if you are on a call out list.  Well, prove my phone had no signal, prove my phone rang at my home and not at the exchange.

We have enough restrictions on our lives as it is without placing me under virtual house arrest in case another riot takes place.

It's about time that the government realised that last night is a taste of things to come.

Mess with our tactics, mess with our numbers, budgets and wages and this is what you get.

A lot of innocent people cleaning up after a night of disorder and many officers injured.

What I will say is that it's going to make the Notting Hill Carnival an interesting two days.

Ain't Misbehavin'

One thing that really gets me annoyed these days is the way kids are molly coddled and protected when they do wrong.

Take the other day. I had cause to speak to a 14 year old boy who was my height and build (I'm five feet eleven when the wind blows South and consider myself as medium to stocky build)

Here was mouthy, "larging" it up in front of his mates thinking he was clever mouthing off to two coppers who have had a hard time policing quite an intense football match.

He didn't know when to shut up.  It was trap trap trap, swear swear swear the whole time.  He was told several times to walk away and stop being a twat but no, he continued whilst he mates watched.

After several warnings of his impending doom, he still wouldn't leave or shut up, so enough was enough.  I nicked him for section five public order abusive words and behaviour.  That's when the fun started.  After seeing that now he wasn't going to get home as previously planned he decided to kick off and put up a considerable struggle which resulted in him being taking to the floor (Home Office approved technique of course) and cuffed to the rear.

The ride in the van gave him perspex bravery he continued his tirade of abuse until we arrived at the nick where a welcoming committee soon shut him up the second the van doors were open.

Now remember, I said this lad was 14.  This was the sort of behaviour I expected from someone who had been drinking or is an habitual offender.

His parents were too far away to be brought down to act as appropriate adults as they were over 200 miles North of our location and no trains were running South, also, they claimed they didn't have a car (or so they said)

An appropriate adult and Social Services eventually turned up and it transpired in interview and through discussions with his parents over the phone that the lad has ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Why should I not be surprised?!

I'm sorry but it seems to me that every kid I deal with these days has some sort of attention seeking disorder!

Now, I don't know if these disorders are being found more these days because of advances in science and understanding psychology or is it just some excuse that every parent, teacher and Social Services of these kids seem to use to take away the blame for the kids behaviour from themselves and the child.

Instead of tackling the route problem of why this kid is behaving like a prize prick, lets wrap him up in cotton wool and say it's not your fault, you have a disorder and it's someone else's fault, not yours why you're like this.

We will blame society ills for why you've developed this so that way, you won't feel targeted for your wrong doings.

When I was a kid, children like these were given a clip round the ear and told to pack it in and go to bed without their dinner.

You can't do that now as the pink and fluffy left wing group will insist that you assaulted a child and neglected it food.

"He's bored!" is the excuse I usually hear.

"He's completed "Call of Duty Modern Warfare" so he's got nothing else to do so he burned down the garage to see if car petrol tanks really do explode like in the computer game"

"He's just misunderstood!"

The problem lies in the fact that kids do not socialise properly these days, Facebook, Twitter, PSN, X-Box Live, text messaging seem to be the way these kids communicate.  They don't talk any more.  Humans are meant to talk face to face and get out and about.

The kid next door to me, it is claimed by his parents has ADHD.  Now to me, he's a loud foul mouthed little git and he's 9 years old.

I've never seen behaviour like it and hear language so foul from a kid so young.

To hear his parents discipline him is a joke.  When he swears, they just call out his name and say "Stop swearing"  That is all.  So, as no real punishment has been given, he continues.  If he's loud, they ask him to be quiet, again, no real threat, he continues.

What is he learning?  Nothing apart from he has no boundaries and can get away with what he wants.  So does he really have ADHD? Or is he just not being disciplined properly?

Now when he started swearing at my 3 year old daughter and her friends which I overheard, he soon stopped when I told him in Gene Hunt style, that I would step on and smash up all his toys if I ever heard him call my daughter a "fucking cunt" again.

Guess what? He stopped!  I told his parents for which I received a grateful apology but shook my head when they said in a soft tone to their son "Oh, I do wish you would stop swearing"

Kids crave and need boundaries, even from an early age they test, test, test and will push you to see how far they can go.  You only have to watch my three year old and eight month old daughters to see that.

When they realise they cannot get what they want, they will back down after trying several times to get it.  That's where persistence and patience pays off.

Discipline begins at home and then at school but thanks to pressure groups certain powers to discipline have been outlawed or frowned upon.  Now, I'm not saying you should beat kids black and blue, never in a million years would I ever condone that.  But if you're one of these parents who use the "I'm going to count to five" method. Please have something to punish them at the end of it!

By the way, the lad was given a final warning.  I expect a colleague from a constabulary some where up North to be meeting him real soon.

Now, I'm probably going to get slaughtered for saying some of these things but these are my opinions  only.  If you don't like them, there's the red "X" in the top right corner or feel free to comment as I'm totally open to constructive criticism.

Got Your Number!

I sometimes wonder why I bother to read some reports about policing published in the main stream media, many are bias towards the government and have a tendency to be rather far from the truth or grossly exaggerated.

Do we "kettle" or do we not?

Do we go in hard against violent thugs claiming they are for "democracy" as they smash every thing up and then we face hatred in everything we read?

Or do we go in "soft" and then face hatred in everything we read?

Damned if we do, damned if we don't!

However the amount of utter drivel that can be spouted in the media, some of it is brought to our own doorstep and is our own bloody fault!

Once again (unconfirmed) reports are coming through from a variety of sources stating that some officers on duty on Saturday were not wearing numbers....yet again!

Why? It is clearly regulations that officers on duty, in uniform, with the rank of Sergeant and below, must wear numbers and that includes public order kit.

Now, playing devils advocate here, it could be the reports are wrong.

It could be that the officers involved have had their numbers ripped off. A tactic used by protesters in the past to either anger officers, gain a trophy or to purposely cause the officer not to have any numbers on display then they're open to complaint or discipline. Also poor design on the coveralls mean the epaulettes can easily be ripped off.

It maybe that the officer is so sick and tired of malicious complaints that they have taken them off in order to get on with the job.

Or, it could be that the officer does not want to be accountable for their actions and will use the anonymity to get away with unlawful tactics which if thats the case, makes my blood boil.

I wear and have always worn my numbers. I am accountable for my actions and I am not hiding anything.

If the reason for failure to wear the numbers were for sinister reasons only, then I hope you are found out and disciplined.

I cannot figure out why the Supervisors left it to go unchecked. Then again, in all that was going on, it may have been a tad difficult. However these should have been on the kit and checked before deployment.

It angers and disappoints me because it takes the shine off the hard work that was done by the thousands of officers on duty that day who were there for lawful duties, to protect those demonstrating and the property of those on the route.

It angers me because if it means you were in it for the unlawful tactics then you are no better than those that were trashing the area.

We take enough hits being police officers as it is.

We don't need any more being brought to the public eye by officers I thought were supposed to be colleagues and friends!

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And The Hits Just Keep On Coming!

Police pay cuts 'unavoidable' says Home Secretary

Pay cuts for police officers "must form part of the package" of savings earmarked for the service in England and Wales, the home secretary has said.

BBC News 2 March 2011

Well to quote the Federation Chairman (@PoliceFedChair) on Twitter this morning

 "The home sec knows how to motivate cops!"

Once again I'm left baffled as to exactly why I am still a bearer of Her Majesty's Warrant, when the government who call upon us to put ourselves in danger for them due to their radical and sometimes stupid decisions, stab us straight in the back with an announcement like this.

As I stated earlier on Twitter (@ResponsePlod) I don't do this job for the money as otherwise I would have joined an organisation where I was guaranteed better pay and conditions, my rest days, Christmas Day, Bank Holidays and going home at the end of every shift, preferably alive.  I did join this job,however and please forgive me for sounding cliché, to make a difference and help people.

I've always enjoyed working with the public and being a police officer has been a dream of mine since I was 8 years old.  However, in those days, the police were a respected career, good pay, good conditions and looked after by the government.

If the government want to cut funding by 20% by 2015, increase our pension contribution , cut our overtime, housing allowance, travel and freeze our pay what next?

They actually had the cheek to state that police officers can retire early therefore benefit considerably from their pension.  What they fail to state is that by the time we retire, we are burnt out!  We've gone through hell to get there with long and dangerous shifts, cancelled days off and the risk of divorce due to never seeing your family.

Cutting our benefits?  That's a joke!  There's nothing left!  If they cut our travel allowance then what they fail to realise is that the reason it's there is so if there's an incident on a train, bus etc you are duty bound to get involved!  

I would say, they can kiss that goodbye because if I've had to buy a ticket, I'll be sat in the corner (most likely crushed standing) with my headphones on, looking the other way.  The problem is, I most likely will get involved and probably get a Reg 9 as a thank you present.

With the recent insulting staged 1.5% pay rise from the last Home Secretary resulting in a mass protest march which I was proud to take part in. What will this latest kick produce from us?

Some mutterings and groans because that's all we can do.  We cannot strike like other services.  If we had that right, we would have walked out and not been back.

This government with their cuts, have pushed people to the limit.  You only need to take a look at the goings on in Greece and the Middle East for an idea of what could happen.

The government would then expect us to fight back against these protesters for them.

Be very careful Mr Prime Minister, as you may see one or two of us joining the protest, come the revolution!

Cop Pleasures Himself On CCTV

According to The Sun, human rights inspectors were shown CCTV footage from a police station’s cells — and were shocked to be confronted by a Police Inspector secretly ‘pleasuring’ himself.

The shamed Inspector Brian Smith was unwittingly captured on film after sneaking off to be on his own during a night shift.

His solo sex act in the custody suite at London’s top-security Paddington Green police station was exposed months later by pure chance — when the watchdogs picked a random tape to view from thousands on a shelf.

The human rights monitors had been checking for ‘abuse’ during their routine visit to Britain’s most secure police station — which is used to house terror suspects, and immediately complained to the officer’s supervisors.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed: “An officer has been required to resign after it was found proven he had engaged in conduct likely to bring discredit to the Metropolitan Police.”

Why was this one particular officer asked to resign when someone who has killed is allowed to keep his job?

One particular officer kept his job despite being convicted of jumping a red light 27 seconds after it had changed and collided with a scooter rider and killed him on Camden High Street at the junction of Delancey Street and Pratt Street in North London, which has a 30 mile per hour speed limit. He was driving at the time of the crash between 54 and 66 miles per hour when he passed through the red light.

He had pleaded Not Guilty to "Causing Death by Dangerous Driving" which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years but before the Jury retired to consider their verdict he changed his plea to 'Guilty of Careless Driving'.

Desmond Russell, an Acting Police Inspector, for the British Transport Police, was fined £2000 and banned from driving for three years.

Russell claimed the accident happened after the "most stressful shift" of his career!

Pardon me, Mr Russell but if your mind was not on your driving because of "the most stressful shift" of your career then why did you drive home? You as the driver are responsible for your actions and trying to mitigate killing someone by claiming you were stressed is bang out of order!

There you have one officer who hasn't hurt anyone, hid himself out of view from others and pleasured himself, yes maybe he should have waited till he got home, or even to a toilet!

Then you have another officer who destroys the life of an innocent man and his family and just walks away keeping his job! He was lucky considering new plans that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the very worst cases currently prosecuted as death by dangerous driving should instead be prosecuted as manslaughter, which carries a maximum life sentence.

Perhaps the Inspector who was asked to resign for pleasuring himself should have said he was stressed!