Not one to mince words, regular Infologue.com columnist , Chris Cully of Dillitas, turns his attention to the Police force. Chris writes; “Whilst sat in the Snug of the Weasel & Ferret, pint of foaming ale in hand, a copy of the Saturday Mail (21.4.12) was pushed into my palm, open at page 5 where lay an article about the 36 police officers selected to run with the Olympic Torch .
“I read on with interest to find that the article referred to the “Psychological Training” the officers will receive to prepare them from being away from home. I read more to find that after the 70-day jaunt around the UK, they will then receive “Counselling” to enable them to reintegrate back into the police.
“As I sat there, dumbfounded, beer pouring from glass across bar, when the words of my Old Mentor from Special Branch echoed across the years from 1981 when he uttered what were to be one of the most prophetic statements about UK policing I was ever to hear.
“Simply, the Old Mentor said in his educated Northern Irish brogue, “in 15 years, the people in this country will have the police force they richly deserve, which will be neither the police force the want nor the police force they need.”
“At the time, I dismissed those words as the mutterings of the curmudgeonly old copper. How wrong I was. The Old Mentor was absolutely right. When I believed the left wing lunacy that pervades the police could expand no further, here I sat with the thin blue line now requiring Psychological Training & Counselling for a 70 day junket across the UK, having being well fed, well watered and no doubt well looked after.
“As ale continued to flow down the bar, I thought of those towering “Coppers & Thief Takers” who had gone before. The police officers who went abroad, often weeks and months at a time to investigate crime & bring back prisoners, Protection Officers ready to step between the Principal and attacker, Special Branch officers who risked their lives in furtherance of the country we now have, the uniformed officers who surged North to bring control to the striking Miners’ and pickets et al, Trevor Locke at the Iranian Embassy, the officers who survived the Harrod’s bomb and returned to work and all those officers who everyday dealt with violent and dangerous individuals and groups. Not for any of those the need or requirement of Counselling or Psychological Training.
“This is not a criticism of the guys and gals running with the Torch, but a damning criticism of those who have controlled and mis-managed the Police for the last 25 years, both Coppers & Politicians alike.
“We now have police services that are more intent on turning in upon themselves to throw their own to the wolves, police officers who would rather stand and watch protestors riot rather than risk their careers by engaging rapidly & robustly and arresting as many of those who could be “collared”, senior police officers more intent on building their own profile’s and personalities than managing the police under their control, politicians who insistently tinker, pull and tear at the police for their own gain and political advantage and, of course, more civilian control of the police than at any time since 1829.
“Whilst the list of what has gone pear-shaped and is now endemically wrong is almost endless, there is little point in reviewing it. I now believe that we are watching a final, fatal tipping point for the police, which once passed can never be returned from or recovered to.
“If there is anybody in the tumbleweed filled halls of Westminster, the self-serving City Hall, the 5th Floor of New Scotland Yard and all those other groups and agencies who have a fetid finger plunged in the policing pie who have the ears to hear, the wit to understand and the guts to take action, do it now before it is too late.
“Seize the police back from the civilians within, the politicians without and the Political Correctness brigade who surround us all. Give us back a strong police force that patrol the streets, that strikes fear and dread into the hearts of those who break and disregard the law, that have open & welcoming police stations in every town, have phone numbers you dial that are answered by a police officer who know what they are about.
“Remove all those who hold sway over the destiny of the police who have never held a Warrant Card, have never walked the streets, have never risked their lives in furtherance of the Force they joined and the public they serve, never laughed with the public, never cried with families who have lost loved ones, never treated everybody in the same way regardless of who they are and, of course, never perpetrated the wickedly funny and hysterical jokes on each other for which Old Bill were famous.
“Banish the politicians who are spineless and know not of that which they speak where law enforcement stands. Return the Commissioner and Chief Constables to reporting to only the Home Secretary and no other.
“The tipping point stands before us. If the beam balance tips away from us, we will have lost the greatest law enforcement structure that ever was and which will never return.”