Wednesday 18 March 2009

"Lights! Camera!...FAIL"

Sir Paul, making his first high-profile public appearance since his appointment in February, was philosophical. 'That's policing,' he declared.
No. That's a PR stunt gone horribly wrong.

Almost makes you wish to see Sir Ian Blair back, doesn't it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I put the following on the ES comments, attempting to highlight the real concerns the story raises:

" Paul Stephenson has set his stall out clearly and the difference between him and Ian Blair is? Minimal.
Same silly prounouncements - lone patrolling for one (it is rare to see police officers on foot patrol these days - even the money wasting PCSOs are now in cars); and silly costly publicity stunts like this.
The good news is that his officers at work on nights, understaffed and under resourced, had already responded quickly and detained the target, so well done to them.

It is testament to the state of things that the suspect had not been booked in when this raid took off in daylight -HOURS later. That it should take so long to do this and not have the resources to quickly launch a Section 18 or 32 PACE search is also worth noting. Well done though that property and cash have been seized as well as other people, no doubt accomplices and accessories to previous crimes.

Come on Paul - get a grip, get back to basics, listen to your slowly diminishing pool of experience and the Federation and stop talking in easily dismissed sound bites".

As for missing Ian Blair? All ACPO ranks are selected by their peers and undergo the same training. They have to if they want to be part of the ACPO Plc's 18 million pounds a year. Some people mention 'Common Purpose' being behind a lot of this single mindset infecting government and public services, they could well be right. Ian Blair or Paul Stephenson? No difference at all.

JuliaM said...

"Some people mention 'Common Purpose' being behind a lot of this single mindset infecting government and public services, they could well be right."

Even I'm beginning to think so now. The 'interview' he did yesterday on the BBC 6:30 news was excruciating...