No, the world isn’t going to hell in a handcart. But yes, a good many items are being stolen – in plain view, with apparent impunity – from the shelves at Tesco, M&S and all the major high-street stores.
As a former police officer, having been a chief superintendent during 30 years in the Met and having sat on the London policing board, I often reflect with former colleagues on why we are where we are in terms of policing and public confidence – and how we dealt with shoplifting during our time in the force.
So, you did once do an actual policing role before you became just another race grifter.
When I was a probationer PC in Tottenham, north London, I regularly attended calls to shops to arrest shoplifters.It was valuable experience for new officers, good for the shops and good for society.
Why did it stop then?
Where we stand today shows how deterioration and decline has set in, and were you to ask when and how it started and who is responsible, my reply would be unequivocal: j’accuse Theresa May, now Baroness May, the longest-serving home secretary of modern times.
He has a point with some of his reasons, below, but it seems to me he’s glossing over others:
First, the reduction of police numbers in England and Wales by almost 22,000 officers and more than 20,000 police staff – which included police community support officers (PCSOs) – was plain wrong.
Yes, that undoubtedly didn't help, but having more police is useless if they aren't the right sort to be police in the first place, and there's plenty of evidence that the Met Police in particular are incapable of hiring the right sort.
May’s second offence was the hyper-politicisation of policing, with the introduction of police and crime commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales in 2012.
Yes, well, the ACPO ranks seem to have accepted hyper-politicisation just fine, as long as they feel the politics run in their favour...
Third on the charge sheet: the introduction of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. This legislation decreed that in England and Wales the shoplifting of goods valued at £200 or less would become a “summary-only offence”.
OK, she's bang to rights here.
Fourth, May failed to listen to the experts who said that reductions in policing would result in an increase in crime.
Experts? Name names, man!
Finally, the shake-up of police leadership meant that, for a period, the most senior officers chosen by crime commissioners lacked experience of working in different forces.
It's not their experience or lack of it that concerns most people; it's their wholsale take-over by the enemy within, and adoption of every left-wing cause going atound, likr BLM and #IBelieveHer (except when it suits them not to). In sort, because they've listened to people like you for far too long.