I must be getting old. It’s said this video (link only – having trouble with embeds) exemplifies Britain’s increasingly illiberal policing tactics and is yet another example of unjustified invocation of Section 44. Yet when I watch it, I see a cocky student getting more or less what she asked for.You’ll have to imagine the ‘harrumph!’ with which he ended that sentence as he typed it…
I’m also assuming that the editing has been performed with the intention of portraying the police in the worst possible light.It’s difficult to see how that could possibly have been edited to show them in a worse light than the simple fact that they are stopping someone doing something perfectly legal simply because they can does…
What was happening during the shots we don’t see may provide some context for language and events immediately preceding and following.Ah, yes. The ‘We don’t see what happened off camera! She might have done anything to give a PCSO cause to act like an authoritarian bully!’ tactic.
Still, not to say that Brownie’s relatives are equally reactionary:
FWIW, a family friend who is also a PCSO agrees the student is being needlessly obtuse, but thinks a PND was over top. The visit to the station should have been sufficient.Why, how nice! Yes, it would have been enough to require her to report to the station, there’s no need to go overboard…
/sarc
This sort of reaction to what should be an outrage is why we are fast heading down the road towards a police state, or possibly even something worse.
See also…
Most people do grow up and ditch all that socialism nonsense but some don't and they are the dangerous ones, e.g. Mandelson.
ReplyDeleteOZYMANDIAS
ReplyDeleteI met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
--P B Shelley.
Sometimes, we just have to bring the big bugger down ourselves.
As I keep saying. Socialists only hate the police when they don't control them. Once they take power then anyone who protests deserves what they get. They must be mentally ill!
ReplyDeleteFucking hell. :(
ReplyDeleteI'm 52. I once trusted the Police - no more. These little Hitlers (there is no better description) think that they can put on their uniform and then demand anything of us. Give them nothing - no information, no co-operation, no assistance, no matter what the issue. Peel knew when he formed the Police that they couldn't operate without our assistance - its time to remind them of that. Especially the PCSOs - bunch of jumped up c**nts
ReplyDeleteI like what Andy's written, and I must be getting older than "Harry" because when I watched that video I saw a couple of young men who didn't even respect the uniform they were wearing, but who expected instant obedience and submission to their authority.
ReplyDeleteThey have little more power than any member of the public, who can themselves make a citizen's arrest
"Community Support officers use the powers of citizen's arrest"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6323391.stm
"Can you tell me about a citizens arrest?"
https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q508.htm?letter=C
Not many people know what rights they have, and are naturally 'cowed' by authority, so tend to do as they're told.
Although police will always insist their bad press has been unfair, their current problems have been self made.
ReplyDeleteThe public are invariably met with the wrong attitude. Incivility is often fused with a scruffy appearance and yobbish manner - and any complaint is worse than useless.
In most interactions with police, law abiding citizens have an intuitive feeling they are balanced on the edge of being 'mugged'. These combinations have made the police as welcome and popular as mongrels with diarrhoea romping over a garden picnic.
The Nulabor govt have been controlling the Police for at least 12 years. I would guess that most patrolling Officers have less than 10 years service. What they do is what they have been taught/told. They know nothing else. The 'Ashes to Ashes' Policing that was the norm in the 1980s was one thing, but at least we only picked on the villains.
ReplyDelete"Sometimes, we just have to bring the big bugger down ourselves."
ReplyDeleteWhat to do, though? Voting isn't going to fix this, unless there's a party promising elected police chiefs.
"Socialists only hate the police when they don't control them. Once they take power then anyone who protests deserves what they get."
That does seem to be the opinion of a few over there, to my surprise.
"Peel knew when he formed the Police that they couldn't operate without our assistance - its time to remind them of that."
If this sort of thing continues, co-operation with the police will start to be on vety short supply.
"I must be getting older than "Harry" because when I watched that video I saw a couple of young men who didn't even respect the uniform they were wearing, but who expected instant obedience and submission to their authority."
Me too. The gum was a nice touch, wasn't it?
"Although police will always insist their bad press has been unfair, their current problems have been self made. "
ReplyDeleteWell, not all of them, though the 'single rotten apple in the barrel' is starting to look like a few pounds of apples!
It's down to the others to police these bad apples, if the bosses won't do it.
"The 'Ashes to Ashes' Policing that was the norm in the 1980s was one thing, but at least we only picked on the villains."
I often wonder if that was a big part of the appeal of that show!
Don't worry, one Friday morning in the first half of this year he and all his mates will suddenly discover civil liberties again.
ReplyDeleteJuliaM said...
ReplyDeleteunless there's a party promising elected police chiefs.
And what the Hel difference is THAT going to make?
I have seen from this very Blogg how well the "voted" local councils and M.Ps do.
What makes you think voting for police chiefs will produce any better kind of scum?
"What makes you think voting for police chiefs will produce any better kind of scum?"
ReplyDeleteBecause they'll need to keep the voting population on side. Unlike party-linked MPs, they'll have no historical voting base to draw on.
It won't be perfect, but anything's better than what we have now.
Unlike party-linked MPs, they'll have no historical voting base to draw on.
ReplyDeleteAnd you think political partie will not be falling over themselvesto get "their man" in as chief?
You only have to see what happens in the U.S with voted in chiefs.
The State Govener, or local congressman sais shit, they are on the party band wagon shovel so fast their arse does not touch.
Plus people voted in whos only experience of police work is watching C.S.I every Tuesday night.
Now the possibility to vote them OUT is another story.
With a Swiss style referendum system, where if enough people in his area got together to demand a "vote of confidence" on his continuence as chief, then THAT may well work.