Tuesday 28 June 2011

Why Send A Woman To Do A Man's Job?

Staff at Alfresco restaurant in Kings Road had called police at about 6.30pm when a man standing outside began exposing himself.

General manager Alexandra Lewis said: “He was about six foot five.

“We were surprised it was two female officers who went over initially.

“He was fighting with the air for about an hour before they arrived.”
Wow, back to Diversity Re-education Camp for you, Alexandra! How dare you imply that women aren't just as capable as men?

Oh. Wait:
When the two officers arrived they tried to arrest the man but both were punched.

One needed treatment for whiplash after he swung her by her hair.
/facepalm

Still, don't worry, ladies! There's backup available, right?
Drivers got out of their cars to help the officers before the PCs felled their attacker with pepper spray.

With the help of passers-by the women managed to subdue the man with Captor pepper spray and leg restraints.
No doubt the passers-by will get something for their trouble?
A passer-by who stepped in to help was also accidentally sprayed with the Captor spray.
OK. That wasn't quite what I meant...
Detective Chief Inspector Nev Kemp, of Sussex Police, said: “I am immensely proud of my officers because they were making an arrest and protecting the public from a dangerous individual.

Despite facing violence and being assaulted they were able to hang on to him, with some help from the public, and detain him.”
Really? Sounds to me as if, without that help from the public that you grudgingly acknowledge, they'd have got their a***s kicked. Even more than they already did.

Still, never mind. Just so long as you have a nicely diverse collection of officers of different shapes and sizes and colours, eh? Just don't ask them all to meet the same standard of fitness, whatever you do...

21 comments:

microdave said...

"Began exposing himself."
"They were able to hang on to him"

I wonder.....

Jim said...

When are we going to stop this ludicrous pretence that women are able to do exactly the same jobs as men? Where strength is required only a very few could provide the same amount of muscle as an averagely strong man. Its pure biology.

I was watching the England Womens cricket team the other day on the TV. The standard of play was in my view poor. The techniques were good, but the ability of the batsmen (batswomen?) to hit the ball for 4 let alone 6 was minimal. The bowling was no faster than I would expect to face at the village level I play. Why are these people on TV playing in front of a large audience? Entirely because of their gender, thats why. I could find 11 better cricketers in every town in the UK. But they'd all be men, so they never get the same chances the women do.

All gender distinctions in sport should be abolished, with one competition open to all, male, female and even those in between. Then if a women wins she will have deserved it on merit, not got great rewards just because she happens to be a woman.

Rob said...

Those passers-by eho helped could have been arrested, I suppose. Lucky escape.

Ranter said...

I'm astounded that someone calls themselves 'Nev' in this manner! He sounds like a right knob-head...'My officers....' Indeed!

Dr Evil said...

Women fighter pilots or helicopter pilots or pilots in general are fine. But a woman soldier having to go in with a bayonet? She would have to be damn good to beat a male soldier on such terms. The physical strength and build is important for a physical job.

Anonymous said...

A big ego and a large mouth freeload at the expense of a resonant head, Nev.

Be advised of increased difficulty when 'your' officers expect future public assistance.

Brian said...

Don't women police constables possess superior communication skills and empathy that means they don't have to resort to physical violence to resolve such situations like their male colleagues? Obviously, the flasher hadn't attended the appropriate diversity courses to sensitize him to female assertiveness.
Did the WPCs require time off on sick leave as a result of the incident? I gather that women PCs are injured more often (as are women armed service personnel in training).

Anonymous said...

My best mate is blind. He'd make a great detective. I would have had no problems working with him in the role. Of course, he'd never survive the crude years on Response. Neither would I now as an old crock.
Given the diversity of jobs needed in the cops, why haven't they started recruiting directly to the need via appropriate training?
I have sympathies Jim - the girls like to be called batsmen - though batters is gender neutral. Sexism is wrong, but I doubt we've spotted what it really is. aco

Edwin Greenwood said...

...when a man standing outside began exposing himself.

General manager Alexandra Lewis said: “He was about six foot five."


I have to admit my immediate thought was "bloody hell, that's impressive" and then I realized what the 6'5" must obviously refer to.

Louise said...

My mother spent her entire working life as a psychiatric nurse. Try telling my mother and het (mostly female) colleagues that they are not as skilled as their male counterparts when they are about to forcibly medicate a six foot six psychotic male and you may get the same treatment as he is about to get. Take a camera with you because I'd pay to see that.

You may also look at the role of women during the second world war.

Tattyfalarr said...

Edwin Greenwood ...hah that made me laugh. Reminded me an old mate whose husband fancied himself more than any woman ever could. Whenever asked him how tall he was always replied "six foot and nine inches." with a creepy leery wink.

/shudder

sbc as was said...

Sorry but I'm with Louise on this one. The whole point of Arrest/Restraint techniques is that they don't, on the whole, require any real physical strength to perform.

I'm guessing most people here have probably at least tried a martial art at some point in their lives these days and should be aware of the fact that such techniques are all about leverage and physics not physiques.

Those techniques that DO require more strength can be still be utilized by weaker people if they use a night stick, mag lite or similar for leverage. I'd guess that's part of the reason the Police stopped using the old fashioned truncheon most places.

Think about it. If arrest techniques required strength then that would mean that they would run the risk of inflicting damage on a suspect and a law suit on the force.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think women should be put in the situation that these WPC's were but
not because I don't think that they weren't 'strong' enough.

Anonymous said...

Well Louise have you heard of the term ' officer's matresses' from WW2?

JuliaM said...

"I wonder....."

SNORK!

"When are we going to stop this ludicrous pretence that women are able to do exactly the same jobs as men? Where strength is required only a very few could provide the same amount of muscle as an averagely strong man. Its pure biology."

The progressives are nothing if not reality-deniers.

"Don't women police constables possess superior communication skills and empathy that means they don't have to resort to physical violence..."

Heh! Well, quite.. :)

"Sexism is wrong, but I doubt we've spotted what it really is."

I think it's blind acceptance of ideology, in the face of hard reality, frankly.

Interesting that 'everyone is the same under the skin' is now discredited in race relations, and we should instead 'embrace differences'. Yet for sexism, it's exactly the opposite, and differences are to be ignored...

JuliaM said...

"I have to admit my immediate thought was "bloody hell, that's impressive" and then I realized what the 6'5" must obviously refer to."

:D

"Try telling my mother and het (mostly female) colleagues that they are not as skilled as their male counterparts when they are about to forcibly medicate a six foot six psychotic male and you may get the same treatment as he is about to get."

It's possible to 'swamp' a violent patient, yes, if you have enough nurses. Yet they didn't, being only two...

And I'm afraid most of the policewomen I've seen locally are smaller than me, and I'm no Amazon!

"Those techniques that DO require more strength can be still be utilized by weaker people if they use a night stick, mag lite or similar for leverage."

These officers were armed with batons, pepper spray, etc, yet still needed assistance from the public.

Maybe it's not 'women in general', but these women in particular we should be looking at?

Ross said...

"I'm guessing most people here have probably at least tried a martial art at some point in their lives these days and should be aware of the fact that such techniques are all about leverage and physics not physiques."

Yet high level competition in any of those martial arts is divided into weight categories. Technique can only go so far.

Anonymous said...

Jaded would have sorted this without backup. One left uppercut from a bingo wing and...bingo? ;)

Shinar's Basket Case said...

"Yet high level competition in any of those martial arts is divided into weight categories. Technique can only go so far."

True technique only goes so far but in the ring it's technique v. technique or counter technique and not technique v. drunk/psycho/chav and that changes the equation again.

Jools is absolutely right when she says we should be looking at the particular officers in this case. I'm guessing they totally ignored their SOP and training and thus ran into trouble.

A 6 1/2 ft air punching lunatic gets his penis out...ie an exposed lethal weapon...surely the WPC's could have called in Armed Response?

Jonathan said...

About 10 years ago, there were a few break-ins in the rural area where I live. One evening, I came home and the house nearest to me, about 150 yards away, had it's burglar alarm going off. I didn't think much of it, because it was always going off. Anyhoo, about 40 minutes later, I was in the garden with my dog, when a woman PC turned up in a little car and asked me if I'd mind walking across there with her " just in case there's someone broken in". When we got there, she stood in the road while I checked out my neighbours house!
I wondered afterwards, if there had been some aggro, who she would have arrested.

Anonymous said...

Have to agree with this post.
After consistently electing left-wing governments (including this one) the public have got the police force they deserve.The Islington chattering classes have won.
Bingo-wings not-withstanding;very funny....
Jaded

Anonymous said...

If a male officer had rolled up and 'decked him' a lot of people wuld be shouting police brutality. Policing can be ugly and 'techniques' don't always work on people who feel no pain either through their drugs use or mental illness.

The 2 female Officers woulod have had all their appropriate training, but the classroom is different to real life. Taser should have been called to make it safer for the offender and the officers. Hands on can always result in injury for anyone involved.