The UK Police Farce: Twitter Is Their Krypotonite!

Bedfordshire Police:"How many levels of Common Purpose toadying r u on?" 

Wiltshire Police: "About 5 or 6 my dude..." 

Bedfordshire Police:"You are like little baby.. watch this!"

You really couldn't make it up, could you? To quote Tim Newman, who sums it up far better than I could:

"If you talk to policemen on Twitter, their first line of defence is to say you don’t understand how things work, and ten of them pile in to say that the police don’t make the laws, they only enforce them. Their assumption is that you don’t know this. The point they miss is that much of the public don’t blame the police for enforcing shitty laws, but they detest the way they go about it with such obvious glee and pomposity. If the police adopted an attitude of “Sorry mate, but we have to do this…new laws, y’see” the public might think better of them. But they don’t, they fall over themselves to enforce these appalling laws – and boast about their powers online.

The second line of defence for policemen is to make you out as some sort of crank, way out of tune with the general public. They’ll all reiterate how much the public values them as per the latest polls, and most will talk about what a great job their colleagues are doing. Policemen seem to think their poor public image can be rectified by having policemen praise each other online. Others will say things like “the emergency services do a great job”, hoping the genuine appreciation people have for firemen and paramedics will rub off on hapless Plod. Eventually they’ll dismiss you as being a paranoid outlier and block you. One even said he was glad he was able to protect the public from “people like me”, as if this engineer with a blogging hobby was a danger to anyone. Seemingly not appreciating the police and showing signs of defiance makes you a threat in the eyes of Plod."

If you ask 'the British public' what they want from the police, I very much doubt they'll say 'We want you to crack down of right-wing people being mean on the Internet'. They are most likely to say 'We want to you keep my property and person safe'.

If they can do that, the average person won't much care what else they get up to...

And we've just been treated to a display of how well they do that:

They retreat and leave the streets in the hands of rioters. Just like they did in the London riots.

If it's a middle aged blogger or a spotty teenager 'harassing' someone via Facebook, they are all over it like a rash. But if it's seriously dangerous, then it's 'Ooooh, don't fancy that much!'.

The public are left to get on with it as best they can. Some, to their credit, do:

Here's a man who learnt a thing or two from the LA Riots.

This move is known as "The Anti-Reginald-Denny". #Dalston pic.twitter.com/NAJ4buFFrj

— Darklordzden💩🎩 (@Darklordzden) July 29, 2017

But where were the police, if this street filth had managed to open the driver's doors and drag him out? Cowering in their cars in case they 'inflamed the situation'?

Or waiting until one of da yoot got hurt so they could arrest him for dangerous driving?

With my cynical hat on, I might say that this utter lack of response is so they can squeal for 'more resources' from the government so many of them despise. And sure enough...

It's NOT about numbers. It's about will and resolve.

Hands up who thinks the crippled British police still possess that, when faced with real threats, and not just people writing things they don't agree with..?