I Agree With Insp Gadget At Last...

...we really do get the policing we deserve (not that we all deserve it):

This was the craven response from the Met Police to one of their officers getting a criminal record for coming up against one of the urban chip-on-shoulder, rules don't apply to ME creatures that roam our streets and ride our public transport system. These are, it seems, everywhere these days.

The fuss seems to have stemmed from the fact that, in doing his job, he 'overstepped his authority', according to a judge that anyone with common sense can see has clearly overstepped his. 

And instead of backing their officer to the hilt and pointing out that of course he was entitled to do what he did, the Met reflexively cringe in the face of opposition from a certain sector. And so TfL will continue to hemorrhage money and people who think they shouldn't have to do as everyone else does in a functioning society will be further emboldened, and life in the capital - and particularly commuting - gets just that little bit harder for everyone. Even the judge has to admit this: 

Throughout his verdict, Judge Ikram referred to the complainant as JA and to the defendant as D.

He said: 'Whether an arrest was necessary and proportionate is an objective test, I make the following findings to the criminal standard.

'I readily find that JA was difficult throughout, she knew the inspectors were checking tickets but didn't stop as she could have, but wanted them to follow her.

'I find that she did say she'd paid and was difficult perhaps because she knew she had paid, as was later established.

'I've examined the video carefully - on examination of the video footage, she clearly has the Oyster card in her hand outreached towards the inspectors' machine.

'In having it out it appears she may well have touched the machine given the opportunity to do so.This would have been visible to D.'

Look, we've all been there. Us commuters, I mean. Is it annoying to be ticket checked twice on the same journey? Yes, undoubtedly. But are you going to solve anything by getting into a strop? No. So just tap the bloody thing again, rather than act like a giant toddler denied an ice cream!  

It's always a certain demographic, too. As regular readers will know, I'm currently on jury service and have to go through a bag & body search every day. No argument, it's expected, was notified in advance, and is there for a very good reason. Last week, I witnessed a new prospective juror kick off because he’d brought in a bag of tools (hammers, chisels, etc!) so he could go to work after and didn’t want to let them take them off him and give him a receipt to claim them back after court, so simply stormed out of court. Want to guess his race?