A sign of things to come?

[Mortblanc]

Perhaps British police are fundamentally different from American police? I do not know.

I do know that most American police define themselves by their profession, excepting the bad apples one will find in every barrel. Ask them what they do and they reply, "I am a Cop." They do not work as Cops, they ARE cops. They do not plod along daily wishing to do something else, the profession infuses them.

Take Hurricane Katrina for example. It was a disaster of exceptional magnitude and destroyed and area larger than GB. The first responders in that area faced death if they remained on duty and faced uncertainty for the welfare of their families if they were not with them.

51 officers deserted their posts in that episode. Only 3% of the total force. When the water subsided they were fired.

The New Orleans police department has 1406 members. 1345 of them remained on duty risking life and limb, mobs, looting, floodwater infused with sewage and alligators, disease and indifference.

The deserters were not condoned as heroes caring for their families above their job and making the "sensible choice". They were dismissed with out references and blacklisted for abandoning the public trust and humiliating their fellow officers by their actions.

SHTF in the U.S. there will be a police presence even if it is a constable or Justice of The Peace elected as a voluntary servant of the isolated and bedraggled community.

After all, the U.S. gets its concept of law enforcement from the system of Sheriffs and constables that developed during the SHTF of medieval Britain.