A sign of things to come?

[Nix]

Only bad brushes I have with plod is when I'm on the motorbike.

Otherwise I'm helping them cos I do security ie alarms and cctv. Most are decent, some are arseholes.

Guess it's the same with all walks of life...

[Grumpy Grandpa]

It does seem that on this Forum (I've never been on any others so I can't speak for them,) the police are often painted as the preppers' enemy, the bad guys. Personally, I don't see them that way. I'm sure that, as in all groups of fallible humans, there will be bad along with the good but I can't see that that automatically makes them worthy of the derision they seem to attract.

My experience, so far anyway, is that they are the good guys and I will continue to treat them, as I do everyone else, politely and with respect. That said, as I always told my sons, 'I have eyes in my arse and can see round corners', so I always try to expect the unexpected and if anyone, copper or other, proves untrustworthy, they don't get second chances... If they're straight up with me, I'll be straight up with them...

[NorthernRaider]

Unfortunately my experiences with them have been entirely negative, and reading what they get up to in the media re-enforces that belief. My own formal complaint about police failings was upheld and it also was one of the prime reasons we moved out of that forces area.

Tazoring blind man cos they thought a white cane was a samurai sword ( no action taken)

Frquently refered to incidents such as


Jimmy Saville child abuse enquiry finds police failed on THREE occasions to prosecute Saville for multiple child abuse incidents

Oxford Asian child abuse scandal same events as Rochdale failure

Rochdale Asian child abuse scandal , Police failed to act on dozens of reports of Asians grooming white girls for abuse to a point the police tried to prosecute politicians and journalists who tried to raise the issue.

West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, Entire unit scrapped after it was discovered the entire WMSCC was corrupt.

The Murder of John Charles Menezes by armed police

The officer responsible for the Menezes fiasco Cressida Dick was PROMOTED

The Murder of the Newspaper Vendor by riot police and the attempted cover up by the police

The News Of the World phone hacking and police bribery corruption scandal ( plebgate now affecting officers from multple forces)

The Cleveland Chief Constable being sacked for corruption

The Deputy Chief Constable of Cleveland also being sacked

The £7 million spent by Cleveland police trying to discredit the only effective detective they ever had, Ray Mallon.

The Cumbrian Chief Constable sacked

The Hillsborough Scandal where large numbers of police conspired criminally to blame the victims of the disaster for causing it

The Steven Lawrence racism scandal ( new abuses stull surfacing)

The Tottenham riots where the 32,000 serving Police officers of the London Met ran away from a few hundred ethnic rioters and left them run riot for three days before responding.

Police in FIVE towns including Oxford exposed as having willfully ignored multiple cases of Asian muslim paedaphiles abusing young girls on an industrial level for years.

Police finally forced to investigate up to 54 gangs of Asian muslim paedaphiles abusing young white girls across the UK.
Coventry
Halifax
Oxford
Burnley
Bolton
Farnworth
Greater Manchester
Rochdale

Not to mention such things as their constant efforts and going out of their way to avoid offending travellers who blight communities far and wide.

[River Song]

I've been on both sides of this issue. I've done 'time' in my distant hippie days but I've also helped the police.

Going back to Jonas' OP. There is a major difference between the UK and US context.

In the US, in major metropolitan areas, police chiefs are officials and subject to all the usual pressures and pecadillos. Outside of the metro areas, my understanding is that you have Sheriff's and deputies, the Sheriffs beong elected by the local people. They live amongst the local people and know them well. If they dont do their job they dont get re-elected.

In the UK, we used to have the village bobby who lived in a police house in the village, who knew everyone and knew the lads and lassies as they were growing up and if things went a little wrong, they would get a clip round the ear and a stern talking to.

Nowadays, we have the Just in Time philosophy inherited from supermarkets and other businesses. In my rural area of East Anglia, the number of police officers available at night in a HUGE area is around 6.

In a local town full of druggies and other lovely people, they have a few more but they only have to have more than 2 incidents at night and they are screwed.

The long list created by NR of failings are just that. Failings. I do not believe that they accurately define the overall culture. Having said all that, if we ever get into a situation WROL, they all bets are off.

I dont actually believe there will be enough officers to enforce HMG's dictats.


Allons-y

[RoadWarrior]

I see myself as "law abiding" mostly ...so try never to call them, if you get into trouble with them out of your own stupidity like being drunk and disorderly or drink driving/doing drugs outside etc etc..then IMO your asking for trouble and that will get you in court with a fine that you probs cant pay...I cannot afford to have any run ins with them . they go to the re-opened pub where I live almost fri/sat/sun and they send 1 woman PC in a van and 1in a car !! totally mad.! id rather tell my kids to ask a stranger for help if they are lost as the cops get on to child services and you get an interrogation from them apparently ! Sorry on the prepper side I NEVER want them in the house and would try to sort out a "problem " myself (if poss) , I mean if SHTF you don't pick up the phone ...its WAY past that..IMO...no one will come...and the GOOD piggys will be at home looking after their own ...dissalusioned with TPTB...and what they MAY have been told to do thru "emergency powers" etc.....the bad ones will be joined by the wannabe "specials" and custodian types! So as preppers have as little as possible to do with them before the event , and finally.....There is a big difference to the "hazard county" USA sheriffs and our lacal "bobbies (outside the citys)..to me there is NO similarity....The Yanks have DIFF GOVERNMENT with diff laws, thousands of miles away.....and have GUNS...along with the GOOD and the BAD guys!!!!! after the event there will me a Massacre in the US involving firearms on both sides !! over here it will be folks clubbing and stabbing each other to death !!! you ?we cant draw any similies to the usa on cops and US(civilians and preppers).

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I mean "clubbing" as hitting a person with an object like a baseball bat ! and not as in "nite-clubbing"

[Midnitemo]

The way i see it is its a far from perfect service we have and the government are far to interested in crime figures and quantifying everything for the purposes of bragging and slagging(if your in the opposition)they do only seem to want to follow up certain types crime and in the case i sited only seemed worried for the health and welfare of the criminal but its all we have to work with , difficult job and now infiltrated by moneygrabbers and failed graduates , but a hell of a lot better than nothing ie WROL

[NorthernRaider]

We must admit that part of the problem affecting police operational effectiveness is the completely useless judicial system that refuses to imprison women crimals, lets burglars with hundreds of convictions walk free, refuses to prosecute travellers and is terrified of any acusations of racism,The cops are often arresting the same people every week only for the justices, magitrates and CPS to chicken out.

A coppers lot is not a happy one, but it in no way condones why they still take perverse pleasure in arresting home owners and individuals who dare resist burglars and robbers and hurt the criminals.

[Pagan-Mist]

Does anyone really think when tshtf the police are going to help, no offence meant by this but lets get real, when they have 64 million people on the verge of starving, murdering each other do you realistically think their going to stick around, no they won't, It will be down to people like us to hunker down till the worst is over, then we pick up the pieces.

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Nope, I witnessed the riots in South London in 2011, in Croydon the poor Asian area was completely trashed while the police pulled back to protect the big businesses and more affluent areas - fact of life.

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(1 September 2013, 13:50)LawAbidingCitizen Wrote: Nope, I witnessed the riots in South London in 2011, in Croydon the poor Asian area was completely trashed while the police pulled back to protect the big businesses and more affluent areas - fact of life.

Just to add to that, in some of the more community minded grass roots areas such as Eltham and Enfield, the people of the community flooded the streets and put off the rioters and no damage was done whatsoever! What's interesting is if you watch clips of this on youtube the police seemed to be more concerned about this righteous community action than they were the rioters!

[Midnitemo]

i suspect we the law abiding majority are easier to deal with than amoral criminals , were not likely to spit in there faces attack them or try and sue them. thats why they police the good guys and let the bad guys run amok.

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(1 September 2013, 15:02)Midnitemo Wrote: i suspect we the law abiding majority are easier to deal with than amoral criminals , were not likely to spit in there faces attack them or try and sue them. thats why they police the good guys and let the bad guys run amok.

and no i don't believe the police will be at there posts for very long at all after a major event.