To feel a bit bad for the met police on bbc panorama undercover

But at least the people deflecting and focusing on the reporter are showing themselves up as agreeing with the police officers views whether they admit it or not.

I will call it now those sympathising with the racist, misogynist officers have racist and/or misogynist views themselves.

why? I don't think "a few drinks" would make people say anything apart from the actual opinions they hold.

Not really. The police forces in the north with the grooming gangs didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory. 🤷‍♀️

There’s good and bad in every profession.

Police these days get such abhorrent abuse. Day in day out awful awful stuff they just have to take. It’s no surprise some snap.
however, it’s simply no excuse and that footage was awful.

I agree. Going to the pub with colleagues and secretly recording them after a few drinks to shame them on TV is really low. Recording the yucky office behaviour is not as bad. It's a stressful horrible job so not surprising they have a banter culture and a nasty sense of humour really. It does need to change, but I bet a lot of those professions are similar, fire fighters, prison officers, doctors etc.

What those officers said in the pub isn't in any way comparable to black humour among medics.

I agree totally. My point was that if a nurse did express views about older people "wasting" hospital beds on a similar program, then be they drunk or sober, I would expect similar treatment.

On the radio on LBC this morning, 10 suspended and 2 more had something else done (I think less serious?).

You feel bad for racist and misogynist people who are supposed to protect all communities? really?

The Met has had so many issues over the years and it needs to be disbanded and replaced by a completely new force. Their recruitment and management processes are obviously not working and their officers are a danger to the public.

Nope, don't feel sorry for them at all. They need exposing and removing from the police force (and all future positions of authority). Hopefully this investigation will give the police more powers to get rid of people like this.

I think that the point of naming and shaming is that its undeniable rock solid published proof. The organisation can't deny it, suggest that the reporter misunderstood or that words were put into people's mouths. I think the point of publicly naming and shaming is that it can't be covered up or kicked into the long grass by the people running the organisation. There is also the potential for the exercise to be repeated in a year or so..... I also suspect (didn't watch the program yet) that there was a reason for deciding to make this program....maybe someone approached the BBC?

I'm now beginning to worry about the safety of the undercover reporter after reading this vile comment.

What those officers said in the pub isn't in any way comparable to black humour among medics. I've heard a lot of black humour from medics. I've never heard them make jokes about killing patients, hurting patients on purpose, or discriminating against particular groups of patients.

Also, what medics do takes places in public, with oversight from family, friends, random passers-by, and huge teams of colleagues from related disciplines. When patients speak up about mistreatment, there's a much higher chance they'll be believed. What police officers do takes place in locked premises, and is generally seen only by other police officers. When people suspected of (or guilty of) a crime speak up about mistreatment, the chances of people believing them are way smaller.

The Met's culture isn't a secret. Communities policed by the Met have been telling the world for years what it's like. Journalists catching people on camera (or getting access to WhatsApp conversations and records not available to the public) seems to be the only way those in charge can be pushed into taking action.

If the complaint is about culture in the workplace, then why did they need to film people who'd been drinking in the pub thinking they were having a private conversation with a friend? Don't think that I'd want to be professionally judged by a conversation in those circumstances. Still doesn't excuse any inappropriate comments but you're scraping the barrel if you can't get the 'material' you want from the workplace, so you have to resort to those sort of tactics.

I wonder how all the wonderful staff at the BBC would stand up to that sort of scrutiny?

Imagine having to work with the very worst in society all day, then some left wing arse hole coaxes you to say who the worst criminals to deal with with are, then you lose your job.

We'll wait for the BBC to do undercover investigations of a certain religion and detail all the hateful things said about non-believers, especially Jews and homosexuals. I'm sure that will be coming any day now...

@Bloodyscarymary, a lot of people have missed your point, while I agree with you. The initial response form the Met Commissioner bore this out. Eleven people removed from duty. One custody team replaced. 'Looking at' other custody teams. This is a 'bad apple' response from inside, when what's needed is a 'rotten barrel' approach from outside.

Oh hello police officer….

If you paid attention you could see that their colleagues knew they were being misogynistic- one custody officer was clearly outraged at how the pregnant woman who had a visible footprint on her pregnant belly was being dismissed. So you know it’s not just your made up biases either. There is evidence. And because of the evidence the individuals have been removed from work.

And no matter how many times people have been kicking off - the police cannot fabricate evidence against people. It’s not bias, it’s abuse.

The fact you can’t see it and justify it is a massive glaring red flag. 🚩

And yet the OP didn't want them named and shamed because thought was unfair, when having bants in a pub ands should be private?

Well if someone is mentally ill and psychotic he should be in a mental hospital -these are police not doctors.
and if 7months of digging and spying only brought up that (apart from idiot macilvenney) that’s not so bad. There was a lack of leadership -someone should have broken up 3 oldies sergeant’s on together - funny no policewomen -looks like they were giving Charing X a miss

They acknowledged that they also saw a lot of good professional police work too and they showed a bit.. But the programme wasn't about them so of course they wouldn't feature.

The point about naming and shaming (from the OP) is twofold. First, a few culprits are singled out for naming and shaming while hundreds of others are left untouched. Second, it initiates a 'bad apple' response, which sidelines the actual problem of a 'rotten barrel'. These points are not moot.

After watching beyond the first 5 seconds…. YABU.

I can understand maybe giving the benefit of the doubt to people making inappropriate/offensive/creepy comments (although some of the things they said were honestly more messed up than I anticipated).

But come on, after seeing them be violent and targeting people? Absolute vile people, those officers.

So glad they’re being named and shamed.

If you’ve ever had a family member or friend be taken into police custody, whether due to crime or mental illness, you’d be horrified. The guy who stuffed things down the toilet and urinated etc. struck me as someone who might be mentally ill/psychotic. Really awful stuff.

If anything, shows failings in the Met's department yet again, their vetting process is full of holes.

I’m not excusing them but I can see how this culture is hard to change.

The thing is who would be attracted to work in the met? The pay isn’t amazing for London. You have to deal with people spitting in your face, attacking you, goading you. It’s going to attract either people who are motivated to help others or alternatively those who like a fight/ like the power. I can’t imagine anyone else would be very interested.

No I don't feel sorry for them at all.
They have racist and misogynist views and should not be police officers.
If the filming had not been made public nothing would have happened, hopefully now it will