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

Yes and I think it’s also notable that after 7 months undercover they had to fill most of the documentary with pub chat. If these men are such scum then why wasn’t there video after video of them using force, dealing with complaints of racism, discussing actual cases and perpetrators in derogatory ways?

I think if you took a sample of young male soldiers and big city police across the world, posed as a peer and egged them on to share their views during smoking breaks/at the pub, laughing and encouraging them - you would get very similar responses a lot of the time.

The majority of the police force are doing a bloody good job and a really hard job too. This documentary should have been aired in a different way and it would have been more useful for society if they actually dug into the WHY of all of this.

Victims of what.
Anyone who works in the fringes understands the completely anti social behaviour some people have - violence, lies, general nastiness.
Most people get they need to be professional whilst on the job.

MN gets called out for “ hating” men. Of course we don’t but as a group we recognise men are over represented in many areas , crime and violence being the obvious ones.
I’m not horrible to anyone in real life but the gobby, anti social, thuggery is mostly men and I will happily discuss this over a pint with other women.

having their faces, names and secretly recorded conversations, sometimes even off duty over a pint broadcast feels like a bit of a violation of privacy.

Handy hint: if you're not happy to have your name attached to it, don't fucking say it.

The end and worst possible result of these creatures going unchallenged is cases like Sarah Everards. A culture of sexual harassment, misogyny and rape myths. Racism and hatred, violence and thuggery.

How anyone can make any excuse for this is just beyond me.

Yes and I think it’s also notable that after 7 months undercover they had to fill most of the documentary with pub chat. If these men are such scum then why wasn’t there video after video of them using force, dealing with complaints of racism, discussing actual cases and perpetrators in derogatory ways?

I think if you took a sample of young male soldiers and big city police across the world, posed as a peer and egged them on to share their views during smoking breaks/at the pub, laughing and encouraging them - you would get very similar responses a lot of the time.

The majority of the police force are doing a bloody good job and a really hard job too. This documentary should have been aired in a different way and it would have been more useful for society if they actually dug into the WHY of all of this.

Just watching the BBC Panorama doco “Undercover in the Police” and I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy.

Yes, the behaviour shown is awful and they should lose their jobs, but having their faces, names and secretly recorded conversations, sometimes even off duty over a pint broadcast feels like a bit of a violation of privacy.

I honestly would have thought secret filming like that couldn’t even be made public, but clearly it’s legal or the BBC wouldn’t air it.

I’m not excusing what was said at all. The culture clearly needs to change. But is it fair to single out these particular officers when the problem is obviously widespread?

I also felt some of the more junior officers had just absorbed the culture around them, and at times the journalist might have been nudging them into certain topics. A few of the comments even felt like dark humour or going along with pub chat. Still unacceptable, but if you secretly recorded doctors or other professions that probably use a lot of dark humour to get through it, I’m sure you’d hear things that would seem really callous to an outsider.

Absolutely they should be fired/reprimanded, but do they deserve complete public exposure like this? AIBU to feel uncomfortable about it?

YABU they deserve everything that’s coming their way

YANBU it’s too much personal exposure when the real problem is the Met culture not these individual cops

Very little of what the officers were recorded as saying can be classified as humour.

It was them saying Somalians are ugly, showing disdain for x group, suggesting a pregnant DV victim was lying about being kicked in the stomach; talking about breaking people’s tendons; laughing about brutal treatment of inmates etc

where actually was the dark humour? Because if we saw that, people might actually take the same view a you.

So why do they take it out on the victims?

Hitler was kind to animals.

frankly I don’t care if these vile sexist, racist, xenophobic thugs are kind to old ladies or give generously to the poppy appeal. They are still vile misogynistic, racist bigots and they are in positions of power.

Undercover reporting doesn't sit well with me in general, though I admit I haven't watched this one (yet). It is tricky that bad people need to be called out but good people get caught up in the crossfire.
I worked in a place that was the subject of an undercover Panorama episode and did nothing wrong (& therefore wasn't featured in the program) but it still made me feel manipulated and violated. I thought I genuinely got on with the person and it's not fair that they only show the bad side of things not going well when there's so much good too.

I thought the Sargent was a sexist creep but he was just one person, seemed lots of colleagues didn’t like him. It was mainly about this one guys behaviour, the argument was pretty week. The nhs has a dark humour too. To be honest we don’t want wimpy police. Like surgeons soldiers some things need some toxic masculinity. They have to deal with pretty crap , dangerous, violent and ridiculous behaviour. The whole thing seemed pretty below the belt, secret filming and edited. It’s not like they had torture chambers and forced confessions. Try other countries police forces.I'm glad people are prepared to do the job because I couldn’t do it .

You do realise many officers are actually volunteers don’t you? Maybe you should give up your time and do some volunteer work with the police. You might come tumbling off your high horse fairly quickly

I thought the Sargent was a sexist creep but he was just one person, seemed lots of colleagues didn’t like him. It was mainly about this one guys behaviour, the argument was pretty week. The nhs has a dark humour too. To be honest we don’t want wimpy police. Like surgeons soldiers some things need some toxic masculinity. They have to deal with pretty crap , dangerous, violent and ridiculous behaviour. The whole thing seemed pretty below the belt, secret filming and edited. It’s not like they had torture chambers and forced confessions. Try other countries police forces.I'm glad people are prepared to do the job because I couldn’t do it .

I thought the Sargent was a sexist creep but he was just one person, seemed lots of colleagues didn’t like him. It was mainly about this one guys behaviour, the argument was pretty week. The nhs has a dark humour too. To be honest we don’t want wimpy police. Like surgeons soldiers some things need some toxic masculinity. They have to deal with pretty crap , dangerous, violent and ridiculous behaviour. The whole thing seemed pretty below the belt, secret filming and edited. It’s not like they had torture chambers and forced confessions. Try other countries police forces.I'm glad people are prepared to do the job because I couldn’t do it .

Police spend most of their working day around the absolute dregs of society, the scum of the earth, the lowest of the low. I don't see how that can't affect them. And I don't think it's unique to the Met, or to Britain, it's endemic to police forces around the world.

I thought the Sargent was a sexist creep but he was just one person, seemed lots of colleagues didn’t like him. It was mainly about this one guys behaviour, the argument was pretty week. The nhs has a dark humour too. To be honest we don’t want wimpy police. Like surgeons soldiers some things need some toxic masculinity. They have to deal with pretty crap , dangerous, violent and ridiculous behaviour. The whole thing seemed pretty below the belt, secret filming and edited. It’s not like they had torture chambers and forced confessions. Try other countries police forces.I'm glad people are prepared to do the job because I couldn’t do it .

I've avoided being publicly outed as a racist, misogynist or violent criminal for over 40 years.

By not being a racist, misogynist or violent criminal.

You do realise many officers are actually volunteers don’t you? Maybe you should give up your time and do some volunteer work with the police. You might come tumbling off your high horse fairly quickly

I am not applauding them for doing their job.