Can we disband the met now please

@Cattery I wasn't in the Met so definitely going for institutional!

@slaybell How interesting. We either worked at the same place or it’s institutional x

@Cattery My experience is strikingly similar. I could have written that myself.

I worked at the Met (also not a cop). The blind eyes that were turned towards bullying was unreal. My manager managed no one especially not the bully. Nothing was ever done to challenge the disrupters who made life in the office awful. Nothing. They just let it carry on under their noses whilst blowing smoke up the arses of the laziest.

Ha! Very true.

No need to roam around doing what they want - I'm sure they'll be able to get jobs somewhere once they've left the Police.

For clarity I mean each and every man not single as in unmarried!!!

we can’t keep excusing some men when every single one needs held to account

Well, I’ve said it before on here - let’s tax every single man in this country an extra 1% on his income tax to cover the costs of men’s damage to society. Violence, dead beat dads, sexual harassers …

Let men put pressure on other men to behave like human beings.

Take the pressure off women and girls to be responsible for men’s behaviour and to bear the costs of its consequences.

They already do. Police do not prevent crimes being committed.

I think it’s better if we can stop making exceptions and stop turning that blind eye

he’s police - so what? not exempt

he’s a politician - so what? not exempt

he’s a charity worker - so what? not exempt

he’s a celebrity - so what? not exempt

he’s a footballer - so what? not exempt

and it starts with

he’s my husband

he’s my grandad

he’s my partner

he’s my brother

he’s my father

he’s my uncle

he’s my son

he is me

no

no exemptions

we can’t keep excusing some men when every single one needs held to account

and we can’t keep asking for new laws when the existing laws are not being enforced - let’s not keep reinventing a wheel when all that needs done it to lift the brake off the wheels we already have built

ultimately there has to be consequences for abusing women and children because otherwise males of whatever sort will keep doing it

imo that’s why so many males are against abortion - bc they know deep in their heart that if they were us the sensible option would be to never allow a male to term

surprising in fact that so many males trust us to be their subordinate tea-makers bc frankly the option to take every one of them out in a bloodless (though not vomitless) simultaneous world coup is becoming increasingly attractive

Speaking as a female who used to work in a Police Force (not a cop), it's not just the Met.

Disbanding the Met is way too close to "defunding the police" as a call to arms. (An uncritical import of US activism). Who would the new Met recruit? Basically the same cops as were just disbanded. What's needed is much more scrutiny and holding to account. Like all the issues we see in safeguarding, the framework is there. Holding to account is what's missing.

Whether or not it's related to the issues we see in policing, there should either be a ban on anyone in policing (including staff) being in the Masons. Or they should have to publicly declare that membership. This is another thing that's wafted around for decades and causes distrust. They could and should put that to bed through a ban or a public declaration. Same goes for all taxpayer funded jobs in my view.

Well “bad apples” spoil the whole tree so I guess we agree on that.

Yes, disband the Met. It’s rotten to the core. Put the money into public services that actually help people, like social care, health care, better MH support, education, community support, anything BUT the Met in the state it’s in.

There should be female detectives involved in every rape case, that would be a start, and any policeman who tries it on with a vulnerable victim should be given a criminal record in the same way a teacher/pupil dynamic is no longer socially acceptable.

Given how many men from one village willingly raped an unconscious woman when they thought they'd get away with it, you have to wonder about what it does to such a man to see so many other men raping but getting away with it, seeing how high the bar is to get a conviction. They will have seen that unconscious women don't win their cases and it starts to feel like an option.

This is another sad thing. There are loads of good and honest officers in the met and throughout policing. It’s a really hard job and we need them. But they are just riddled with bad apples bringing the rest down and the leadership are hopeless in changing the culture. I also feel sorry for the honest police struggling to work against that backdrop and having their reputations trashed by association.

you can’t “press charges” in the UK.

for this very reason- if a crime is committed it is not the victims decision whether the suspect is held accountable.

your son as an officer should know this.

obviously it is harder to secure a conviction without victims statements and support. But if his superiors thought a charge should happen they can, with or without your son’s agreement.

there should be plenty of evidence on BWV etc to go ahead anyway.

My son works for the MET . Honestly the nastiness and the bullying from skippers and above is awful.

My son has been hit/kicked etc by people he's had to arrest his colleagues get the hump with him when ds does not want to press charges . Ds says he would if it was something bad. But he said in this case it was someone having a mental break down . And life is already hard for him he does not want to make it worse.

My dd was a victim of Dv and over the years the police have been good.

I do agree there should be more put in place to keep the bad eggs out. More vetting , not just when recruiting but on a regular bases drug checks throughout. I don't know what else but there must be more that can be done.

This is unspeakably vile. To target vulnerable women he met through his job as romantic partners? Absolutely wrong. And for the Police to suspend him on full pay for seven years? WTF?

This is all a direct result of lack of consequences for rapists and abusers.

Look at Kincora - those abusers didn’t disappear or stop - they will have continued to abuse and many were in positions of power and authority already.

So a rapist or child abuser in that position :

will seek to undermine the credibility of their victims in order to avoid detection so they can continue to abuse

will seek to create vulnerability in their preferred demographic in order to create a new and continuous supply of potential victims so they can continue to abuse

will seek to influence or create policies which either hide abuse, create opportunities to abuse or reduce consequences for abuse if discovered so they can continue to abuse

will seek to find other abusers - not necessarily to create organised networks but to further all of the above aims so that they can continue to abuse

the police are riddled with abusers - but so is politics - here in NI - issues with all political parties either containing abusers, covering up for abusers or seeking to introduce legislation to protect abusers and/or increase access to potential victims or create vulnerabilities that would make certain sections of society more likely to be targetable for abuse

There has to be a collective will to stop it, to take a zero stance, and to not be ‘do it to Julia’ but all of that is predicated on not turning a blind-eye in the first place

It is sickening, and it will take immense work to address, I personally think it is possible but we need to really have unity of purpose to do so and not allow males to deflect, distract, blackmail, threaten or promise their way out of facing the consequences of their own actions

I went on a few dates with a met police officer ages ago, about 15 years. He turned out to be the most deceptive and dishonest man I had ever dated. Luckily it was only a few dates so I wasn’t too upset, however when the extent of his lies came out I was honestly flabbergasted- it involved him lying to multiple women including his live in partner, keeping a spreadsheet with rankings and laughing about it with all his met police mates. Really gross and shockingly dishonest and manipulative. Terrible attitude towards women. In my naivity I was really really shocked that a policeman of all people should be such a user of women and such a liar. I guess we all know better now. How sad for those police who really are honest and doing a hard job to keep us safe.

I was once told that there is a fine line between criminals and those in 'authority', it attracts similar personalities.
Many of my male relatives went into the police force after WWII, they had community at their hearts, they wanted to have peaceful, orderly lives after the chaos of war. They were straightforward, honest men. Those types are rare these days and don't get attracted to the police.

OK so they disband the police so the rapists, murderers etc. just roam around doing what they want?

That's a dreadful story. And yet again begs the question about a working culture that enables a man like him to groom his victims via his work.

Can you imagine the mayhem in London if suddenly there was no active police force?

There are about 33,000 met officers and the majority of those are decent and professional.

There is no doubt there are an appalling number of bad apples, they clearly need to completely rethink their recruitment policies and their background checking needs to increase five-fold including social media screening.

Their whistleblower policies need strengthening, and I'd like to see non-police legal oversight of all disciplineries. They have a lot of work to do to redeem themselves.

But no, we don't need to disband t!he Met.