How can we trust the Police?

[icelolly12]

From the Daily Mail:

Other comments and content shared in the group referred to disabled people as 'mgs', travellers as 'ps' and people of east Asian heritage as 'c*s'.

Mr Hobbs further detailed comments Thomas made about Officer A, a junior female officer who was assigned to their team for a period of time, calling her 'f ugly'.

In a separate conversation, Thomas suggested to the WhatsApp group that he name his dog 'Auschwitz', 'Adolf' or 'Fred' or 'Ian' after 'my two favourite child sex killers'.

Elsewhere, Thomas referred to a black Police Sergeant being disciplined as 'the biggest threat of him ending up back in chains,' the hearing was told.

Referring to a 'blind man' who once boarded a train he was on, former Police Thomas wrote in the chat: 'Poor c*t I hate the thought of being blind. I would prefer being in a m*g scooter for the rest of my life.'Mr Hobbs explained that what Thomas meant in his reference to a 'm*g scooter' was a wheelchair."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11776595/Met-police-sergeant-racist-jokes-Katie-Prices-disabled-son-Harvey.html

How many misogynistic nasty power wielding Police are out there? I feel sick reading some of that article.

Mine too. I still trust the police.

While this is true, police should be held to a higher standard because they can’t enforce the law if they are breaking it themselves.

I have a family member in the police. They are happy as their particular area has great middle management- good sergeants through to chief inspectors who stand for no shit. For example throughout covid it was immediate disciplinary if you were found breaking the guidelines in any way.

however they also acknowledge if you have weak leadership or leadership that does nothing about complaints, or accepts it as “banter”, it’s easy for it to get toxic, and very hard to change.

while the degree apprenticeship scheme has it’s downsides and may exclude a lot of potentially excellent coppers, I think it will also mean quite a few of the bully boys who join up for the power trip won’t bother either. Hopefully.

It remains to be seen what Sir Mark Rowley will do to tackle the insidious problems in the Met.

I agree as a PROUD mother of 3 black sons, literally letting them go to the shop together is an issue as they are guaranteed to be stopped. The first time they were stopped was on my eldest sons 10th birthday whilst he rode his new bike outside my house. The police asked him where he had stolen it from… To me and my family the police are just bullies in a uniform

ACAB.
That's all.

Sadly it starts from a young age@Saxkia .

@LadyKenya it really does, my eldest son is now 28 and believe me I’ve seen and heard it all

ChilliBandit comparing the Police to Saville and extreme 1930 fascist movements is highly offensive and says more about you than anything.

And "Attitudes like your friends are unhelpful, the criminals have not taken over". You are clearly taking from a position of total ignorance. She was there, on the ground, trying to investigate Albanian criminal gangs who were trafficking women and torturing people. They attacked her with a machete, but nobody helped her, nobody come forward, and nobody was prosecuted. They've taken over the drugs trade, gun crime is escalating massively and they control that part of London. It's a fact. And demonizing the Police as you have is part of the problem.

You are, quite frankly, talking complete bollocks.

@Saxkia Same here. Is it any wonder that there is so much distrust in the Black community, when it comes to the Police. They have caused so many issues due to their historic, and current targeted treatment of us. I can see no end to it, unfortunately.

There's something not right there;have you ever of the "crash for cash" scam.Do not engage with them and call your local police non emergency number and log it.

@Pyewhacket - if you think the police shouldn’t be held accountable for they institutionalised corruption, discrimination and protection of offenders within its ranks, because their job is difficult, you are the problem not me.

You know what, if news articles start coming out about teachers murdering and raping women, strip searching teenage girls who have done nothing wrong, making racist, ableist comments then damn right I would hope there would be calls for a full reshuffle.

As for doctors given women are more likely to die if they are operated on by a man than a woman (and men die at the same rates regardless of who they are openerated on), black women are still more likely to die in childbirth and there was a BMA study last year that found the UK may lose up to a third of its doctors due to them suffering from racist behaviour directed towards them then why shouldn't we be looking at what we can do to solve these issues.

Being a doctor, teacher or police officer should not put you above scrutiny

And if you want to keep your good, honest, hardworking and committed doctors, teachers and police officers you have to get rid of the bad ones. Otherwise the good ones will find the workplace conditions untenable and leave, as evidenced by posts on this thread.

I think it’s been pretty obvious to black people that policing has deep rooted and institutionalised issues for…well, forever! Way before the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, and that was nearly 30 years ago now.

I don’t think many white people truly understand what that’s like. To be ‘served’ by police that target you and have no respect for your life at an institutional level. Maybe these latest revelations are giving the whole British public a glimpse into what some sections of society already know?

I’m white, but I have a black husband and mixed race children. I thought I was quite worldly on the issue - grew up in a very diverse area of London on a council estate, so saw dodgy policing and blatant racial profiling all around me.

My eyes have been opened on a whole other level with regards to my husband and children, though. My son was stopped and searched, thrown to the ground face down and arrested by 4 officers for ‘resisting arrest’ when he was 14 years old. They bruised his neck and back. They interviewed him without an appropriate adult. He was walking to the shop, alone, never been in any trouble before or since (now 18) and is a quiet, studious boy. The contempt they showed for him, me and my husband was disturbing.

So, no, I don’t trust the police where my children are concerned. And recent developments just make me angrier and more fearful.

@Saxkia @LadyKenya - I am not black so won’t pretend to understand, but I have heard police officers who I thought were good people be openly racist and then deny they are because they genuinely don’t think they are. Things like saying well black men do commit more crime so we are going to stop them more. When I pointed out yeah if you stop 20 black men and 3 white men you are probably going to find more black men with drugs for example, they refuse to see the issue. They just tell me I wouldn’t understand as I am not a police officer. Attitudes like that are so difficult to stamp out because they just don’t see the bias.

The police service certainly seems to attract violent, racist, abusive and corrupt men at one hell of a rate. The domestic violence rates are appalling.

The only decent people who were cops that I’ve known have all left because of the culture of bullying and keeping quiet about the wrongs of fellow officers.

Several posters have pretty much summed it up better than I could. BetterArf, and Saxkia, have posted eloquently about the disrespect, and contempt that their children have faced at the hands of the police, as children who have done nothing wrong, just trying to go about their lives. It does not take them long to realise how they are being viewed, and why. it has a knock on effect. My own brother, who has never been involved in any criminal activity, was stopped on his way home from work, and questioned by police who claimed that he looked like someone they were looking for. I have so many instances of hearing the same things from others.

I have to say, it’s a real shame but I don’t trust the police now.

One of my brother’s close friends and a family friend is a retired detective and as far as I know he wouldn’t speak like this or condone it. Another friend (but I don’t see her much now) is a retired WPC and she feels awful about all this, says that yes, she did hear lots of talk and language but says you were soon told and learned to never speak up, go along with it etc.

I think the selection process has been appallingly lax for years. Hence we have some real bad apples.

My friend an educated black sister applied to join the police, I discouraged her as to me why would you put yourself through that. But for her she felt change would only come if more black people joined the police. Unfortunately or luckily whichever way you see it they found a distant relative whom was not blood related to her but to her husband whom had a criminal record and she could no longer proceed with her application. There are blocks put in every step of the way

You have to wonder whether racism came into play there as well as having someone in the distant family with a criminal conviction doesn't necessarily bar you from joining

I would wonder whether the bar is set somewhat higher for black people because of the racist bias that assumed black people are more likely to be criminals?

Like you say block's every step of the way

Yep, a few decades ago, you had to be intelligent, physically fit and of good character to join the police. It's all been dumbed down over the last few decades. My grandfather was a "village bobby" in the 50s and 60s. In those days, you had to be "specialist" in all aspects, i.e. a traffic accident, gun licensing, burglary investigation, point duty, etc were all part of a typical days' work. He always used to tell me his sergeant was exactly like Blaketon's character in Hearbeat - very strict and very high expectations of his constables and any breaches of procedure/behaviour were disciplined, however small! My GF could recite all kinds of laws, as they had to learn them by heart in those days.

I was a special for a few years in the 80s. I was genuinely shocked at the regular officers we had to work with. Some were just incredibly lazy and did the bare minimum, i.e. stretching out an easy job they were already on so they weren't able to respond to something else, constantly going to friends/relatives houses for a brew and a chat several times during their shift, deliberately pretending not to notice low level offences happening under their noses, such as vandalism and grafiti. Worst is there "friendship" with known offenders - they won't stop and talk in the street to random innocent people, but will go out of their way to spend time chatting with known burglars, druggies, etc as if they were best friends (perhaps they were!). I was on foot patrol around 2am in the morning with a regular and we heard breaking glass - I turned round assuming we'd go and look what was going on, but he stopped me and told me there was "no point" and we'd only go if it was reported!

Worst was when I was in the section van with a regular, and he saw a group of old women who'd come out of the bingo and were stuck in the middle trying to cross a very busy main road. He stopped and put on his blues - I thought he was going to stop the traffic to let them cross safely, but instead he gave them a verbal foul mouthed four letter abuse about not using the pedestrian crossing and then just drove on!

One of my best friends tried for years to join the force. She'd been a high achiever at school, intelligent, lovely nature, but she kept failing the physical - they used to have to do a set run in a specific time period and she was always just a second or two short. After numerous applications and attempts, she gave up. She'd have been a brilliant officer, but hey-ho, it was definitely the force's (and the public's) loss. What is really annoying is that today, with the reduction in entry requirements, she'd have easily passed the physical. I tried to join the regulars but was rejected because I wore glasses - nowadays, they accept people who wear glasses! Standards have become very low and it shows!

It can’t just be the selection process. I think when you join the police force it can be all too easy to join as not a bad apple but be influenced by people who are, therefore you do/say etc whatever they say despite your views not being the same as theirs.

I don't actually understand what most of the words being said are meant to be but none of it surprises me.

I don't think I've ever trusted the police. My local force is the Met police and historically they have been deceitful, racist, sexist and overly aggressive. They've shown how untrustworthy they are. Going back decades.

My younger half sister was in police cadets as a teenager and was all set to join the force after uni.

Then she witnessed a violent assault on someone and it totally changed her view on joining the police, knowing what sort of crimes she’d have to deal with.

She’s quite bossy and opinionated so as to whether she’d have made a good WPC and how she’d deal with various comments etc, I’ve got no idea.

Do people remember Ian Tomlinson? The newspaper seller who was killed by the Met after walking through the G20 protests on his way home. The police denied any wrong doing until videos from the public made their way onto social media which showed him being hit several times by riot police.

The Met tried to cover it up. They blamed protestors! Then when it became clear they wouldn't be able to blame him, it transpired that the policeman who killed him had already faced 10 complaints about his aggressiveness. He moved forces but was allowed back to the met.

Just totally disgusting.