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Original poster

How can we trust the Police?

169 replies

icelolly12 · 21/02/2023 17:55

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.

OP posts:
kirinm · 22/02/2023 11:17

I've just read again about Ian Tomlinson and even the IPCC lied.

It isn't any wonder people simply don't trust the police anymore.

Pyewhacket · 22/02/2023 12:42

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 09:47

@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 missed out institutionalised racists altho I guess comparing them to extreme fascists probably covers that. Nobody is trying to defend corruption but calling all Police corrupt is a corruption in its self. To be honest I have no idea why anybody would want to be a police officer these days. Especially when they get sliced open with a machete. Perhaps you should sign up and show them how it’s done ?.

kirinm · 22/02/2023 12:48

The police are never repentant either. It's always one bad apple.

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 13:07

Pyewhacket · 22/02/2023 12:42

You missed out institutionalised racists altho I guess comparing them to extreme fascists probably covers that. Nobody is trying to defend corruption but calling all Police corrupt is a corruption in its self. To be honest I have no idea why anybody would want to be a police officer these days. Especially when they get sliced open with a machete. Perhaps you should sign up and show them how it’s done ?.

Show quote history

Discrimination covers racism, no?

Ah the classic, you can’t criticise if you won’t join the police.

LadyKenya · 22/02/2023 13:07

Cressida Dick was useless at getting to grips with the problems, within the Met. As I said in an earlier post, it remains to be seen how Sir Mark Rowley will handle things.

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 13:09

Cressida Dick obviously has some powerful friends to have kept that job as long as she did. She was either woefully inept or fully part of the corruption.

LadyKenya · 22/02/2023 13:15

She should never have held that position in the first place, after the John de menezes debacle.

kirinm · 22/02/2023 13:17

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 13:09

Cressida Dick obviously has some powerful friends to have kept that job as long as she did. She was either woefully inept or fully part of the corruption.

She tried to make out that Sadiq Khan scapegoated her. Except he hadn't. She was just totally shit at her job. She's as corrupt as the rest.

I studied law at university and the tactics of police and numerous miscarriages of justice that they were responsible for massively contributed to the lack of trust.

Motnight · 22/02/2023 13:22

Live in London. I don't trust the Met. My dd, in her 20s, is scared of them.

Doormatnomore · 22/02/2023 14:23

Also I don’t understand the argument that police have to face a lot of crap. It’s not a secret before you join. People are surprised how much abuse and violence nurses and teachers put up with but I always think “how did you get as far as arresting folk without realising they might not be pleased about it?”. I worked for UC for a while and there was some amazing language and aggression, I didn’t look forward to it but it wasn’t a surprise and I didn’t use it as an excuse for when staff were utter crap at their job!

latetothefisting · 22/02/2023 14:25

Herewegowithanotherchange · 21/02/2023 18:31

Gonna bow out of this thread as don't want to derail - maybe I'll do an AMA when I escape 😂

That would be really interesting.

Having had a fair bit of experience with police i agree -the truth seems to be something between "all police are scum" and "only a few bad apples" that the forces, particularly the met, keep trotting out.

Like any job there are some amazing police officers, some terrible ones and then the majority in-between. What's different about the police seems to be the way a dominant culture can emerge whereby the awful ones seem group together and then have undue influence over the others so that they almost redefine the norms of what is/isn't acceptable. E.g so often there seem to be these whatsapp groups of dodgy officers who all work on shift together.

However I also think that the public aren't willing to accept how incredibly hard policing is - and if we want to only have really good officers who are capable of both the very physical parts of the role AND also have the very high social skills and robust mental health needed we need to pay them a lot more i.e will have to pay more taxes.

Although saying that the forces don't help by still excluding people on the basis of things like visible tattoos - really don't get that rationale now tattoos are so common.

WalkingThroughTreacle · 22/02/2023 16:23

Pyewhacket · 22/02/2023 09:38

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.

That sounds truly horrific for your friend. Have you ever stopped to consider though why she was in that highly dangerous situation without backup and support? Sure, it could just have been very bad luck on the back of unforeseeable circumstances. Equally though, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that she was deliberately thrown under a bus by colleagues or superiors in an organisation that some argue is institutionally misogynistic.

I get that you care about your friend and are angry about the experience she had. I just find it a little bit strange that you are so driven to defend to the hilt the organisation she was part of, instead of questioning why that organisation did not protect her properly. I think your ire is misdirected.

Pyewhacket · 22/02/2023 16:31

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 13:07

Discrimination covers racism, no?

Ah the classic, you can’t criticise if you won’t join the police.

Show quote history

……. so not actually prepared to do the job yourself but only too willing to vent your extreme vitriolic hostility at those who do. The thing is you can only replace the police with other police.

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 16:40

@Pyewhacket - my views are extreme? My examples were extreme but I don’t think “the police need urgent reform” is an extreme view. No I am not prepared to join a homophobic, racist, misogynistic organisation. I doubt they’d want me either, but that’s not at all relevant is it? It’s a weak strawman argument that doesn’t further your defence. I get your friend got hurt but that doesn’t mean the police don’t need reform 🫤

Why do you assume all police will be the same? No one here is advocating for no police. They are asking for a police that is not a threat to women and POC. That’s not really a big ask is it.

LadyKenya · 22/02/2023 16:54

They are asking for a police that is not a threat to women and POC. That’s not really a big ask is it.

It should not be imo. I would wonder about anyone who had a problem with that.

thefamous5 · 22/02/2023 18:50

I'm a white almost middle aged woman.

I don't trust the police as far as I can throw them.

I was seriously assaulted a few years ago and in front of my four year old son. There was cctv. When I was giving a statement, and explained that I had told him to fuck off, the police officer (male) said 'well that was a bit silly, wasn't it?'. The man was kicking my head but apparently me telling him to fuck off was 'a bit silly'.

Did the police do anything? No. The evidence went missing, strangely. I had to chase it up almost a year later when no one had been in touch with me about it.

Turns out my attacker was a known 'big man' in the area. Strangely never got convicted of anything though.

I'll never trust the police again. The one time I needed them and they weren't there to help me.

Whatalife88 · 22/02/2023 19:11

We can't trust them.

I've only ever known power hungry cops. My son was also sexually assaulted at school and because it was done by another boy it was passed off as 'boys being boys' and 'banter'. Sadly, this came from a female officer which shocked me the most. They just don't care. Look at poor Nicola Bulley, branded a hormonal alcoholic by the police and that's not even mentioning the racism experienced by people of colour. Boils my blood. I don't trust any of them.

Badbadbunny · 22/02/2023 19:15

kirinm · 22/02/2023 11:10

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.

Yep, police have form for blaming everyone but themselves, i.e. Hillsborough. They're institutionally rotten to the core these days.

user1497787065 · 22/02/2023 19:21

A lot of what we have heard of late is not good but Harold Shipman hasn't stopped me consulting a doctor when I have needed to.

kirinm · 22/02/2023 19:23

user1497787065 · 22/02/2023 19:21

A lot of what we have heard of late is not good but Harold Shipman hasn't stopped me consulting a doctor when I have needed to.

But that is because you don't read a story about a doctor having raped or killed or lied or abused someone every other day. Which is what happens with the police.

VladmirsPoutine · 22/02/2023 19:25

user1497787065 · 22/02/2023 19:21

A lot of what we have heard of late is not good but Harold Shipman hasn't stopped me consulting a doctor when I have needed to.

And joke here is that Black people tend to have worse healthcare outcomes than their white counterparts but I hope you briefly felt very smart and clever there @user1497787065

Badbadbunny · 22/02/2023 19:31

user1497787065 · 22/02/2023 19:21

A lot of what we have heard of late is not good but Harold Shipman hasn't stopped me consulting a doctor when I have needed to.

Harold Shipman was a one-off (hopefully). Accusations against police officers is a regular occurrence, not a one-off. Shipman murdered "only" 15 of his patients, whereas 97 people died in Hilsborough with hundreds more injured. It's not only the actual deaths, rapes, racism, sexism, incompetence, etc of the police, it's the way they close ranks and cover it up!

LadyKenya · 22/02/2023 19:38

user1497787065 · 22/02/2023 19:21

A lot of what we have heard of late is not good but Harold Shipman hasn't stopped me consulting a doctor when I have needed to.

One doctor out of how many? What a ridiculous comparison.

ChilliBandit · 22/02/2023 19:57

Oh I knew it wouldn’t be too long before the what about doctors came along.

MumOf2workOptions · 22/02/2023 20:48

My male cousin is in the met police

He used to be lovely when we were younger, fast forward 20 years....

now he's cheated on his wife with multiple women and basically talks down to everyone he comes across like they are a child and likes to try to boss people about, his own brother and none of us cousins have anything to do with him if we can help it and the more I read about them the less respect I have for him and his awful colleagues