There are so few police!

[graffitiwall]

Just watched some videos of the riots on at the moment - really struck by how there is literally just a thin line of police against a mass mob of adrenaline fuelled men looking for aggro.

It must be terrifying for them!

Just want to give a big up to the police women and men at this time trying to hold that line.

I feel really un-feminist saying this, but I don’t understand why women would ever want to be police officers.

Putting yourself in the line of fire against mostly men, who will be bigger and stronger than you, with a propensity to violence.

I couldn’t do it

We need many more police - service was decimated by the Tories

Thanks to the police here for their service

They're needed, very much needed. Maybe not as grunt but definitely for compassionate issues like assault, sexual violence, domestic violence etc.

God forbid if the West is heading over into becoming what South Africa was.....all my prayers up....

There was one young lady blond police that looks like Saorsie Ronan. I was so worried about her. I do not think I could do it either.

Can we stop with the hand wringing over the existence of female police officers?

We've had whole threads slagging them off already. Plenty of us have and still do the damn job.

If you can't handle it, that's FINE! Fortunately plenty of women can and do.

If you're sexist about your own sex at least don't try to pull the rest of us down with you.

I’m not here to argue with you.

You think it’s sexism to say men are bigger and stronger than women. And more violent. And I don’t.

Not trying to bring you down at all, I appreciate all the work you and your colleagues do 😊

No, I think it's sexism to state that women shouldn't be police officers at all, as several people have.

Yep. They've had their numbers culled and are getting injured. I'm sure most police officers have had their rest days taken away, and planned time off cancelled to try and increase their numbers!

When I was a kid, police officers on the front line of riots (miners strike) all looked tall, young, fit and healthy. Now I am struck by the short, fat, unfit and unwell nature of our police force.

Okay, Sorry I think that was my misunderstanding.

I definitely don’t think women ‘shouldn’t be’ police officers.

And that’s bullshit as well . We all have to do a fitness test every year , and if you fail , you don’t go out on the street .

you forget we’re all carrying an extra 10lbs of body armour plus taser plus asp plus first aid kit , plus radio plus body worn video .

@plominoagain I'm sure people see the body armour, kit, belt and any layers worn and assume that's as the actual size of the human under it all. Nuts.

Well there did used to be minimum height restrictions for police officers and I don't think there are any more.

Body armour aside. No, like the general population, a lot less fitter and definitely shorter as I remember the height restrictions.

Well it’s nice that the Polive are getting some thanks on MN for a change rather than the continuous slagging off

But yes, there are very few police. My DH often went on a response shift with 8 officers covering the whole of the small city (sometimes less if the neighbouring large city needed more). Usually at least one of those officers was a volunteer. Spends the night dealing with missing people, sexual abuse/assault, usually at least one person tries to assault him with fists/glasses/ weapons. Often filmed, verbally abused. Usually at least one person attempting/completing suicide.

I hope people remember what a great job the police do after this and actually stop making their lives more difficult/dangerous by adding Uk the hatred and distrust of them,

Well yes, that event in Manchester airport where the guy ended up getting kicked in the head started off with the suspect punching a female officer in the face and breaking her nose if I recall. Yet he then went on to try and claim he was the victim!

I think it’s very important to have women police officers but not sure about sticking them in front of a bunch of EDL’s.

For those asking who'd want to be a police officer after seeing that, I don't think I even want to be human after seeing it. Those racist fucking scumbags are the foulest specimens. Those poor people living or working in the Holiday Inn must have been terrified. There will have been young children having bricks thrown at their windows and parents not knowing if the place was going to burn down on them. These so called protesters need to be locked away and never let out. They don't deserve freedom.

Aren't the police allowed to use tasers in situations like this?

Use a taser and that that officer put the equation for the rest of the shift.

How come? Sorry I'm probably misunderstanding tasers.

You can't use taser in such a situation , because if it makes contact , the subject then goes down like a sack of spuds and police then have to then a) remove them for their own safety and b) give first aid - both of which are resource intensive , impractical and dangerous when you're having all sorts of debris chucked at you . Not to mention even drawing your taser , let alone discharging it , is considered to be s use of force , for which each officer must complete copious notes to justify it . We don't and can't just zap people willy nilly.

I wasn't talking about zapping people willy nilly. These racist thugs were unsafe and causing injury to police officers. If a taser stopped someone getting a brick hurled at their face then I could understand its use.