to be grateful we live in a country where the police can be held to account for 'over zealous' policing

[chomalungma]

First things first - I have a respect for the police. I was brought up to respect them. They do a very difficult and dangerous job and they put themselves in harm's way. Whenever I have had to deal with the police, they have been very helpful. That said - I am fully aware that many people from different backgrounds will have had very different experiences.

But in the last few days, we have had some 'over zealous' policing - where the police don't seem to understand the 'reasonable' excuses people have in law to be out.

The excuses are here:

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/regulation/6/made

It's not that long to read.

In the last few days we have had:

1. A policewoman telling a man in his own garden that he can't go in there - and telling him that a 1000 people a day are dying so stay inside. - he is legally allowed in his front garden

2. A policeman arresting someone and threatening them with pepper spray - the man was delivering goods to his parents. - legally allowed to do

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210029/Police-threaten-man-pepper-spray-arrest-running-errands-mother.html

3. The police tweeting about visiting supermarkets and checking that the non essential aisles were closed off - they later apologised for this and claimed that an over-zealous officer. Seriously - surely they should be checking who does their communications.

Luckily these incidents are in the public domain and are recorded.

I bet that some people are having a very different experience with the police than other people - especially depending on the background you come from.

I am glad that the police are being held to account. We police by consent in this country and the police must follow the rule of law.

I agree to a certain extent, the examples you have given are obviously abusing their powers, but unfortunately we live in a society where a lot of people are still flouting the laws.
Police officer's are being abused and spat on, coughed at, bitten, attacked both physically and verbally.
If society behaved in a more socially acceptable manner I don't think the police would feel the need to be over zealous.

There are still many idiots going for non essential shopping, sunbathing in parks, picnicking, etc... they are pushing the guidelines as far as they can and unfortunately this leads to over zealous policing.

If society behaved in a more socially acceptable manner I don't think the police would feel the need to be over zealous

That's not how policing the laws should work.

If someone is obeying the law, then the police should not be trying to arrest them.

The leglisation is quite clear. Saying that the police have a tough time - which is true - does not justify over zealous policing. That is a slippery slope.

I have complete respect for the police. I haven’t witnessed over-zealous policing but I have seen people abusing officers.

I want to live in a society where everyone is accountable for their actions and has to deal with the consequences.

The leglisation is quite clear
But considering how many posts there have been on here asking "can I do this?" "Can I do that?" "Are they exemptions for this?" shows the legislation is not as clear as it ought to be.
Shopping for essentials? What I define as an essential may well be different to you.

You need to remember police officers are human, they don't get out away in a box at night. They have family, friends, lives outside of work.

Undoubtedly there had been some over zealous incidents, but there are considerably more people breaking the legislation for their own pretty reason. 3 incidents V how ever many people still gathering in parks, having house parties, ect...

So many people seem to think they know more about police powers than the police.

The police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. The government has issued woolly advice which is being interpreted differently by different people. The police are also having to interpret it, and because it's woolly advice, a few officers are being over zealous, just like some public are. The government decide to add bits and bobs onto their advice.. such as the no sunbathing.. and then expect police to police it.. without giving the power to do this.

The advice is that shopping should be done when essential.. many people are still popping to shops regularly.. rags like the Daily Fail put pictures of these people on their front page.. people are outraged and expect the police to do something.. police try and do something... people are outraged about that too.

The problem is that the government have not set out specific rules .. they've given general advice and then passed the buck to the police.

The government are fucking this up but hey never mind they're doing their best.. pray for Boris.

To be honest the Uk approach is too liberal and there are some members of society who would benefit from more authoritarian rule. The only way the Chinese have got on top of this is with total authoritarianism.

In general, I agree that the police should be held to account and they aren’t all perfect but there are bigger fish to fry right now

I too have great respect for the police in general, I'm well aware of how hard a job they have and how many members of the public can be stupid arseholes.

I do agree with you OP though that it is incredibly important that the police are also held to account when they overstep the law and their powers. Most are very good at their job of policing by consent but there will always be a few "school bully" types who are attracted to the job by the power they feel it gives them over others looking at you Mr Northamptonshire and love the idea of more authoritarian control.

I do not want to live in a society where the police are not answerable to a free press and to the government and the law of the land. The fact that Missing in Action #wheresPriti finally emerged from her cave to say that the police will NOT be searching supermarket baskets etc really shows this is a major concern and will be watched from on high.

It is amazing me all of my waking day I'm constantly seeing that people are being mugged off into blaming the supposed rule breakers for the high number of cases and deaths. Rather than pointing the finger at the government's lack of action and poor NHS support. Every single person thinking the few people on the beach are the problem is very foolish. I am beyond astounded at how willingly people have swollowed this line. A big part of this is police reporting on rule breaking goading the public into thinking the police should enforce more strongly. I'm so very sad at how stupid most of the people in our country are. I knew this really but I will never feel the same about my fellow citizens.

Sorry I'm just ranting! But to answer it is so important we hold the police to account and the government. What I'm really sad about is that so many people think we shouldn't.

The government (I think Priti Patel) has today criticised some police for being over zealous, especially with regard to 'necessary items'. She said that if a shop is allowed to be open you are allowed to buy whatever they are selling, and the police have no power to examine shopping. Let's hope the police forces are listening. I am concerned that other crime is being overlooked in favour of policing the 'lockdown'.