Police

[BrokenHill]

Over the last few weeks I've witnessed 4 police officers driving in ways that could get me pulled over (not indicating x2, overtaking dangerously to the point that people were on their horns with no blue lights, tailgating me), one police officer who asked me if I had witnessed something minor didn't even look me in the eye when talking directly to him then walked off without even saying thank you (woman in queue commented on how rude he was), two officers stood outside my friend's house guarding the scene of a fatal accident swearing all night (she has video footage of them that she has sent to local force and has heard nothing back) talking about 'that c**t should've known better' and 'well that's fucking bollocks isn't it' - right outside her 6 year old twins bedroom.

I know some police officers are doing much worse than this but bloody hell it all does my head in. I know there are some good officers out there and I'd in no way want to tar with the same brush. Maybe I'm just bitter because they 'forgot' to visit me after I called them about a domestic abuse incident. But AIBU to expect better?

I was raised to respect and defer to police and other authority figures/institutions. I’ve had (thankfully) limited dealings with them in my life so far, and most I’ve come across have been polite, professional and clearly capable of doing what is a very difficult job. Sadly, the experience that will forever stick with me was the poor one. It was 2000/2001 and I was about 19 and out on a works night out (think it was a Sunday). Group was a mix of some younger ones like me (male and female) but mostly women in their 30s-50s. We ended up in a 70’s bar on the town high street to have some drinks and dancing after a meal, where a group of young lads (and a girlfriend of one of them) turned on the two lads in our group (unprovoked). Bouncers threw them all out and by the time I made it outside, one of the lads was getting his head stomped on. I stepped in and dragged the attacker off him and, as luck would have it, a police car was coming down the road. I went into the road, flagged it down and alerted them to what has happened and pointed out the group just up the street. The female police officer in the passenger seat nearest to me shrugged her shoulders, spoke to her colleague and they continued to drive past…..

My friend ended up having emergency surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain and was very ill for a long time afterwards. Unfortunately, that experience will always colour how I perceive police, simply because the one time I really needed their help, they couldn’t be bothered to get involved.

Sadly this doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Sorry that happened to you and your friends.

My DP was arrested a number of years ago, whilst he was being driven to the police station the driver committed 3 driving offences, when my DP pointed this out when they reached the police station he was asked “what are you going to do about it”. Needless to say nothing was done. We have no local police stations anymore, we never see any police not even PCSOs. A friend who is a police officer is very demoralised as not allowed to police anymore.

I have absolutely no respect or trust for the police. When I was in my early twenties I had a messy break-up, my ex had basically dumped me so that he could shag someone in my friend group and was taking great delight in texting me about it, stupidly I took the bait and got drawn into a text war with him. Ex decided he'd be terribly clever and funny and went into the police station to report me for harassment. I got a call from the police while I was at work asking me to come into the police station after work to have myself arrested. I was "interviewed" by a male and a female officer and they were absolutely awful to me, shouting ridiculous accusations at me, desperately trying to imply that a text I'd sent to ex saying that karma would catch up with him one day was a veiled death threat. When they finally allowed me to get a word in I explained all my texts to him were replies to horrible messages he'd sent me. They asked to see, as I turned my phone on to show them a number of text messages came through from ex, asking if I was having fun at the police station and laughing about what he'd done and how I deserved it. It was quite amusing watching the smug smiles drop from their faces as they read those texts. Suddenly the female officer was terribly concerned about my wellbeing and how terribly I'd been treated, she even phoned my home and spoke to my mum to check in on me a few days later. Ex got a visit from the police threatening to charge him with wasting police time and to leave me alone or face consequences. Ex was livid the stupid fucker.

Whenever I've needed to call the police for things they've done nothing to help. Had my car broken into and when I went to report it the woman on the phone said "well what do you want us to do about it?" and when I was being harassed by a lunatic neighbour who kept accusing us of stealing his internet and trying to break our door down, terrifying our tiny children, all they did was have a quick chat with him. He was soon back to harassing us and the police continued to do fuck all so we had to move.