To feel a bit bad for the met police on bbc panorama undercover

[Bloodyscarymary]

Just watching the BBC Panorama doco “Undercover in the Police” and I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy.

Yes, the behaviour shown is awful and they should lose their jobs, but having their faces, names and secretly recorded conversations, sometimes even off duty over a pint broadcast feels like a bit of a violation of privacy.

I honestly would have thought secret filming like that couldn’t even be made public, but clearly it’s legal or the BBC wouldn’t air it.

I’m not excusing what was said at all. The culture clearly needs to change. But is it fair to single out these particular officers when the problem is obviously widespread?

I also felt some of the more junior officers had just absorbed the culture around them, and at times the journalist might have been nudging them into certain topics. A few of the comments even felt like dark humour or going along with pub chat. Still unacceptable, but if you secretly recorded doctors or other professions that probably use a lot of dark humour to get through it, I’m sure you’d hear things that would seem really callous to an outsider.

Absolutely they should be fired/reprimanded, but do they deserve complete public exposure like this? AIBU to feel uncomfortable about it?

YABU they deserve everything that’s coming their way

YANBU it’s too much personal exposure when the real problem is the Met culture not these individual cops

also wilful idiocy......also also I do have to wonder what the "they weren't at work" defenders have to hide?.......what their views "expressed in the pub after a few drinks" would be?

But other officers that were filmed, such as the female officers, also deal with 'the dregs of society' but they aren't mouthing off with a load of racist and misogynistic opinions. They also have to deal with the sergeant who sounds like a sex offender.

The police aren't allowed to strike so if they did this, they would lose their jobs. Given the violence that South Yorkshire police used on the picket lines during the Miners' Strike, they don't have a lot of sympathy or empathy with unions and striking workers.

That breaks down in the face of proven criminality and malice though. Its a fine rule if thumb if you don’t have much information but in this case we have a lot of information.

The problem is not dark humour, it’s the carrying of attitudes into the job.
Believe me though, all Met officers are not rotten; I know.

I think quite a few men say just as bad things about women when they are with their mates.

It is a man thing and the Police are no different. They think it is their divine right because they are men. Oar for the course

Deep down they are very insecure and have a real hatred of women who they see as wortless.

Never ever called your boss names then when they’ve pissed you off? I do think I was edited to suit the agenda, seen it many times before

What I find particularly harrowing is that police officers admitted to lying and coercing with each other to say that the person in custody had kicked them. This was to justify the officer kicking him.
Absolutely dispicable. The person who is caught up in the cjs is at the mercy of the police force being fair.
This is corruption in the extreme.
As someone who has connections with someone who was arrested and convicted, this makes me tremble

Nope.

Violation of privacy? Are you kidding?! You realise you're talking about the police who are violating people's privacy on a daily basis-and not always people who are criminals. I couldn't give a fuck they got recorded and exposed as being arseholes. I celebrate it in fact.

I have, but I do a job where my being rude about one of my bosses in the pub is utterly inconsequential, and has no bearing on anyone or anything other than probably their feelings. And any other feelings I might express would be as meaningless as I don’t say or think the sort of things these officers said and my workmates would be horrified if I expressed those views.

What risk exactly did he take though ? It’s right that people are held to account and face disciplinary action, but that could have been done without broadcasting this.

Every decent honest police officer in the country now has a harder job to do and this has put them more in danger.

Im sorry but I disagree with journalists joining a job under false pretences. Whatever the intention is for.

There’s a difference though. The police are in the public eye constantly, they have to deal with wind up merchants filming them , shoving camera phones in their faces whilst doing a job.

This documentary has arguably made every single decent policies officers job harder.

Care home staff, children’s home staff aren’t in the public eye so wouldn’t face the abuse that police officers do.

They don’t have to contend with people trying to wind them up whilst filming them.

It's a tough gig for sure, there's no way I could do it - buttttt there's nothing but nothing that could make me say or do certain things that are fundamentally against my nature . I would or could fight violently for my life, but I could never say something that contained a slur for example - I'm more likely to speak a sentence in Russian .

So it’s the wind up merchants that brought out the worst in these cops, views and behaviour that they would not normally hold 🙄

I think there is a difference between what is said in the work place and what is said outside the workplace . I believe that people are allowed to have views of their own, an employer does not own your thoughts. Having said that expressing these views in a pub is ill advised for those who work in govt or public services.

But the vast vast vast majority of police don’t hold these views. I’m sure he BBC (who really dislike the police -look at the wording they idea around the synagogue Islamic terror attack) hace carefully edited and manipulated conversations

This has made every single police officers job harder snd more dangerous.

'Wind them up while filming them'? If an officer is wound up by being filmed, he or she shouldn't be a copper. Also, if that applies to them, will it apply to the rest of us? Police have cameras in their jackets, filming everyone else.

Also, your response to mine is moving goalposts.

Harder??? Aww, didums to the police.

It has made people question what police are like and not to instantly trust them. Sadly after seeing this film there is no guarantee of being treated well or even within the law. This isn't a bad thing.

Just like we were told after Cousins murdered Sarah that we, as the general public should ask for assistance if stopped by a lone copper (esp if not in uniform), if it doesn't feel right to even call 999.

This, when you think about it, is absolutely disgusting. No a single person should need protecting from the police, not one.

and ONCE again, whatever you think or believe in (Santa Claus? the Tooth Fairy?) for certain jobs and professions, there is sometimes no difference. Its called "bringing the profession into disrepute" and people can be sanctioned for it by their employer or governing body. No one can police (ha) your thoughts but they can be, as you yourself have admitted, a cause for sanction. Every single profession that has these controls has a clear written policy regarding this.

The rules and regulations in rules such as policing, teaching and nursing/medical roles are clear. However, you bc are still allowed to have your own views. I agree that in these cases outside the workplace that the comments made were ill advised and crossed a boundary in some cases. I think the problem overall with the general approach is that people working in those professions have had to toe the agenda of the time. For example police and teachers have had to tow adhere to a “woke” agenda which applies the term racist phobic when the view is not, yet a very political view that is part of the trend is allowed and even applauded. Either it’s all or nothing

Every decent honest officer has a harder job because of the scum in their ranks.

Perhaps they need to stop turning a blind eye and call out the scum they work with...

Serpuco was harrassed and nearly killed for revealing corruption among other cops. The violent repression of others in and out ogf the police workforce is legendary. Of course the journalist took a risk. I wounr surprised if he received death threats from the police and their servile lickspittles.

He most certainly get a harder time going forward anything police related.. It's not like the police haven't been known to abuse their powers now is it?