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

surely everybody has to act within the law? If you break the law, then you may have an acceptable reason for doing so but as a baseline the law covers everyone?

I never knew why.

I watched the whole show and I thought it was a bit of a honey trap. However those officers were clearly in the wrong. My ex was a police officer in a Bedfordshire police force. Does anyone remember the Marsh Farm riots? At that time the Met officers came to help out. I remember my ex saying they were animals. Instead of arresting the the yobs causing the riot they simply took them down a back lane (so to speak) and beat them up. Then the local bobbies had to deal with the aftermath. The problem is the law is so soft these yobs just get their wrists slapped and an asbo which is a badge of honor to them. Your average yob cannot tell the difference between different police uniforms. As far as they are concerned 'All coppers are b@st@rds'. I think being in the police force they see the worst of everything as well as the good. My ex hated it if he heard parents threatening young kids with the police if they were naughty. Just who exactly goes looking for lost children? A child should be able to approach a police officer when necessary without being scared. As for the racist comments in the show. I recall my ex spitting feathers as he told me he was trying to get a non white taxi driver off double yellow lines and the offender just said 'Speak no English'! He had to go to the hospital mortuary when there was a BID (brought in dead) person and was in tears when he saw a baby on the slab. He once had to go to a burglary where the offenders had stuck the house owner's cats, one in the freezer and one in the microwave. He also was the 1st officer there when someone jumped from a tall building when it was dark. He went to do CPR but as he went to tilt the person's head his hand sunk into their brain cavity. Then he noticed the rest of the persons head splattered all over the pavement! I wouldn't have liked to do his job in a million years.

How is some poor immigrant not speaking English the horrific equivalent of all the other grotesque things your ex suffered?

I'm afraid that was my reaction too. At worst he was a piss taker committing a minor traffic offence. I'm sure he met with as much if not worse from white offenders.

Poor immigrant? If he supposedly couldn't speak English what the hell was he doing working as a taxi driver? How did he even pass his driving test if he didn't know English? Actually it was a tactic and standard response of a lot of those men.
Yes of course their were white men who offended too. I am simply saying that police officers see the worst and the best of humanity in their jobs.

There’s new A.I. software coming out that translates languages as you speak and will also translate back your English. So all this I don’t speak English bollox should stop -it will be expensive but will stop the £££ spent on translators.

But how is that ‘the worst of humanity’? He’s parked illegally and being a bit of a knob.

To be honest, isn't that most taxi drivers? I mean, they're not known for being the most considerate on the roads!

For heavens sake read my 1st post. I didn't say the taxi driver was the worst in humanity. I said that police offers encounter both.
I love how people live in a little bubble and never see what is going on in the world outside of it!

We don’t live in a little bubble. I used to work with homeless people with psychotic symptoms. I just don’t think “works with grumpy foreigners “ is something to wail about.

@Bloodyscarymary I actually work in a role that is related to promoting DEI … God help us then, you work to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - this documentary showed the complete opposite in practise, and you’re okay with that 🤔😵‍💫 just wow

But there are also the gpod ones who want the bad ones in quote pulled out ...some do a fantastic job and others like the ones that have been caught out a very poor job they need to be pulled out .We have a whole generstion who dont trust the police and we dont need to wonder why .

I don't understand how 37% of people can agree with a post in support of misogynistic racists.

I am going to need evidence. How many ‘good ones’ do you know? My experience is the Met is a disgrace. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Yes, all 30,000 of them are bad ‘uns!!