A policeman in the supermarket ,would you do this?

[girlfriend44]

This morning there was a policeman doing some shopping in the supermarket.

A family walked past and when the dad noticed the policeman in the aisle he said to his little girl.
Look there's a policeman. If your naughty round the supermarket he will take you away to prison. The little girl. Just listened and didn't say anything .
He made sure she saw the policeman and as said told her he would take her to prison if she was naughty.
The policeman never heard but I did . I was right by them
Would you do this?
AIBU to think it's a bit odd.

100% this. Don’t bring up your kids to be scared of the police. They may need help one day.

No it's not a joke the good outway the bad police.
Fancy telling her the policeman would put her in.prison!!!!!

no I would not do this

this was often used as a threat in the 70's. my friend (she does not have children) said it to ds once I had to turn it into a silly joke and tell my friend to no be so stupid

I think the police are absolutely amazing and fantastic.

If you fear the police that says more about you than them, and quite honestly, your paranoia and anxiety about the police is not healthy or normal.

There are bad apples in every profession.

It's a stupid thing to say to a child.

A lot of posters are saying that children shouldn't be told such things as they should be encouraged to see police officers as safe adults.

Whilst I'm not entirely sure that is the case in certain police forces any more, I'm more concerned that parents are telling their child that if they are 'naughty' some completely random stranger is going to take them away from their parents and family and lock them up in a strange, scary place called 'prison'.

I was a shy, sensitive child. If my parents had told me such rubbish, which they never would have because they were neither stupid nor cruel, it would have haunted me for months.

I'm assuming the child the OP saw in the supermarket was quite young and maybe children nowadays are more worldly than I was, they probably are, but surely that's a very cruel thing to tell a small child you're supposed to love.

its like saying if you dont behave the Baba Yaga will find you etc

They didn't, the explained the consequences people can face when "naughty", which is a word they can currently comprehend.

I wouldn't bother. It seems everybody is determined to ignore the first bit of what he said and act like he actually said 'Look, a policeman, AKA 'the filth'. They go around nicking people at random for no reason so never trust them. Come on, let's go and get you that ACAB tattoo on your forehead I promised'.

Well people should be able to see police as someone they can turn to for help.
I was always bought up to believe it, but when we needed help from the police they were beyond useless.
I’ll never trust the police to help again.

Where do you live that misbehaving in the supermarket is a prison offence?

Some people are just thick, it's no more complicated than that

If the good outweighed the bad, there would have been the recent MET sackings, before the panorama investigation. The Nowak case wouldn't have happened. Couzins would have been suspended. Hillsborough wouldn't have happened. All of the incidents that have led to barring wouldn't have got that far, the bad apples would have been got rid of sooner. That's without the ridiculously high rate of DV by serving officers. The Police are doing a essential (at times) job, but they aren't to be fully trusted.

Totally ridiculous. Teaching your children to fear the police could be a huge issue in the event that they got lost. I am sure there are a some poor police officers but in my experience they are a dedicated and caring bunch (with a crude sense of humour and bad ability to stick to marrital vows) who do a pretty horrific job. They deal with awful people, terrible crimes, bodily fluids, being attacked and spat on and standing around for hours on end in freezing temperatures whilst needing a wee. I, like many law abiding folks, am glad that the police do what they do so I can live in a more safe and law abiding society.

I don’t necessarily think it’s that deep or shit parenting. My dad used to tell us he would perform a citizens arrest on us if we didn’t eat our vegetables/ didn’t do our chores / whatever and we knew he was messing.

It used to be a common parenting tactic until we realised that scared children into compliance only works for a little while. Much better to develop a decent attachment with your child and coach their behaviour but that’s work that some people don’t want to put it.

YANBU. In my job (not police!) occasionally a parent will say “you’d better behave or the lady will shout.” I’m always quick to say “no I won’t.” It’s lazy parenting and a good way to make kids scared of various professionals.

If you are a black man, you can end up dead.
https://inquest.org.uk/news-and-comment/press-releases/mzee-mohammed-daley-close/
I've seen the footage, they stood around while he died. Three days later I (and my teenage DD) actually intervened because a young black lad was being targeted by security staff, after being racially abused. If you look up the barring cases, there's a lot of unnecessary restraining of teen girls.

Yeah, I don't get why people do that. Same with the threat of telling the dad what they've been doing. I swore from day 1 that I'd never use anyone else as an outside deterrent/someone else as a threat. I grew up hearing from friends mums 'wait until your dad's back!' or 'keep going and I'm ringing your dad!' I hated it, sounded so weak willed. Same with 'be good or that (random man just idly shopping) man will take you away!' or using shop workers as someone who will be bad towards them if they play up...

So no, I agree with you. I wouldn't say to be good or you'll go to prison, nor would I say, 'oh, there's a good guy!' They're just people in the background of life, imo.

A child shouldn’t fear being arrested if they don’t eat their vegs or have a tantrum.

However, you can be sure that once you’ve frightened a child enough, Theres no way they’ll ever see them as friendly or even neutral.
Way to go when it’s about the Poluce…..

call the police?

Does it? They really helped my dad when he asked them to talk to my wayward brother. They were awesome, even when the police lady then asked me if I stole anything. I admitted to stealing biscuits when mum wasn't looking and she told me off!

I grew up with the unwavering belief that the police were there to help and could be trusted implicitly to uphold the letter of the law. My DPs told me that so it must be true.

I'm getting old now, but twice in my adult life I have turned to the police for help and, on both occasions, have been woefully disappointed by them.

I would have been better off if my parents had painted a more accurate reflection of the police.

When my son was little and we saw a police officer out and about, I pointed them out and said, 'that's who you go to if you're lost or need help.'

I dont fear the police but my experiences of being a victim of crime several times has been appalling. They exhibited misogynistic attitudes towards me and basically told me it was my own fault. I received zero victim support despite being the victim of random violent crime that threatened my life (I was almost shot) I had reason to complain and my complaint was upheld in an independent investigation.

My family is also mixed race and has been subject to multiple incidents of racial profiling so no, I dont trust the police and if you had experienced what I have, I highly doubt you would too.

I would have been better off if my parents had painted a more accurate reflection of the police.

But what that dad did is NOT an accurate description of the reality….

I had similar when I worked in a supermarket. A child was being twisty. Nothing serious, just whingy because they were bored. I was stacking shelves and the mother said to the child to pack in whinging otherwise this lady will smack you - and pointed at me 😳

I smiled sweetly at the child and said "and if you're really good, Mummy will buy you lots of sweeties."

She wasn't happy about that but the little boy was 😂