Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the police are bloody useless?

79 replies

TheDevilWearsPrimark · 26/08/2008 16:28

We ended up stuck in the middle of the rioting at Notting Hill Carnival last night.

It was bloody terrifying, the police wouldn't let us through to get away.

They also just kept pointlessly charging backwards and forwards. There were literally hundreds of them, why couldn't they do anything?

We saw a policeman kicking a random boy who, like us, had got innocently caught up in it.

I'm really angry about it, I've got footage on my mobile that I want to send to the police but I doubt they will be interested.

OP posts:
babbi · 26/08/2008 22:56

Well said squiffy and Vic Squal.
Dh picked up the pieces at Lockerbie ..people just don`t have a sodden clue .........
First problem they have though - guess who they call ...

hf128219 · 26/08/2008 23:04

Oh diddums - stuck in crowds at the Notting Hill Carnival. God if that is your idea of terrifying you really have not lived.

pooka · 26/08/2008 23:08

Of course the police aren't useless.

Not as a whole. Of course sometimes they aren't able to control situations. Most of the time they do. But prefer that to having the militaristic police a la tear gas and guns that have seen abroad.

bogwobbit · 26/08/2008 23:09

I actually think that, with a few exceptions, we should be proud of our police.

edam · 26/08/2008 23:26

Devil, you could see if the Police Complaints people would be interested in your footage.

hf128219 · 26/08/2008 23:28

It can't be particularly good footage if the crowds were so massive and the TDWP was so terrifying

edam · 26/08/2008 23:32

Actually, being caught up in a crowd in a confined space where the police aren't letting anyone get out can be pretty bloody scary. Remember Hillsborough?

hf128219 · 26/08/2008 23:34

Yes of course I remember Hillsborough.

That was not my point - my point was she had the hindsight to whip out her mobile and take footage. Would not have been my immediate reaction.

DeeRiguer · 26/08/2008 23:46

have been in similar situation at carnival years ago tdwp and their handling of it is inept and woeful ime
it does not feel like they are on your (civilian) side at all..they all too easily forget who pays their wages and generous pension actually..

i have also been told by them when street near ours was cordoned off due to shooting that we should jsut shut up and expect shootings and murders due to the area we live in wtf
if they were doing their job properly this would not be the case...

GypsyMoth · 26/08/2008 23:48

i used to be a special constable in golders green,before the kids. did it for 3 years......never did notting hill,but did do matchdays at wembley.....terrifying!

i decided the job wasn't for me after seeing with my own eyes what a paedophile let out on bail can do to an innocent child. i left. moved away,yet still remember that poor child every day. walk in their shoes for a day....then judge!

blueskythinker · 27/08/2008 00:23

Deeriguer, police officers pay 11% of their salary towards their pension scheme - the highest contributory pension scheme in the UK, so I think that aspect should be left out of the debate.

blueskythinker · 27/08/2008 00:25

DWP, contact the IPCC if you are unhappy here.

minorityrules · 27/08/2008 00:35

Notting hill is always difficult for our police, go in heavy handed get accused of racism, try a wait and see approach, and we get this situation

They have to contain everyone, they don't know who the trouble makers are, they also want to keep people away from the problem and not have people all over the place

Our police force do a thankless job, yes there are a few arseholes but most take great pride in their job and what it means

VictorianSqualor · 27/08/2008 07:29

Forget who pays their wages and their generous pension?
Get a grip.
Police pay tax too, so are they paying their own wages? If you want to work it like that DP and his mum, his dad and his brother pay his wages. FFS.

mother2two · 27/08/2008 09:09

My local police force, at one point, reckoned I had x-ray vision...."You must have seen something?" they asked. Well no. There's a hillside - a large and fairly well-known hill between me and where the incident took place. I challenged them. I asked the police whether they able to see through the hill.
"Now, now", the policeman said, "there's no need to be like that, and take that tone of voice with me". It's a damned if I do and damned if I don't situation. What exactly did the policemen want me to say? The mannerism was rather unfriendly to say the least. Very harsh. I felt really put down.
I do not have x-ray or satellite vision, unfortunately, however much I would like to be able to have both! The case ended up on Crimewatch and there was a special 1 hour program on TV about it and it took nearly 2 years to solve, so it's not as if it were my fault!

VictorianSqualor · 27/08/2008 10:02

Well, apparently DeeRiguer thinks they are psychic and able to know a shooting is going to happen before it does and magically stop it so maybe they thought you had the same powers.

sadandscared · 27/08/2008 10:19

YABU. The police are not bloody useless. They are bloody fantastic. 99% of them do a fantastic job of doing a very difficult (and ever more dangerous) job.

DeeRiguer · 27/08/2008 10:25

vs
ha ha if only
if they treated the community with respect then info on guns, weapons etc would be more likely to come to light before they are used...
was my point really
i have watched them harass and humiliate young black and asian men constantly..

ffs the other day there was a van full, surrounding semi circle style a young bloke ..as i passed i heard them say 'he was to stop laughing at them'...i piped up, well it aint illegal yet, or is it?

round here they do not foster good relations, general treat people with disdain, tell us we should expect these shootings, stabbings..
it took three vans, eight cars to arrest two unarmed blokes from their home here not long ago..
the slow hand clap from the crowd was tame i thought..

they have pushed me around on anti apartheid demos, kicked, punched and arrested my friends for being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

i dont blame them for the 'falling apart of society' but i do expect to be treated as a human being esp if they want my respect and trust and help...

VictorianSqualor · 27/08/2008 10:40

Ah, one of those kind of people are you.
Sticking your nose in when it has absolutely nothing to do with anyway?

What help do you think 'piping up' did?

You probably made the situation worse. The reason it can take so many police to restrain someone is because here they try to do it with as little force as possible, and not injuring the person being detained.

Imagine being a police officer, arresting someone, and the person is laughing at you, you're trying to read them their rights, which they have to say they understand.

You can't just read the spiel and take them off, you have to say 'Do you understand?' and you need to get a yes.

A laugh, or a someone whistling, or a ding dong merrily on high, is not ok, it may not be illegal but for both the person being detained and the police force, the caution has to be explained and understood.

Then along comes someone who has absolutely nothing to do with the arrest and pokes their nose in, encouraging the detainee not to respond correctly.

Well done. You could have successfully messed up the arrest.

hf128219 · 27/08/2008 10:49

I am with VS on this. I am not in the police, nor is my dh. But I work with the police a lot in my own job. They have an incredibly difficult job to do and I have a great deal of respect for them.

When people comment on the style of policing they witness - they usually have no idea of the actual situation the police are are dealing with. The intelligence that has been gathered, the background to the event, the underlying climate, even unrest.

The police have to act on that - and if the general public accepted that - and even respected it, they can get on with their job.

salsmum · 27/08/2008 10:58

When I saw the news footage last night about the rioters at NH I just thought get the fire brigade in with the water hoses I think that would have stopped all the missile throwing in a flash.

Original poster
TheDevilWearsPrimark · 27/08/2008 11:07

Okay I admit I worded the thread title wrongly.

I meant useless in this instance, not in general, of course.

To clarify the situation, we were stuck in the entrance to a bar on Ladbroke grove, there were police barricades either side of us and we weren't allowed out, it wasn't a heaving scrum or anything (though we were stuck in a few of those earlier)

The police seemed to be doing very little apart from charging up and down in lines, and refused to let us get out of the area. It was terrifying because bottles were being thrown and we didn't know how much further it would escalate.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheDevilWearsPrimark · 27/08/2008 11:17

Also the news footage of them arresting 'potential troublemakers' at Oval station earlier that day troubled me somewhat.

They detained 150 people in cells for the entire day, and appeared to be very rough with them.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty, is there any wonder that a majority of todays youth have contempt for the police?

OP posts:
VictorianSqualor · 27/08/2008 11:43

I haven't seen any footage so can't comment on that, but the police can't be namby pamby with people they have arrested on suspicion of rioting, how on earth would they get hold of the people and get them to the cells?

I would expect most Police Officers would prefer the NH carnival to be cancelled than have to deal with all this shit tbh.

Do you think you could do it better?

Bumdiddley · 27/08/2008 11:47

The police had a tip off regarding the people at the Oval.

I saw footage of the steamers (I think that's the correct term') from last year.

About 50 people would run through the crowd bag snatching and hitting random people.

That looked scary.

Swipe left for the next trending thread