To be losing all respect for the police?

[GroundHogDay01]

Earlier this week a man was being told he cannot sit in his front garden. Now we have a man being threatened to be pepper sprayed for absolutely no reason.

The public are going to lose faith in the police. My DH was being racially abused once and a couple of officers just walked on by.

I think the police need a huge shake after this. It’s not good enough to be issuing apologies after they’ve been caught bang to rights doing something wrong

Thoughts?

For example, that woman on the park bench the other day, would have been dealt with much harshly if she were in France.

No doubt if I went sashaying about the street with my face out, in some countries I'd get my arse kicked and thrown in jail.

But this is the UK. We have different laws here.
I don't feel grateful for that. It's how it is and how we demand it be.

Black box thinking isn't it ? For those not familiar its how we learn from mistakes without fear of repercussions and therefore no need for cover ups. If people aren't named and shamed in the media when they cock up they are more likely to hold their hands up when they make a mistake which leads to better outcomes alround.

Yes. To be fair I’ve never had much respect for them. I’ve found them unhelpful and patronising. I blame the tories for making them worse. But I bet most of them vote Tory.
I grew up with them beating the hell out of miners and print workers.
Recently we had a van stolen and we even tracked it down in a padlocked yard. We called them about 5 times and they said they would come. But they didn’t. Then the parts were removed and it was dumped on the side of the road. We know where it was done and they have no interest.
Now they can bully people they are in their element. The police waste millions of pounds a year and seem to deliver nothing in return.

Police round here are acting like idiots too. We’ve argued with them today. Kids seeing police in negative light is really not good. They’ve gone down in my estimation.

Earlier this week a man was being told he cannot sit in his front garden. Now we have a man being threatened to be pepper sprayed for absolutely no reason
OMG we should sack the lot of them - this behaviour by two Cons tables is totally unacceptable - sack the lot, all 123,000 of them ....

Well most of you know what you should retrain as and do a better job! Seriously I never insult people in posts but some clueless, idiotic statements on here who have NO clue what a police officer can go through each day.
Go and sit by a dead body until it is collected, go aand attend a RTI where you have to search for missing body parts, get threatened every day....

I was recently quite ill and ended up in A&E a few times.

Every time the cops were there with local addicts with mental health problems acting more like social workers than police. They were being incredibly kind and supporting to people who, years ago, would have been treated very badly by the police.

A cople of years back I witnessed the police dealing with a neighbour with serious mental health problems who was suffering delusions, engaging in antisocial behaviour and causing stress to other neighbours. Really mental health services should have dealt with him but there were no services available so the cops dealt with him, always showing incredible kindness and patience.

In the last 2 weeks I have seen local cops help and assist local street homeless addicts with continual dry coughs, all without proper PPE.

Of course some cops are racist. Some are corrupt. Some are serious criminals and some are rapists.

I have lost a friend to a death in polie custody that was in all the papers and was subject to a disgusting coverup.

I am under no illusions that all the police are wonderful all the time. However right now they are doing an impossible job and for the most part doing it really well given how badly their services have been savaged by cuts

They seem to me to be trying to get people to protect themselves and others by obeying the rules. These are rules not laws but there will be laws to come if people don't behave like grown ups and act with consideration for the wider community.

All these people saying that the police should only be enforcing actual laws have not being paying attention to what has been happening over the past several years where the role of the police has become something other than law enforcement and become more like social workers.

So sad that the police, who I have generally respected till now, behaving like this.

The woman in the front garden post seemed to have a personal vendetta. She'd watched the man return from getting electric with bottles of fizzy. Then watched them play on the front lawn (which by the by was a long front garden!) and the chastised him for saying he's going to Aldi.

I doubt it's a case of complete innocence on the blokes side but she certainly picked on him for the wrong reason that time!

It's reasons like the police saying they patrol non essential aisles that made someone like me order something from amazon the other day that I could have got from Tesco (I did click and collect from Tesco instead as no point queuing if I can't get everything I need).

The item is a simple camping chair for the garden. Ds and I are sticking strictly to the exercise once a day and shop as infrequently as possible (usually once a week). But we would like to sit in the garden and he has a physical disability which means he needs a chair. When I went to get his from the shed I found it had gone mouldy. So it is essential for him and I could have picked one up in Tesco easily. But I'm afraid to even go and try!

It is the fault of the Chief Constables and the senior police officers.

They absolutely MUST NOT allow police officers in their forces to leave their police stations and interact with the public before they have been thoroughly briefed with what the Law actually says and what EXACTLY they are meant to be policing.

Anything else is criminally negligent. Senior police officers will need to be removed from their posts when this is all over. It is unforgivable and they have bought the entire Force into disrepute because they have omitted to properly train their officers. There is no excuse for that.

I have lost all respect for people who own caravans based on the facebook posts I have seen.

You see the point?

I didn't have a lot of faith in them originally and frankly I'm kind of inwardly pleased that finally others who doubted my opinion are seeing that many are literally thugs in uniform.

They are so monumentally pissed off that they aren't being held up with the same glow as the NHS, but that's down to the fact that the government have told them to stop the bullish behaviour and they have ignored it.

Our local Police bragged on their Facebook at the people in my mostly middle class area had been given stern talking to for jogging. That they were stopping people outside supermarkets and demanding to know what they had bought, and giving them warnings regards buying Easter treats.

The page went mental and the post was removed in the end, probably before the press saw it as people pointed out on the other side of town is an area they lost control of 20 years ago, which is the hotspot for the virus, and where drug deals and street drinking is still going on with not one police officer spotted. People pointed out it's easier to scare our side of town and make us all fear reprisal and live in misery on dry bread and tap water. I was embarrassed for them. I got called a smart arse and told I'd be fined and arrested if one officer "saw me again" that week- literally walking with a bottle of milk in my hand and this was before the rules even took effect.

The whole of the police system needs review urgently.

I doubt it's a case of complete innocence on the blokes side but she certainly picked on him for the wrong reason that time

Even IF IF hes "got form" and IF IF they are investigating him for something else what shes done will have undermined that investigation IF they are suspicious of him for some other reason.

I am certainly losing respect for them over this- the power seems to have gone to their heads. The ones I have had the misfortune to encounter recently have no clue what the actual law permits them to do, what the NPCC guidance given out to all forces last week was or anything about what is known about Covid-19 transmission.
I think the bottom line is that the police force has long attracted some who like to try and wield power but are not very bright and struggle to exercise appropriate judgment.
The current situation must be a dream come true for that type of officer.

I'm sure there are plenty of others who are sensitive, intelligent and do a wonderful job but I haven't come into contact with any yet.

They should be concerned though as if people like me (average previously supportive law-abiding citizen) are losing respect for them, they will have a big issue once this is all over.

Are they in PPE?

Isuspect that part of the problem is that, in the UK, we are so used to the concept of personal freedoms trumping caring for our communities that people get outrged when some of their freedoms are impinged.

I would argue that, in many instances, our personal freedoms have gone too far and that we should have a greater sense of responsibility towards our communities.

This virus is bringing up a lot of conflicts around these issues and the police are in the middle of it, needing to protect communities but not having clear guidance due to the very sudden explosion of the pandemic.

They are also hoping that people will respond to a softly softly approach and, while most people do, some are complete narcisistic CFs (see woman on bench exercising her mind).

There are many legitimate reasons to criticise some police sometimes (trust me I'd be here all day long if I got onto that subject) but dismissing the entire police service as the Stasi* under these horrible, stressful circumstances, when some vile people are spitting and coughing in their faces is just completely batshit.

*I'm assuming that anyone who does this has not much if an actual knowledge or experience of the Stasi. If they did they would not be making the comparison. It is deeply offensive

YANBU op. The way the police are behaving is ridiculous

Well policeman I spoke to today had a mask but took it off to come and speak to me and was within a metre distance.

In every line of work there are always going to be a few knobheads, including the emergency services. However, as the parent of a police officer, I can tell you my daughter is still expected to go out and deal with total twats and idiots, without any real protection, risk of being spat and coughed at and no praise or thanks from anyone. She still has to guard suspected criminals if they need to attend hospital while in police custody, but I don’t see anyone clapping for her and colleagues . Give them a break!

t we should have a greater sense of responsibility towards our communities

Where were you on or around the 14th June 2017? It was community who came together to support those affected by the Grenfell fire.

So they aren't protected but have to deal with knobheads and rough sleepers daily - ideal job if you are looking to get CV

I've had very mixed dealings with the police and on the whole I think they are a closed shop etc and fairly untouchable

A person's experience with them will also vary greatly depending on where they live, what colour or sex they are etc way too much

I'm in a met area and we've had
At least two cases of then shooting people then lying about the circs
Colluding with media etc all that stuff that was in the papers a few years back
Sapphire unit shut down as they were rubbish including one officer tampering with evidence
Warboys left to carry on even though they had his reg number etc as they didn't believe the women
An impressive amount of deaths of black men during arrest/ in custody which never result in anything
They also did that infiltration of the green groups and started relationships etc totally out of order
Etc etc

I think it's healthy to hold the police to account.

On another thread I was told not to question or mention these things as it will undermine public confidence

And a lot of people just think they are always right etc

Yes we definitely need to keep an eye.

Of course lots of individual officers are in danger, doing good etc but as an institution things have gone very very wrong in the past.

ne too far and that we should have a greater sense of responsibility towards our communities

ut dismissing the entire police service as the Stasi under these horrible, stressful circumstances*

But you have just dismissed whole communities.

They should be concerned though as if people like me (average previously supportive law-abiding citizen) are losing respect for them, they will have a big issue once this is all over.

Me too, OP.

They're losing the tax paying, law abiding, previously supportive middle. The biggest concern for them should be that once you've terrorised a loss of trust, it's virtually impossible to repair.

*PP