Douglas Murray slams police

[BovaryX]

In a blistering article in the Telegraph, Douglas Murray is in fine form taking aim at the police and their disastrous pursuit of the ravings of a malicious fantasist. Public confidence in the police is at an all time low. They repeatedly fail to investigate real crimes whilst wasting time pursuing imaginary crimes that appear to be politically motivated. As for Tom Watson? This clown should never get into the House of Lords.

There are people who will get lost in the weeds of this. Which is why the bigger picture of institutional failure needs to be recalled. The problem with Operation Midland is not just that it defamed people and destroyed their lives and reputations. People like the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor were the victims of a fantasist (Carl Beech) who was subsequently sent to prison for 18 years for perverting the course of justice. But Proctor and others were also the victims of a police force which bizarrely believed someone whom multiple journalists and others had already identified as the malicious fantasist that he was.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/14/operation-midland-national-disgrace-institutions-need-able-hold/?WT.mc_id

This story from The Times is relevant:

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/boots-makes-legal-history-after-police-let-thief-go-3d8jfd0vq

So staff at Boots, which loses between £10,000 and £12,000 a week to shoplifting, were upset when police officers arrived on the crime scene, decided the case was a “civil” matter and released Richards, who was already on a suspended sentence for theft. Boots was furious about the failure to dispense justice and decided to take part in what is believed to be the first private prosecution for shoplifting supported by a corporate victim.

Looking forward to possible civil unrest, I wonder if senior people in the Police are wondering whether losing the trust of the public for their own PR purposes and for shiny Stonewall baubles was such a smart move.

I wonder if senior people in the Police are wondering whether losing the trust of the public for their own PR purposes and for shiny Stonewall baubles was such a smart move

Unfortunately, that would require a critical faculty and awareness of the premier function of the police in a functioning country which seems completely absent. While recidivist criminals continue their prolific careers without interference the police are busy checking the thinking of Harry Miller and wasting millions investigating non existent satanic ancient Tories. It is symptomatic of profound dysfunction.

Just a very quick post

Undoubtably there are corrupt and incompetent police officers, some operating at very high levels.

In my experience of the police I think that most police officers are decent, hard working people who want to help society.

I would suggest that readers wishing to understand why the police service has become a tool for narcissistic actors to take revenge on their perceived enemies should be looking at PCCs and diversity orientated subsidiaries of PCCs.

I am also concerned about the organistion Common Puropse and the effect that it has had on policing.

Please be aware that there are lots of bonkers conspiracy theorists making insane claims about CP. This is one of the reasons why I am concerned about CP as it is very common for real conspiracies to be obscured by a veil of Davis Icke style conspiraloonery.

I have more to say on this issue, but I want to end by saying that many cops feel "under the cosh" because of the current woke policies. I cannot speak for all but I think that many are more gender critical than they are able to say openly.

Another very serious problem has been out competely irraitonal approach to drug legislation which has left countless vulnerable people exploited by county lines gangs, created significant revenue strems for serious OC networks and left police so weighed down with dealing with mentally ill and vulnerable addicts that they do not have resources to deal with other very serious issues, e.g. massive online fraud, sexual offences and violent, gang related rime. . This should be addressed urgently. I have some colutions to offer in this respect

Running late now, more later

I have more to say on this issue, but I want to end by saying that many cops feel "under the cosh" because of the current woke policies. I cannot speak for all but I think that many are more gender critical than they are able to say openly

Good post. FairCop also made the same point, that it is the upper echelons of the police who are promoting aggressive identity politics. Harry Miller had the resources to challenge this, but how many others being pursued for thought crime infractions simply submit? Be interested to hear your thoughts on county lines, but one thing about looking at the UK situation from a distance is that it is the Broken Windows policy in reverse. A prolific career in crime has zero consequences. Unless it's a Twitter thought crime in which case it can be career ending......

Can’t read the whole article but looks good

In terms of blame, I think people know the shit comes from the very top and wouldn’t blame ordinary officers?

From the article:

^It is worth casting our minds back to the time at which the Beech allegations were at their height. The crimes of Jimmy Savile had been posthumously exposed, leading to a justifiable public anger and amazement that somebody could have got away with acting as they had simply because of their high-profile position. Savile having died, there was nobody to have a reckoning with. This left the ground open for a classic moral panic and stampede. Fertile ground for demagogues, frauds and a collection of moral hucksters. It was inevitable that opportunists would step into the void that had opened. On this occasion the Labour MP Tom Watson was the person who appointed himself witchfinder general. In a set of extraordinary interventions in Parliament, he placed a conspiracy theory that would disgrace an online discussion forum onto the record in Hansard. In late October 2012, three weeks after the Savile expose, Watson used parliamentary privilege to demand David Cameron’s government investigate “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10”. He later wrote to Cameron warning him against caution in the subsequent investigations. For, Watson claimed with typically ignorant grandiosity, “decorous caution is the friend of the paedophile”.
Many institutions failed in the days and weeks that followed. Sections of the media went to town on allegations that the briefest smell test should have suggested were bogus. Many people failed to exercise decent judgment. The now sainted Phillip Schofield tried to ambush the prime minister on morning TV by handing him a list of alleged high-ranking paedophiles. It was a disgraceful moment, which Cameron was suitably and admirably restrained in side-stepping. But there was an insanity in the air. The LBC radio shock-jock James O’Brien ran show after show in which he gave the Beech allegations an absolutely clear run. O’Brien repeatedly warned his listeners about high-profile, murderous paedophile gangs. Day after day he used LBC to allege that lies were truths.
Perhaps it is inevitable that shock-jocks get away with such tirades. Perhaps they are not held in high enough regard for there to be any wider effort to go after their lies with a pooper-scooper.
But the police? It remains dumbfounding how the police in those crucial hours decided to stampede in the same direction as figures such as Watson and O’Brien. How could the Met have dared to described the Beech allegations – ahead of their investigations – as “credible and true”? How could the police have even thought of giving a press conference in front of the former Salisbury residence of the then long-deceased Sir Edward Heath? This is not the behaviour of an institution keeping its head while all about them are losing theirs. It is a text-book example of an institution joining a public panic and, by joining that panic, making it infinitely worse than it would otherwise have been. Behaviour legitimised, incidentally, by guidance drawn up by Keir Starmer, as DPP, that encouraged prosecutors not to focus on the credibility of those making allegations^

I know a Scotland Yard detective and I've asked him about all of this. He just shook his head and grimaced. Said he had much more important things to deal with and didn't want to get involved. I suspect that the next 12 months though.

I agree with this *In my experience of the police I think that most police officers are decent, hard working people who want to help society.

I would suggest that readers wishing to understand why the police service has become a tool for narcissistic actors to take revenge on their perceived enemies should be looking at PCCs and diversity orientated subsidiaries of PCCs.*

I have seen nuanced yet still quite threatening posts on Twitter by police services' LGBTQ groups. They have had pile-ons, for once imho quite deserved.

hoodathunkit, I’d like to hear more about that when you have time, please. I hadn’t heard of Common Purpose before your post and would like to know more.