Spot the difference

[Also published on Once More.com]

Lets play a game! I am going to relate two stories about our beloved police force and I’d like you to tell me what the difference is between them. Here goes.

Story One.

In my village in rural Cambs, an unscrupulous gang of block pavers are in operation.
One day last week they called upon an elderly gentleman requesting the chance to quote him happy on a new driveway.
His driveway is old, so he accepts their offer – for a quote.
Botchit and Scarper then proceed to physically dig up his driveway thus trapping his only vehicle in his garage and compelling the gentleman to spend his way out of the problem, ideally with them.
Elderly gentleman is not so easily intimidated and calls for help.
Police arrive.
Police investigate. Botchit and Scarper say elderly gentleman asked them to dig up his driveway. Elderly gentleman says Botchit and Scarper are doing so without his consent and thus creating a case of criminal damage.
Police conclude that it is his word against theirs.
Police action – Do absolutely nothing and drive away.

Story Two.

European newspaper editor lacks taste and publishes unfunny cartoons of Mohammed dressed as a terrorist.
Muslims in Middle East take offence and start angry demonstrations.
Other European newspaper editors claim freedom of speech and expression and repeat the publication of these unfunny cartoons. Daily Mail asleep! (Only way to explain why they didn’t join in!)
Middle East explodes in a furore of angry demonstrations and set fire to symbols of the offending European countries.
Muslims in Britain decide to share the offence taken by their Middle Eastern brethren and take to the streets of London.
Quite astonishingly, Muslim participants from Luton, Bedford, London etc commit gross acts of criminal incitement directly in front of our police force by carrying banners calling for all manner of terrorist acts of murder to be wrought on innocent people.
Police observe. Police action – Do absolutely nothing and successfully complete shift with no extra paperwork to do.

The answer of course is that the difference is nothing more than the SCALE of police failure.

In the eighties when I was growing up, I watched our police battle bravely against miners, football hooligans, and all manner of civil unrest in the name of law and order. The police were revered and trusted and stood tall against violence, wrong doing and intimidation. One grew up with a clear understanding that if you nothing to hide, the police were on your side and would protect you, and that if you were up to no good, the police would leap on you from a great height.

Now in 2006, the police are spineless and toothless and society has adapted in their shadow. How did we get to this sorry situation?

Let me make a few suggestions:

Our leaders forget that society takes its lead from them and quickly reflects the attitudes displayed by them. Hence, when you commission the Macpherson report in your first year of office and systematically and intentionally trash the police force simply to demonstrate that you are going to squash the old Tory vanguard, society reads, “Police are shit, police are powerless – ignore them.”

When you pass a gold plated Human Rights Act, society reads, “Cool, we can do exactly as we please and if challenged just scream “Human Rights” and everyone will run away.”

When you operate a prison policy that releases as many criminals as you can to save money, the criminal fringe read, “Make hay while the sun shines, boys. So long as you don’t actually kill anyone, they won’t lock you up.”

I could go on and on and on and on….. Quite simply, we have a system of Government which is lead by the rights and concerns of the criminal rather than the victim. A system of Government which fights crime on the basis that it is better for 10 guilty men to go free, than for 1 innocent man to be incarcerated.

Law and Order is NOT political. It is purely common sense founded in a basic understanding of group dynamics and human psychology. In order to keep the lid on decency and order, you have to be prepared to hold it down firmly and accept that a few people will get trapped along the rim. The alternative is what we have now – that you release the lid and millions of people feel threatened, insecure, unsafe, unprotected, vulnerable and deserted.

Our police are letting us all down at the moment. But it is not the fault of the bobbies and sergeants. They know what should be done and would do it in a trice if they could. No. The blame lies entirely with this crass and inept Government and the lickspittle poodles they place at the helm of the force.

You may think that my closing words lower the tone of this debate, but it really isn’t that far a jump to replace my elderly gentleman’s block paving incident with the rape of a young lady in a quiet back street and realise that, disregarding for a moment the offence of public indecency, the Police COULD conclude and act in exactly the same way.

How bleeping frightening does it get!