This is a post from a close friend from Uni. It was written in response to a previous post of mine about the police. I'm not sure which one since there are a few variations on a theme but it doesn't really matter. She is one of the very few people who have read this that have consciously met me in person. We lived in the same place at uni and lived the cliche of staying up all night talking about random crap that neither of us could do much about but was interesting none the less. We disagreed on many, many things in terms of our respective outlooks on life however on some things, we are in absolute agreement:
I’ve been following your blog and I really wanted to comment on this particular post about the police force in this country. I was having a conversation this morning with someone who belonged to those parts of society who mock the police force and (for want of any other expression) don’t really treat them with any particular respect. Said person described them as “glorified bullies” among many other terms and it reminded me of what I read here a while ago.
Personally, I really feel for the police force in this country because they really are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If they come down on criminals with the full force of the law in this country, they are hauled in front of a tribunal to face charges of police brutality, if they behave in other way, they are accused of being too soft. The riots that took place in August are a good example of this. If the police had acted in any other way to the violence and had actually tried to stop someone from hurting themselves or anyone else, they would have found themselves standing in a court of law. Whilst I agree that the police force in this country is not perfect, I firmly believe that we are extremely privileged to live in a country where we can trust our law and order force.
I myself used to live in a North African country and found the police there to be very intimidating and used guns unnecessarily to maintain their version of order and I would have certainly gone to my embassy had I encountered any problem there. This is by far not the worst example though. A few weeks ago, I was watching a documentary with Ross Kemp (please don’t judge me, I love the man) about a city in Northern Mexico called Ciudad Juarez that has the world’s highest murder rate (around 10 people per day). At best, you can say the police force are completely useless to allow things to get that bad however, many people who live there believe that the police accept bribes from drug lords to turn a blind eye and shockingly, many believe that the police are partially responsible for the murders of almost 4000 women since 2001. It may be a case of turning a blind eye but many think they have a more chilling role in the disappearances of these women.
Surely in comparison, British people should count their blessings. This is not the only case of police being corrupt, devious and even murderous. Rio de Janeiro and its notoriously corrupt police force spring to mind here. I have no doubt that there are some bad apples in the police force in Britain, but I strongly believe that most play a fair game and people’s ignorant negative attitude can only make things worse for them. If the riots have taught us anything, it’s that if you work with the police, they will do everything they can to help you. It’s those who work against them who feel the negative effects of the law (and rightly so)
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far through my ramblings, well done. Please keep writing JR, it’s been very interesting so far.
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