So a policeman publically punches a
defenceless woman three times in the head while she’s lying on the floor. It’s
only one more thing about police conduct towards civilians in recent years. Do
you want me to go through the extremely long list; tampering with evidence…
withholding evidence from defence lawyers which show their clients are
innocent… withholding evidence from Courts… actively conspiring to fit up and
frame innocent people… acting undercover to infiltrate anti-fascist and other
protest movements then engaging in sexual relations with their participants…
falsifying evidence such as in the Hillsborough Disaster and blaming dead
children for being drunk… accepting money from journalists for information
about news stories… undercover spying on the family of murder victim Stephen
Lawrence, attempting to damage his parent’s marriage, corruptly manipulating
their own enquiry into his murder on behalf of the drug dealing father of one
of those accused of the crime along with purposefully withholding evidence from
the formal Enquiry into his death… making false allegations against a Minister
of the Crown and causing his resignation from office… a long list of people
dying alone in cells while in police custody… the public shooting by police of
innocent people regarded as suspects such as Charles de Menezes on a London
tube train, and of course many others… But most important of all perhaps,
conspiring to have innocent people convicted and falsely imprisoned, often for
many years, for crimes they did not commit while knowing all along that these
people were innocent. Many names come to mind from the past such as Judith Ward,
the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four, Stepan Kiszco the genial giant with
learning difficulties so shamelessly fitted up… And then a whole raft of recent
cases involving the South Wales Police such as that of the Cardiff Three…
Equally foul has been the practice of
undercover police using the names of dead children as identities. Conduct without
any sense of shame or morality like all the rest.
This is not simply a case of evil behaviour
by the Metropolitan Police. It’s a national phenomenon having involved the
Serious Crime Squad in the Midlands, the South Wales Police Force and that in
South Yorkshire with its extraordinary close long term relationship with serial
paedophile Jimmy Savile to say nothing of its involvement in the Hillsborough
Disaster… Countless horror stories of corruption, violence, despicable lying,
the deliberate and purposeful deprivation of personal liberty, endless
bullying, thuggery and deception. The list of evil and immoral behaviour is
endless!
All of which being true and having been
proven by events leads to the question, exactly who are these people and how is
it that they are able to do such things? A general and often repeated defence
of the police for this vast slough of immoral and illegal conduct is that 99%
are honest and decent and do a good job but their efforts are always spoiled by
the occasional ONE BAD APPLE in the barrel who tarrs the reputation of all of
them. This ONE BAD APPLE defence has been making the rounds for more years
than the Bible. Yes, they’re all good as
gold and it’s all being spoiled by that one bad apple! Well I’m afraid that
this kind of bullshit excuse, mainly put about by politicians and other
apologists simply won’t wash anymore because there’s been too many bad apples
in too many barrels. Furthermore the role of the police has become increasingly
political. Particularly since the time of the Thatcher Governments of the
1980’s. If the police are given a political remit it’s not their fault but they
took the remit they were given to keep order during the Coal Miner’s Strike far
beyond the matter of supervision and control and viciously attacked thousands
of striking coal miners in a manner of barely disguised brutality. Again, if
they were instructed to infiltrate various protest movements by both Tory and
Labour Governments did such instructions include politically and emotionally
manipulating the participants of these groups and having sexual relations with
them? Presumably it didn’t, so again one needs to simply ask, what kind of
people are they?
The answer to this question is simple
enough. These people are shamelessly and morally dirty, however of equal importance is the question as to
whether the police themselves should rightly be blamed for their vast ocean of
foul conduct? And my answer to this question will undoubtedly shock many. No, I
don’t think the police are to blame for all their filthy behaviour. These
people are given and have more power to intervene in the lives of almost the
entire population than anyone else. They have more actual power on an individual level than anyone else in any other
social group, and while it is true that they are given certain training, THEY
ARE FUNDAMENTALLY NO DIFFERENT TO ANYONE ELSE IN OUR SOCIETY WITH THE SAME
TENDENCIES, SAME FAULTS OF CHARACTER AND SAME EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS. The fact
that they are police does not mean to say that they are more morally or
intellectually superior, self-controlled or virtuous than all the rest of us! They
are people just like anyone else yet people who are given enormous power over
everyone and required to operate in the community as though they are
somehow different or special WHICH THEY SIMPLY ARE NOT! They are
individuals given enormous power to intervene and act in the lives of millions
yet be entirely unaffected by who and what they are… unaffected by their own attitudes,
temperament, emotions and value judgments, and not least the behaviour of all
the people they have to deal with. In short they are somehow expected to be
rise above so many of their own personal characteristics along with those of
their surroundings and yet be able to perfectly manage the power given to them.
Quite frankly such a demand is simply impossible. As fatuous as is the demand
of trust.
The police are imperfect people. As
imperfect as anyone else, who are given great power over others. Imperfect
people, often with poor education and often lacking any fundamental morality,
is a seriously fraught and dangerous basis for making complex judgements over others
in matters of law or ethics… good or
bad, right or wrong, and all too many fail in the task. Given such a background
with the police no better or worse than anyone else and with the personal power
given to them should we really expect anything else?
However it also needs to be said that the
many who behave in a criminal manner do so because so much of the general public
allows it. More accurately, perhaps this should read, an all too complacent and
unintelligent general public allows it. In short, most people simply don’t care
and that is a fact. Recent statistics show that despite a tidal wave of
revelations of violent, corrupt and plainly immoral police conduct over recent
decades, 66% percent of the population still believe they are doing a good,
honest and decent job and that by far the greater majority of those surveyed had
confidence in the police. A statistic such as this cannot be ignored. Knowing
everything they know the great majority of the population is happy with its
police and their conduct!
Sounds like a great one up and show of
support for the police. However just one note of caution. The police are the
cement for the general maintenance of social order, a psychological necessity
in the lives of the vast majority of people as opposed to chaos and disorder.
Order as a psychological necessity in a complex yet dynamic modern industrial
society is the fundamental basis of stability. A quintessential protection from
loss. Disorder, chaos and loss, underpinned by such crucial psychological
factors as insecurity, anxiety and fear, are contrary to the desired character
of daily life and the stability of work, family and prosperity. In the minds of
so many, the police, representing authority and the cement ordering daily life,
are a indeed a much needed psychologically stabilizing factor. An on-the-ground
symbol of permanence. Something that those most fearing change such as the
lower middle class so desperately need. As those who exist and are paid to
counter criminality and disorder the police represent assurance and reassurance
and maybe this psychological value is of far greater importance to the majority
of people than any considerations of honesty and integrity, honor or justice,
right or wrong. Things that can be put to one side as a moral luxury when
inside so many heads there’s a far greater fear.
Injustices are things that happen to just a
few others but they’re not likely to happen to me! That said I’ll leave it to
you. If you think that the police in general are Ratfuckers that’s your choice.
If you think they’re mostly nice guys that’s your choice too. Or do you think
that apples are always likely to turn bad?
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