Originally posted by paintingploddy
@ Dammekkos
1. Please enlighten me to what institution you refer. Name my institution and demonstrate the hypocrisy if you don\'t mind, or are you nw widening your dislike to encompass my 10000 colleagues in addition to your local constabulary.
The main bit hypocracy I dislike are the young officers who happily indulge in recreational drug use on weekends (maybe smoke some weed at a house party or pop a pill in a club) and then help to imprison like minded individuals during the week. There\'s also the double standards that I hate too, such as when a copper lets a fellow copper off with a speeding charge and the like, or an officer, in the course of their daily life, commits an offence and does not have to face any consequences due to the conspiritorial nature of the 10000 strong institution that we are discussing. I really really despise this aspect of your profession, one rule for us and one rule for you, it\'s just the little things like that.
I saw an episode of Frasier yesterday as I had the day off. His dad (the ex-policeman) refuses to fix a ticket for one of the brothers. Sadly this is a fictional character, and I suspect a fictional situation. Most wouldn\'t bat an eyelid at subverting the system for one of their nearest and dearest I think.
2. Where do I mention orders? If a complaint is made by a member of the public do you want police to ignore it or follow it up?
You - Oh, and remember we don\'t make the laws. Quite often we can be guilty of going over the line (everywhere from an inch to a mile) but did it ever occur they may have been responding to a particular complaint,
and the legislation may have given them the power to do exactly what they did? (Anyone here a legal practitioner knowledgable in British law? can you assist).
Essentialy this is just passing the blame from yoursleves to someone else, as if you\'re forced to do the work that you do or something.
3. Decent people do get mistreated by police worldwide. Sometimes it is deliberate, sometimes it is systemic, other times it is an honest mistake, and sometimes it is a byproduct of the decent persons own actions. What matters is that there are mechanisms through courts, ombudsmen, politicians and the media by which we can be held to account if we do exceed our authority. I won\'t pretend every member of a law enforcement agency is the same, unfortunately you do.
Quite right. I am tarring you all with the same brush, a bit unfair perhaps, but it happens in all walks of life.
4. I don\'t know which criminals you associate with but the ones who show respect are few and far between.
This is, admittedly, probably a load of bull. I just read a book called \" The Guv\'nor\", borrowed from a friend. Not really my type of thing but it was reccomended. The author talks about the respect between villains and law enforcment officials. Not really sure why I said that \'cos I don\'t really believe it, I think I was just trying to explain why people who choose to involve themselves in your profession often don\'t get the respect they think that they deserve from normal people. I stand by my point though that good normal people often fall foul of the law, leading to a dislike of the legal establishment.
Get the chip off your shoulder and PM me if you want to discuss it further.
I\'m not sure if that\'s spurious or disingenuous, suggesting that I have some sort of psychological flaw because I disagree with your views, probably both.
Lastly Farseerlum has it best. If you want to protect your rights learn about them first and choose your battlefield. If you decide to resist physically you will lose in the short term and probably in the long term. You take your cause to the right forums after acting reasonably and most times you will come out the winner (unless of course the law (meaning the statutes) is against you).
This argument always amuses me. In order to protect ourselves from a system that purports to have our own interests at heart we should all become amatuer lawyers, spending our time studying case law and such. I\'m sure that would be great, but it takes several years of full time study and many more years in practice to learn the intricacies of the legal system. Is this a serious suggestion or just rhetoric? You have already admitted that you don\'t know the ins and outs of the system you help to enforce.