Bob-a-job coppers
So let me get this right then. Any jumped up little Hitler in a Toytown uniform or even plain clothes, slightly threadbare with a shiny seat, and the Home Office equivalent of an Ovaltineys' badge can go around handing out on the spot fines to give the real police more time to fill in their paperwork and hand out crime numbers so people can claim on their insurance for crimes that will never even be investigated, let alone solved.
You have to ask if there are any civil rights and liberties that this bunch of snake oil salesmen and carpetbaggers masquerading as a Government are not prepared to trample in the dust. What next? Workmates paid to spy on you report any anti-Government leanings.
Policing works on consent or perhaps more accurately only works when there is consent. When you have less than 140,000 police against a population of 65 million or whatever - the Government don't have a clue how many people are here - then without consent you have a problem.
We already have any Tom, Dick or Harry with a clipboard and a gold star from council and a whole host of state and quasi-official bodies able to come into your home without permission. We have the plastic policemen, the Community Support Officers to make it look as if there are police on the beat - unless you happen to be drowning of course in which case they have wait for a properly trained member of the official constabulary. Now we have the situation where untrained security guards and council jobsworths can throw their weight about and feel important - A&E departments stand by. Apparently it is called the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme or CSAS which is the usual meaningless important sounding drivel churned out by the state these days. Presumably there will be some delivery unit somewhere in the bowels of Downing Street measuring progress against targets.
Civil rights and liberties have been built up over two thousand years and are being steadily destroyed over the course of a decade. Perhaps the time has come to fight back. If everyone tells the bob a job police force where to stick their badges then the Government has a problem and might realise that policing and Government are by consent.
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Roger Clarke - Birmingham’s very own Grumpy Old Man on what gets right up his nose.
In deepest Redditch a CSAS operative stumbles across several young people spray painting a post box.CSAS"I`m going to fine you for that! Young people "We have no money" CSAS "You`ll all get ASBOs" Young people "We`ve all got one." CSAS "You`ll go to prison!" Young people "It`s full" CSAS " I`m taking you down to the police station." Young people getting irate "You and whose army"CSAS "You`ve spelt Fascist wrong, Good Evening."
This is just a further step in making the police into a 'crime force'. The upper echelons of the police seem to be keen on giving up the minor problems so that they can become a cross between 'The Sweeney' and a SWAT team. Take traffic as an example. Since all traffic was given over to the wardens the roads have become more dangerous. The general standard of driving has dropped dramatically. Cars are left anywhere. I've seen police cars carefully drive pass cars parked on pedestrians crossings with no reaction from the officers in the car. Probably too busy to get to the next coffee break at Edward Road. It is much more sexy to scream up to a road smash with all klaxons blaring and lights flashing then to stop the accident happening in the first place.
Don't they realise that this proposal effectively says that thes incidents are of little importance. Nip the small problems in the bud and you decrease the chances of bigger problems in the future. From a police viewpoint I'd have thought that policing the minor infringements give them a chance to interact with the public and gain confidence and information.