mikecg wrote:Voyageur wrote: if they ever do have to fire a shot. They do NOT do so lightly and I am astonished that any of them volunteer for the role at all.
Because it's a form of power they first discover during the heady days of being the bully boy of the playground at school, to the crazy power they then embrace in the military that leads them to the doors of the Met and which serves it's Autumn as a screw in the prison service.
I could be totally off the mark with this one but something tells me they have a thing for uniform.
But I must add out of fairness I wouldn't want to tarre all police with the same brush.
But your statements on this thread
are tarring all police with the same brush!.
Yes, there have been some corrupt and/or incompetent police officers. And thankfully nowadays they are more often identified and dealt with rather than being ignored. But there are bad apples in every single profession - the police are not unique in this.
The police are under enormous scrutiny and pressure, and they get it in the neck constantly. My other half is a police officer and is constantly terrified to make even the most minor mistake because the result is often being hung out to dry by the Met, vilified in the press and made into a public hate figure. I feel enormously sorry for the poor bugger who pushed Ian Tomlinson down, for example. In a high-pressure, adrenaline-filled situation, constantly in danger, police officers do occasionally get the balance between protecting the public, protecting themselves and making sure force used is proportionate slightly wrong. The police can never get that balance right all of the time. They're human. And in any case, there will always be some people saying the police were over-aggressive and others saying they were too passive. So even when the police get it right, there will be some who believe they were wrong.
And Mike, I find your ignorant generalisations of police officers and their motivations for joining the service both generally and personally offensive. My other half is a liberal pacifist who hates violence, loves books and does the times crossword on the way into work. He hates wearing a uniform and is motivated by the intellectual challenge of solving crime, a heartfelt hatred of bullies and unfairness as well as a genuine desire to provide a public service. And I know many of his colleagues feel the same way.
This thread actually makes me feel quite sick. No police officer uses his firearm lightly. The amount of scrutiny (let alone the paperwork) provides a strong disincentive on them to use force in this way. Leave them alone.
