Whom do the Police Serve? - Part Three

For those who still cling to the ideas that we have a wonderful police force, which it is a wicked sin to criticise, here are two more personal testimonies, which suggest otherwise. Both are reproduced with the permission of the writers, who wish to remain anonymous.

‘The police service today bears no relationship to the service my husband joined in the 1960s aged 19.  He served  for more than 30 years and retired as a Chief Inspector who had experienced IRA terrorism in the 1970s, a serious train crash and the miners' strike in the 1980s,  as well as numerous murders, rapes and the rise of drug related crime.  He wouldn't advise any young man or woman to join up now as over the years we have witnessed the insidious descent into the thuggish organisation it has become now.  Our theory is that society has become mired in so much evil and corruption, it has rubbed off on our police service and they are just as bad as the criminals they are supposed to be protecting us from. ‘

And

‘When I was 18/19 in Autumn 1989 there was a big problem in [a major English city] of youths throwing missiles at passing vehicles.  The local paper had a long campaign to try to find culprits and the police were anxious to put a stop to it.  One Saturday afternoon I was driving a service bus into the city and saw three youths on the side of the dual carriageway hurl a large lump of earth at the side of the bus.  As I was almost slowing to a standstill to an approaching queue, I stopped and gave chase.  I was happy to leave my vehicle and cash with the passengers on board.   I knew many of the passengers by name.  I caught one youth,  frogmarched him back to the bus and took him to the bus station, little more than 500 yards away.  I flagged a security guard to call the police.  In my youthful eagerness I expected the police to arrive, sirens blazing, to make an arrest.  An hour later I was due to depart on a service and left the youth with security. 

Later the following week I received a letter informing me that the boy’s parents wouldn’t be pressing charges against me as the boy’s parents were happy to let it pass.  That was it.  Most passengers on the bus passed me their details as witnesses to the whole event, but the police never bothered.’