I've long argued that the UK's anti-speeding jihad has seriously degraded the relationship between the average British motorist and the police. Despite the public's underlying laissez-faire attitude towards invasive policing– if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about– it stops being "fair" when it starts being you. By now, millions of otherwise law-abiding motorists have been trained to see the police as "the enemy." By the same token, the us vs. them gestalt has alienated the police from their so-called employers. The Times reports that the Metropolitan [London] police have been emboldened to the point where they don't even feel compelled to pretend to give a shit about road safety. How else could you explain a Facebook site created by the police where they boast about accidents and, get this, collisions with pedestrians? Needless to say, the Powers That Be have pulled the "Look I’ve Had a Pocol" (slang for police collision) page, and warned 14 officers to cut that out. But not before we learned that "One picture… showed a police vehicle in an accident with a small white car. The officer who posted it wrote: 'I did him a favour. At 82 years old you just shouldn’t be on the road and if you are, then most certainly don’t go through a green light into the path of an innocent police car.' Another member wrote: 'Ran over a drunk. I believe he has a permanent limp and a hefty payout. I was given a three-month holiday from job driving. Ooh, bummer.'"
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
Schwaa? The UK has a laissez-faire attitude to policing? Since when?
Look, I’m a card-carrying leftist, and I even I think that the UK government oversteps its bounds when it comes to restriction and surveillance.
Next time you’re in the UK and you feel like asking “cheerful, chirpy bobby” for directions, think again.
It really is a “them and us” situation now in the UK. Terrorism is a good example. If you have brown skin, you can look forward to being locked up for 42 days without trial or reason. This will lead to thousands of muslims (not the Caucasian ones, you’re ok) to have a mistrust of the UK police force. Yet, when the UK police force are without a clue on a particular terrorist case, they’ll appeal to muslims up and down the country for help! Like they’ll give it to them!
Likewise, the motorist. It’s not become a game of who can get one over on the Police force! This has led to speed cameras being destroyed, police making convictions up (as charted by TTAC) and basically leading to all out war.
Mind you, I can’t blame the police force TOO much for all of this. Remember, the police ENFORCE current law. It’s the government who MAKE current law……
psarhjinian
The UK public has had a laissez-faire response to ever-more-invasive police tactics. That is, they’ve taken it lying down.
The police themselves are far from laissez-faire, which is part of the point.
Ooops, my bad. I’d like to take a mulligan on that comment.
My dad told me years ago that citizens tend to get what the deserve; Big Brother at it’s best.
Good ol big brother. Always there for you, whether you want it or not.
Even if the tree WAS in the road, why would you then crash into it?