Police that can’t be trusted

Is that in Wales Annie? Near to you?

I’ve expressed my sorrow at your loss before, Anniebach, and do so again.

However, I don’t really understand how that reflects on Sarah Everard’s death and the police culture around it. 15 women have died at the hands of serving or former police officers in the last twelve years. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/28/at-least-15-serving-or-former-police-have-killed-women-in-uk-since-2009-report

Being burgled in 1975 wasn’t much fun. Our neighbours reported some one entering the house but the police told them they couldn’t come straight away. Then when we called to report the burglary, they said there was no point in coming if they couldn’t catch them in the act.

SueDomin I only spoke of deaths in car crashes because they
were omitted from number of deaths.

15 deaths in 12 years is 15 too many but there were 135,301 police officers in Wales and England March 2021. It seems they
are all being tarred with the same brush.

Mollygo spoke of the police refusing to come out to a burglary in 1975. In 1972 a friend of ours ,police officer, was shot and blinded , in 1974 another police officer friend was called to a house because neighbours reported a man hitting his wife, Henry went immediately, the wife struck him on the
head with an old iron frying pan.

My concerns are the facts that there are some bastards in the
force but they are certainly not the majority.

Most police are good and honest, that goes without saying but it seems there are quite a minority who are not. A good start would be to get rid of every single one of those officers involved with that WhatsApp group. No arguments, they are not suitable for their jobs. Those at the top who have turned a blind eye to that sort of rubbish should also go because that is where the buck stops.A clean sweep , literally, is called for.

Agree nanna8 but surely not ‘quite a minority’.

What are the police like in Australia nanna8, am curious.

www.scotland.police.uk/what-s-happening/news/2021/october/lone-police-officers-to-offer-verification-check-to-members-of-the-public/

I don’t know how successful this will be in practice but it is a start.

Well it is a start but the issue is he was a genuine police officer.

Jess Phillips MP
@jessphillips
·
1h
I reiterate THE GOVERNMENT ARE REFUSING TO CATEGORISE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AS SERIOUS CRIME.

There are calls for every single police officer in the UK to be re-vetted. Not sure how practical that is, or whether it would change anything. My worry is that if we don’t find a solution, some will use mistrust of the police as an excuse for civil disobedience and we’ll end up in a worse mess.

Right! So that’s all the main political parties that refuse to respect and look after women’s needs! I was just waiting for the Tories to join the cavalcade!
Now is the time for one, even just one party to stand up and say ‘Violence against females is a serious crime. Removing safe spaces for females is unacceptable. Hate crime against females is a serious crime.’
These are all interlinked, so no picking and choosing.
Which party do you think will not just stand up and publicly say it and also do something about it?

Agree with the sentiments above but serious urgent questions must be asked about the Vetting process? Or if his colleagues knew something, why didn't they " Whistle blow" the Met has some first class police but this has made Cressida Dick et al stink!
However, not just the Police who cock - up look at Harold Shipman.

Pammie1

There are calls for every single police officer in the UK to be re-vetted. Not sure how practical that is, or whether it would change anything. My worry is that if we don’t find a solution, some will use mistrust of the police as an excuse for civil disobedience and we’ll end up in a worse mess.

I'm not sure what re-vetting would achieve, Couzens didn't have a criminal record. Also the PNC check on his car following the incidents at McDonalds would not have identified him as police officer. I also worry that mistrust of the police will be misused by some people. I wonder if all the proper checks are being done when officers transfer from one force to another? fwiw in the Shipman case, a revue led to changes in issuing death certificates which would have made it much more difficult for him to certify the deaths of those he had murdered as far as I can remember there was no overall scrutiny of every GP. Although many have slated the advice given out by the MET, I actually think it's useful to have some guidance with regard to male police interacting with women. As others have said, I would have got in the car with Couzens but now I wouldn't!

User7777

I am amazed that his overriding need for power over a young woman led him to think he would get away with it. The cameras in peoples cars, showing a tall person showing him clearly trying to convince her, which was his warrant card, and handcuffing her. Right down to claiming a gang made him do it. Poor, beautiful, girl met a monster. We all know his life sentence will be hell. Justice is served

User7777
It just added another layer to his warped thinking.
Just as Jimmy Saville assaulted a young girl in full view of millions on viewers watching Top of the Pops.

I don’t think anyone is saying all police are bad, Anniebach but the problem for us is that we, as women, have no means of telling who are the ones to avoid.

There are some horrific accounts in the papers of the endemic misogyny in police forces. If other men don’t call out their fellow officers, then they are complicit in misogyny.

As Marina Hyde says in the Guardian, people will often comment that someone like Couzens is just one bad apple. We forget the rest of the saying - one bad apple spoils the barrel which essentially means everyone is contaminated by that one bad apple.

I work with vulnerable children, some people who do the same job are unpleasant, abusive etc etc. I am not upset when people point this out and certainly not upset when steps are taken to try to protect children from abuse.

Police officers are drawn from society and should reflect it. We need a more ethically diverse force. Brian Piddick former senior officer, now Lib Peer said this week that he was told the force welcomes people from ethic backgrounds, gays, lesbians etc. The difficulty is that once accepted, the expectation is to behave and present like a straight white male.

I believe every officer who was party of this monsters nickname, party to his WhatsApp group, and party to his flashing, should be sacked without a moments doubt

They are guilty too

I agree BlueBelle. Complete no tolerance policy.
Lemongrove you ask about policing in Australia.
I can only answer from experience of the Queensland Police Force in the seventies and early eighties when the motto was ‘Firmness and Courtesy’.
The force lost a good many good and decent officers due to corruption at the highest levels. Good officers who tried to change things were forced out by misogynistic and corrupt senior people in the force along with government officials. This finally ended in a judicial enquiry when the then Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner were charged.
The name was then changed in 89 or 90 to Queensland Police Service and the motto changed to ‘With Honour we Serve’.
Not sure if the name change has made a difference but by then the best had resigned and given service elsewhere.
Shame to drop courtesy, surely we can serve with honour and courtesy.
I hope someone in Queensland can update us with the current situation and hopefully Nanna8 will let us know about Victoria when she wakes up.

Annie

Great posts Foxie

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I don’t think that every single police officer is bad. But I do think the police force as a system is so rotten that it needs to be thrown out, frankly.

Time was, the head of the Met would be sacked for this kind of mess. Under Johnson, no one is accountable.

I cannot stop thinking of that poor young woman and what she went through. Couzens ought to have been suspended and investigated at the VERY LEAST. This was “allowed” to happen.