Two police items in the news.
First up, a bunch of riot police took a riot shield out and put it to good use. As a toboggan. They found a nicely slippery hill and slid down it.
They will face re-education because riot shields are not to be abused in this way. They are for battering people, and using them in harmless recreation will just embarrass them. Those protestors might later poke fun at the shields and hurt their feelings.
Okay, they were on duty so they were in the wrong to go off sliding down hills but if they are riot police and there are no riots, it's not a particularly huge deal to my mind. It's not as if Hell's Grannies were running riot in Milton Keynes at the time, ramraiding for Sanatogen, cat food and slippers on their mobility scooters. Yes, they were in the wrong but look at it another way.
It was a brilliant piece of PR, especially since they agreed to be filmed by a bystander. They showed themselves as ordinary human beings who like a bit of fun, something it's hard to imagine from a lot of the stories out there.
The second story is not such good police PR. The new Chief Constable of South Wales Police is scared to go to the shops on his own. There are some wonderful derisory comments from an underling. There is no way this man can command the respect of beat officers if he has to have his shopping collected 'for security reasons'. What a weed.
As for public perception, well, what would you think of your local chief constable's ability to control the local thugs and other low-life if he's scared to visit the shops in daylight? He can't even protect himself and you're paying him to protect you? Little old ladies and small children go to those shops on their own. The Boss of the local police is scared to do the same. Not exactly a PR coup.
So a bunch of coppers go for a bit of a sledge when things are quiet, stage an excellent bit of police PR, and they get in trouble for it. Meanwhile a copper who likes to hide under the table gets promoted to Chief Constable.
Someone, somewhere, should reconsider the current priorities of the force.
8 comments:
It's now a "service" not a force....
It'll become more and more of a force when it comes to dealing with lippy dissidents.
And less and less and less of a force when dealing with burglars,robbers and thugs.
Ironic that the slippery cops got nabbed because they posted their antics on youtube, just like dumbo hoodies who parade their weapons there or bikers doing a ton-up.
"Asked for his thoughts on comments made by Miss Wilding that life in the Valleys could be ‘without hope’, Mr Vaughan said: ‘Barbara did a fine job setting the foundations for the force and now I am putting community regeneration at the core of our work".
Try answering the question mate.
A couple of weeks ago I saw another bunch of cops on the news (sure it was the Beeb) doing the exact same thing in a short clip. Thought at the time how nice it was to see them joining the human race - if only briefly.
Actually, that's thoroughly in keeping with the new priorities of the 'force'...
No wonder most of the good ones have emigrated, or are thinking of emigrating!
Still, could have been worse for them.
They might have been spotted by a couple of PCSOs, and then there'd have been trouble...!
The scaredy top copper item is excellent news! He, like all politicians, should be terrified and remain terrified of the public until such time as they do what they are supposed to.
I agree with John Pickworth - O.K. so they were on duty, but doesn't that include mingling with the public? A few trips down the slope on a riot shield suggests that some of them have had enough of 'Elf & Safety' like the rest of us.
God knows they need to regain the public's trust...
Then, as JuliaM spotted, a couple of Plastic Plods go and ruin it all....
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