Police State

[Churchill]

Talking of PCSOs, did you know that the Transport Police have their own PCSOs?

Also, since when could PCSOs carry handcuffs?

[expat]

Talking of PCSOs, did you know that the Transport Police have their own PCSOs?

Also, since when could PCSOs carry handcuffs?

OK, while we're talking of PCSOs, the Terrorism Act 2008 stops you photographing police constables, but PCSOs do not carry the rank of constable, so photographing them is not covered by the act.

Expect no PCSOs and few PCs to know that, though. They don't seem to see the need to follow the rules anyway.

[Cyberman]

If people treated the police with respect, the police may respond in kind. I have a mate who is a firearms copper and you couldn't meet a nicer guy.

[ThomasSoerensen]

If you begin to plan one..you'll get arrested. I think its called thought crime..
definitly falls within the Anti-Terrorism Act 2006.

Some interesting reading..
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...crXfgD97HQV9G1
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2009...ge-tumbleweed/
http://boingboing.net/2009/03/03/man...man-arres.html

And we thought Stalin was bad...

Don't be so down.

This is the real Britain

[lilelvis2000]

If people treated the police with respect, the police may respond in kind. I have a mate who is a firearms copper and you couldn't meet a nicer guy.

Ditto. My neighbour is a PC and the son of the neighbour across from us is also a cop. Both pretty nice fellow. The guys that "walk the beats" are usually nice fellow there to help us out.

Though, I think they don't know the laws themselves and have been trained to invoke the Antiterrorism Act at the drop of a hat.

[Cyberman]

Ditto. My neighbour is a PC and the son of the neighbour across from us is also a cop. Both pretty nice fellow. The guys that "walk the beats" are usually nice fellow there to help us out.

Though, I think they don't know the laws themselves and have been trained to invoke the Antiterrorism Act at the drop of a hat.

Yeah indeed. I read an article by David Davis last week in which he ridiculed that Quick copper over his lack of knowledge of the law. Davis had pulled him up many times in previous discussions when Quick had preached a law to him that was incorrect.

[Platypus]

If people treated the police with respect, the police may respond in kind. I have a mate who is a firearms copper and you couldn't meet a nicer guy.

Respect has to be earned. Not so long ago (40+ years), the police were automatically respected, now they are not. They have lost the respect they had due to being knobs, beating people to death, lying, etc.

[expat]

If people treated the police with respect, the police may respond in kind. I have a mate who is a firearms copper and you couldn't meet a nicer guy.

Yes. But if you wish to do something that you as a citizen have a legal right to do (e.g. protest) and the nice copper is given orders as part of his job to do something that conflicts with that, and as a result he can hardly avoid feeling that you are not showing respect, then he may not respond in kind.

That doesn't, or should not, take away the citizen's legal rights. One of which is the right not always to do what a policeman wants you to do, if this wish of his is not backed up by law.

[expat]

Respect has to be earned. Not so long ago (40+ years), the police were automatically respected, now they are not. They have lost the respect they had due to being knobs, beating people to death, lying, etc.

I believe that by and large that is true. I don't want to exaggerate the Dixon of Dock Green fairytale, but I do think that at one time the British police in general thought of respect in those terms. Now they, or some at least, seem to see it in the American cops' sense of unwilling obedience through fear.

This may indeed be more the fault of the society that they deal with than their own; and the fault of the government(s) that they work for.

[Platypus]

unwilling obedience through fear

Nicely put and exactly right