Police State

When and how did Great Britain become a police state?

What were we all doing that was so important that we didn't see this enormous change in our culture creeping up on us? Twenty years ago, the only people with strong opinions about the police were criminals, ex-student activists and TV satirists. If the great bulk of the population had any sort of opinion at all it was probably neutral and tinged with a quiet pride that, in a violent world, a bobby could still police a small village or a great city armed with nothing more than a truncheon, a whistle and, most importantly of all, the support and appreciation of the local community.

In those days, the police were not just visible,they were clearly part of the community they served; frequently living in a police house in a village or local neighbourhood. Police stations were always open. There were blue, Doctor Who police call boxes dotted around and help was a 999 call away. The role of the police was to protect their communities and to nick the villains. Apart from what were called Moving Traffic Violations - speeding to you and me - the chances of most of us having any dealings with the police were pretty remote. It was a situation that suited us and them.

Now, all that has changed.

Political correctness has for the most part forced the police to wear kid gloves when dealing with illegal immigrants, travellers, asylum seekers, the Moslem community and other vociferous minorities. On the other hand, our data-obsessed government continues to set arbitrary targets to feed its need for data about every aspect of our society. So, the police focus their collective attention on the most visible target of all; US.

Thanks to cctv and Gatsos, the police have us in their sights 24 hours a day 365 days a year. There may be several million people, many of them newcomers from Eastern Europe, who fail to tax and insure their vehicles and don't even bother to obtain a driving licence, but they take time and effort to track down. Far easier to use the enormous power of the DVLA database to trace and fine illegal speeders and parkers from the mainstream population.

Travellers can invade and destroy whole swathes of the countryside but the police can't eject them. If they leave , the local community has to pay to clean up the skeletons of cars, the animal and human waste that they leave behind. Nothing can be done to them because travelling and living off society without making any contribution is their human right.

Contrast that with what happened this week when no fewer than seven coppers were despatched to a local bowls club to threaten and eject some pensioners who were occupying the green in a peaceful demonstration against a hefty increase in rent imposed by the local council.

Once upon a time, a local police chief would have thought twice or three times before reacting in such a heavy-handed way against such perfectly respectable tax-payers. But then, once upon a time, the local police chief would have been someone who had worked his way up from the ranks and acquired a great deal of common sense and local knowledge in the process.
His modern day equivalent, by contrast, has probably been fast-tracked to his or her current position having joined the Police straight from University with a degree in one kind of ology or another. Unfortunately, such courses rarely include credits for common sense. Ambitious, educated and with little experience of real life outside of school and college, this new breed of police officer feels totally at ease with his mirror-image; the university-educated politician or career civil servant who has had just as little experience of life beyond academia. Setting and meeting arbitrary targets on arrest levels and crimes solved provides the fuel for both of their careers. The better these figures the better their career prospects. So, in the end, how they obtain them becomes a secondary consideration; all that matters is that the governments' propaganda machine can transmute them into proof of falling crime levels and increasing levels of police success.
It's a scenario in which everyone wins; everyone, that is, except you and me. We are left wondering where our slightly odd, anachronistic police force went to be replaced by a remote, armoured force that is distinctly un-British.