So yesterday I
was listening to one of those radio phone in programmes discussing the routine
arming of Police which predictably always get raised in the wake of Police
Officers getting shot or injured.
What makes me laugh
in the absurdity of the people they invite onto their shows as guest speakers.
A former Thames Valley senior officer kicks off the debate by explaining why
officers should not be armed. He speaks about this idea of a British Policing
model, and attempts to ludicrously convince the audience that arming Police
Officers will not make them safer.
WTF! When last
did you do a night turn in Harlesden, Hackney, Moss Side or Toxteth then Guv? I’m
sorry to point out the difference but those places (I could name more) are a
world apart from Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire.
As his continued,
he went on to say that we only have to look at America as an example of how
Police Officers are not safer just because they carry firearms. I was laughing
by this point.
Who are these
people that whenever this debate arises, self generate some debatable
statistical evidence about the numbers of officers shot or seriously injured in
America? Where did you get your empirical data from Guv? Wikipedia?
In a country that
vast and that different you would have a hard time comparing individual states
to each other let alone this tiny island to our former colony. Hawaii and Texas could not be more different
to St. Louis in Missouri which has one of the highest murder rates in
the county.
What’s more, how do you compare a country of nearly 310
million, where the right to bear all sorts of firearms is enshrined into their
constitution, to an Island of 64 million where you can expect to get locked up
for carrying pepper spray?
In a country where people decide to go on killing rampages
over the most trivial of things, it’s no wonder more officers get hurt. How about comparing us to France or Spain, surely that would be a more accuracte comparison.
However, the fact remains that in this country as tragically
seen recently, officers continue to get seriously hurt or injured with an ever
increasing degree of frequency. I am not going to speculate about the manner in
which those two female officers in Manchester died. It would not be far to
them, their colleagues or their family. But maybe if they had been armed,
maybe, just maybe things might be different.
Politicians and senior officers have a short memory. What
about the PC and PCSO who tried to speak to a mad man on a bus about his ticket
when they were brutally stabbed in what was clearly an attempted murder? One of
them would have died had it not been for a vascular surgeon who happened to be
passing and managed to stem the blood loss from one of the officer’s necks.
What about the other knife wielding mad man that stabbed and
hospitalised several officers in North London? These are recent events and I
haven’t even mentioned those officers killed.
Finally, the biggest myth that has been voiced this week is
that the vast majority of Officers don’t want to be armed. I have heard this
time and time again from the Home Secretary down over the last week. Again,
where are these people getting their research?
They claim to speak
for the rank and file but no one I know has ever been asked their opinion. There
has never been a staff survey of those people that actually do the job in some
of the worst cities in our country.
What there has been has been no end of senior management
team generated staff satisfaction surveys. Yes Guv the uniform is crap, it was
crap the last time you asked and the new itchy woolly jumper has done nothing
to change that view.
Do you really want to
know my views on the impact the Olympics had on my work life balance? What for?
You didn’t care before the games, or are you asking just in case this Government
still has me trying to earn my pension by the time the next Olympic games come
to London?
If the Commissioners and Chief Constables of this country said
to every officer tomorrow, if you want a course and a Glock I’ll give you one,
there would be a staggering uptake of the offer.
How about a proper staff survey Guv?
