Five years ago and 4 days I started going out with my boyfriend (cue smug smile) and in that time he has done four jobs but the last one he has done for two and a half and I can honestly say he has found his vocation. He is a Police Officer.
I am proud of that fact and I know he is too (sometimes erring on the smug side) - in fact I have been known to refer to him as the Sheriff as he tries to lay down the law in all walks of life but I put him straight on that. But by no means was this an easy route.
To give you the background he has always wanted to be a police officer, and when he was 18-24 all his mates were coppers but for some reason he never thought he could do it. Luckily for him (I'm sure he counts his blessings every day) he was with me and I'm not the sort to ignore life long ambitions so when we heard the Met were recruiting - I researched the arse off it and showed him what he'd have to do - the maths test, the written test, the role play, the interview, the whole assessment centre... Etc etc - and then the physical and health checks, and said that if he wanted to do it, I'd be right beside him. So we did it! It was gruelling, teaching and testing a 27yo on long division, written papers etc over entire weekends is not a happy task - but he wanted it so he learnt it, much to his own amazement. We managed to get through every stage - he aced the maths test (pats self on back) and he got to training.
Even though they told us, we didn't know what we were quite letting ourselves in for - the changing shift patterns, the late running shifts, the shifts over holidays, the learning and revision of what felt like entire legal volumes (I myself learnt a lot from testing him) - but there was an up side: the people. Of course they weren't all perfect - like anything there were some idiots - power trippers that thought with a badge they were Gods, but most of them seemed to get caught out by the recruitment system and didn't get through training. But when I met his fellow officers the one thing I felt was reassurance because I knew they'd have my boyfriends back and he'd have theirs and they were the sort of people I wanted to help me in an emergency - they weren't all big burly blokes, not all straight, not all White, not all English, but they respected each other and they all had a passion. Again don't get me wrong I am sure some love the power, the fast cars and the authority (and some are probably arseholes and idiots) but they all are willing to help others - people they don't know.
You may say - well their job is catching criminals but I'd say a lot of what they do is helping people. Yes of course they are catching criminals, but they also offer reassurance, make people feel safe, help find lost children, protect the vulnerable, protect people from themselves, all sorts of rubbish I didn't even think about till he started and I heard about it every night!
So now we get to the crux of my post - I start reading twitter posts a about the lousy job the police are doing in Tottenham, Student Riots, on pretty much everything - but let me ask you this - what would you do? Would you stand there and be completely calm as someone throws a petrol bomb at you? Screams "scum! Scum! Scum!" in your face as one delightful student was doing on their protest? How would you react? Now you might say they are paid to be calm, paid to take the abuse? Really you think? I don't think they are paid enough then. Because no amount of money could pay me to do that! least we forget when all these same people are broken into or their bikes are stolen, or they're mugged, who do they call?
When it is said that the protesters shouldn't be kettled but whatever you do don't let them vandalise the statues?
Don't contain them but don't let them chase Prince Charles car?
Don't stop them or search them but don't allow them to go equipped to loot Topshop?
How do you stop them? How would YOU stop them? People also like to say in their most outraged voices whilst clutching their pearls "they were children and kept in cordons for upwards of 4 hours" - oh heavens how did they ever manage to survive being cordoned off surrounded by police for 4 hours in the broad daylight - Don't be ridiculous - I am sure they all thought it was cool and none of them are traumatised by the experience!
Now for Tottenham (to caveat this piece I haven't be studying the news in depth on this so I may get some points slightly wrong) and more recently Brixton, Enfield, Walthamstow, Islington... These don't seem to be a demonstration against a Police state but rather opportunists using the flash point of a man being shot by a Police Officer to loot and riot. I understand the family and friends of the man wanting to get answers and the answers probably seem really slow coming, and the long process the IPCC probably needs to go through is long and tedious (but I am sure there is a reason for this i.e. to find the truth and fully investigate) but I doubt the people breaking into Currys in Brixton really have justice for this man in their mind. I completely agree that the shooting should be investigated, and it should be checked that everything was done to the very letter of the law, and if it was a mistake and the wrong person was shot then this needs to be highlighted and the correct action followed. But please don't lampoon the police, or use general statements about the whole of the Police force, because the Police have come on leaps and bounds in the last 20 years, sure they like everyone else make mistakes, sure they like everyone else don't always have enough staff to deal with problems (how they were expected to know that people were randomly going to start looting and rioting in Brixton is beyond me - also how many Police officers do you think they have? Don't forget they are a front line Government service like everything else they have deliver their savings - cut overtime - lose staff - etc etc). The Police are dealing with the problems as best they can, but what is everyone else doing about it? Or isn't it your problem? Oh no, it's the governments problem... the "communities" problem... the Afro-Caribbean problem? - Actually it's not. It's everyone's problem, and rather than lambast one of the few groups that is trying to tackle it, how about for once you try to be supportive.
I know its my problem, because I hear about it every night, the good and the bad, the light and the dark, but I also get the fun of thinking "shouldn't he be home by now?", "he hasn't responded to my text?", "there has been a Police Officer shot"... in the two and a half years I have come to terms with this more and more, but I still get the twinge when I haven't heard from him and he was meant to have finished. I am sure there are wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands all over the country that have dealt with this much longer than I have, and the odd few have got the awful call to say something has happened - but one thing I know is that the majority of these Officers do a fine job and they go to work (and we send them off to work) knowing the risks and still decide to help people.
So in conclusion my message is this - be critical of the Police if you want, but be fair, and try not to make general sweeping statements!
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