I am nearing the end of my time with the Metropolitan Police Service. I was not sure what to expect when I signed up for the “Parliamentary Police Service Scheme” but knew it it was the best way, as an outsider, to see police work firsthand.
I have learnt some very practical things, such as crime is weather and time dependent. Being out is a 999 car at Easter when it was still freezing temperatures meant for quieter shifts. Similarly with the ‘early turn’ shift, 6am until 2pm, as criminals tend not to be the earliest risers. The tight team work of the 999 crews is vital as you never know what is behind the front door you have been called to. As the weather warmed slightly I saw that my shivering was not due to the climate but because I was scared. I am keenly aware that I could not do their job, I am not brave enough and being squeamish at the sight of blood also disqualifies me.
Of course, the Police, along with Immigration and Prison Officers, execute the coercive power of the state. The Police can, with reasonable cause, deprive me of my liberty. Having seen this power in action will inform my consideration of the amendments, to the stop and search powers of officials at ports and airports, in the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill. Even when there is a terrorism threat, using this coercive power of the state to stop citizens,
without reasonable cause, should be very rare.
Well, you will have to work very hard indeed at getting those in power to accept they have no right or moral reason to abuse their position of license to overpower. When in reality nothing is more important to them than to gain the ability to promote and extend that abuse as quickly and as deeply as they can.
The aim of government is complete subjugation of the proletariat by any means it can. Which is why we have the terror, terror, terror cry on an hourly consistent basis. Instilling fear is the easiest way to subdue. When the reality is, the likelihood of terror on a scale we see affected and promoted by our western governments, both here and abroad, escalates the desire for retribution to a level of maniacal extremism in those we attack and claim will attack us.
Also your difficulty is going to be overcoming your own fear of losing credence and position if you do not bend to the will of those seeking absolute control.
The words ‘Protect and Serve’ come to mind when thinking of police officers doing their job. The question is what must be surrendered in order for them to do that that job effectively.
In 1660 the philosopher Thomas Hobbes creates a works called the ‘Leviathan’. The backdrop to this work is the civil war and the enormous intellectual freedom granted to both men and women to question the status quo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(book)
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the Baron de Montesquieu would later expand upon this to form the moral basis for revolution in both France and New England. Consider the role however of law enforcement officers at the time and the powers available to them as people suffered terrorist activity.
Hobbes’ theory was that the people mutually agreed to create a state, only giving it enough power to provide protection of their well-being. However, in Hobbes’ theory, once the power was given to the state, the people then relinquished any right to that power. In effect, that would be the price of the protection they sought. [americanhistory.about.com]
This is the balance – absolute surrender under these terms or a politically acceptable and lawful compromise to perceived threats.
You might be interested in a translation of “The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right” by Jean Jacques Rousseau 1762, translated in 1782 by G. D. H. Cole rendered into HTML and text by Jon Roland of the Constitution Society.
Isn’t it an ‘insoluble’ difficulty that the Police have to fill “quotas” ?
and that that tempts them, even ‘drives’ them, to ‘invasive’ and ‘extended questionings’ in order to make an arrest, a caution, and so be justified in reporting “job done”/”quota filled” via their log-sheet ?
@Daedalus:
What an incredible list of good reading you put up. I’m very impressed. This is not a subject I would normally find any interest in, but, as you have cited writing on it from that far back it has triggered curiosity.
Obviously there is more to this than meets the eye.
The words ‘Protect and Serve’ come to mind when thinking of police officers doing their job. The question is what must be surrendered in order for them to do that that job effectivel
Political office is about patronising, and doing it effectively. It has to be accepted that all, or nearly all, occupations which have any pretence to being professions, are self serving and to that extent, in the case of the police force, crime inducing. Political office is not about recognising that induction. It is frequently not even about the recognition of crime in the police forces themselves.
Daedalus is wise to refer to past political historians. I am sorry he does not mention Icarus meanwhile, since Voyager 2 is well out of this solar system, in to deep space. Perhaps human freedoms will have new opportunities, with new worlds, one day! Again while human rights are constantly increased, civil liberties are far more quickly eroded.
Maude Elwes in her evocative style, portends it
I really can not see where her politics comes from though! There may some free thought within it!
@Honrus Causa:
If only my ‘non political’ free thought was more appreciated on this bog, perhaps a wider perception may be reignited for the nation as a whole.
Sadly, I fear ‘freedom of expression’ is curtailed regularly on the best of my submissions, which I feel is a tragedy akin to the Greek Theatre. A wider view on issues, regardless of political affiliation or leaning, is not encouraged.
It is, I fear, the contradiction between much greater human rights and far fewer civil liberties which probably worries Maude most.