Scandal At The Met

[poliphilo]

If the only people we recruited to the police were austere philosophical types with a passion for justice we might have a force that was everything we could wish it to be.

As it is, like any other profession, the police service has to take what it gets. And the nature of the work is such that a lot of bullies, a lot of racists, a lot of right wing authoritarians will be drawn to it and want to get stuck in. Also- as someone said on some thread I was reading- you work in the gutter you get tainted by it.  Also there's the thing they call canteen culture- cynical, mucky, intensely tribal.

I suppose what I'm saying is, "What can you expect?"

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

My completely outsider view is that police culture splits the world into three; villains, victims, and coppers. So if you're a copper interacting with the anyone who isn't, they'll be one of the two. And that's a weird mindset to be in.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think they're in danger of forgetting they're as much citizens as any of the rest of us.

But that's what happens when you put people in uniform- soldiers, priests, whatever...

[resonant.livejournal.com]

The scandal is that people whose jobs are supposed to be to uphold correct behaviour - police, priests, etc. - npt turn a blind eye when their co-workers are behaving improperly, but aid in concealing their criminal acts.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a very deep-rooted human instinct to close ranks when the tribe is threatened. We're pack animals. "All for one and one for all". "My country, right or wrong."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes. but there are degrees of lying. There's the lying you do to make yourself look better than you are and at the other end of the spectrum there's the lying you do to land some other poor sod in the shit.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to that.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

One who can read, one who can write - and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I might have added that the police service is unlikely to attract the best brains.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Then again alot of the problems with the police is institutionalized racism and that outside of their own cabal citizens are either rillian or victims. The plebgate affair is a case in point.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Plebgate is just one of a growing heap of scandals piling up around the Met.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

To put it the other way - there's a massive team spirit and cameraderie when you feel like you and your mates are up against it day after day after day, and you often have to rely on them for your safety and most of the members of the public you actually meet are not the nicest sort and reinforce a rather warped world view.

I'm not defending their self-serving tribalism, but there are complex reasons why it occurs, not least the misplaced feeling that you have to "have each other's back" the whole time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. That's the upside.

I think it's inevitable the police are the way they are. Police forces- like armies and political parties- are necessary evils. Civilised living would be impossible- or improbable- without them.

[petercampbell.livejournal.com]

It's an insular job as well. I know people who have joined the police, and socially the only people they really interact with are other members of the police. The shift patterns have a lot to do with that. It must create a rather restricted view of the world.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I suspect this is true of all professions- but perhaps especially of the police. You can't get too close to your civilian neighbour in case it's your duty to arrest him tomorrow.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's the most hackneyed saying in the world, but still true for all that- "power corrupts".