Sectorgame

or are the Met (Metropolitan, i.e. London, police) increasingly appearing to be some of the most brutal, corrupt in the country? It is, of course, nothing compared to places like China - but recent events and the ham-fisted cover-ups make me wonder exactly what the f### is going on down south.

Well they get more attention than any other in the country. It could simply be that the others are equally crap but the met are where all the reporters are.

But yeah, they've been pretty bad for years. I think it's due to an increasingly political aspect in the job of police commissioner. I don't think many people could even name the chief commissioner before Sir Paul Condon.

karajorma wrote:Well they get more attention than any other in the country. It could simply be that the others are equally crap but the met are where all the reporters are.

But yeah, they've been pretty bad for years. I think it's due to an increasingly political aspect in the job of police commissioner. I don't think many people could even name the chief commissioner before Sir Paul Condon.

And where all the protests are, to be fair (excluding things like the G8 at Gleneagles, which involved officers from across the country and was rather unique anyways).

Albeit the individual actions are still well below the 'standard' you'd expect from what should by all rights be the countries best police force at protest management - I've just seen the latest footage of violence against a protester, may I add (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/1 ... ssault-g20) - and the tactics the Met use seem calculated to escalate the situation, not ease it.

There is, perhaps, a calculated political aspect there in that more violence at protests is better for the police as it gives them more leeway to use what would otherwise be considered extreme methods. Although even I'm not quite cynical enough to suggest that the police set out to deliberately provoke riots (but perhaps they presume they'll occur regardless of situation).

TBH I just think the press are just putting more public attention on them.

I think, strictly speaking, the Met see more crime per officer than most other forces, and, as Snail says, a lot more attention.

Personally, I've heard of far worse behaviour from county police, but they are fewer and further between.

Edit: Frankly the rioters got up my nose anyway, that wasn't a real riot, you don't get 10 people with camera phones for every person throwing a brick in a real angry crowd, this was more like a group of people looking for YouTube material

I do have to wonder what the protesters at events like G7/8/20/whatever really hope to achieve. You have a meeting of a bunch of world leaders discussing some generally dull financial matters...and so you and a bunch of other "Down with capitalism!" nuts get together and raise hell for no apparent reason. It rings far more of attention-whoring than of having any sort of legitimate cause. That isn't to say that that gives the police an excuse to go all Rodney King on anyone, but if that's the sort of reaction that these protesters are almost hoping to trigger in the first place, I don't have any great sympathy for them.

Without excusing the behaviour of the police I think quite a few people think that someone who has nothing better to do with their day than head into London just to spew abuse at some nameless police officer just for doing their job probably does deserve a backhanded slap to the face.

The paper here once described them as "Weekend Anarchists"...

I think this is reflective of the same thing that happened to the LA police. They're not terrible, not really, but finding one scandal provokes closer scrutiny and it snowballs, the extra pressure probably managing to create a few scandals of its own along the way.