armed police
- Thread starter brin
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Bebo
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No.
Doctor Lecter
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who would be a copper in todays society ? :hmm:
brin
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Bebo
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I presumed it was a question, even with the lack of appropriate punctuation. I answered it with my view. You can think yes if you like but I'll stick with my own view thanks.
westley
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My Grandaughters partner ! He is still in training but has spent some 8 years playing the recruiting game. That is, you are told initially to go and become a 'Special', after a few more applications for the 'Regular' force, you are told to go away and become a P.C.S.O. then after several more applications you are eventually accepted. This process takes some 6 to 8 years to finally reach fruition, oh and a drop in salary of some £2,000 from top PCSO to bottom line Constable. Believe it or not there is still a queue at the door ! In my day (1970's) under good old Harold Wilson, there were more going out of the door than coming in, off to better paid jobs at Ford's or Vauxhall's. I stuck it out because I knew that the drop in numbers could not persist. Then, along came Maggie, God bless her !
Probably more than you could imagine ! If MP's feel threatened, suddenly there are 1000 more Officers available to protect them, if yer village Bobby drops in the brown sticky manure, he is on his own literally. IF you are getting a hiding, minutes seem like hours, if you are in the middle of nowhere they ARE hours ! I recently watched a program where a male and female Officer were miles from anywhere fighting with some drugged up loon, it took some 40 minutes for assistance to reach them. Rural crime is out through the roof with farm machinery being the biggest targets, and the chances of being caught are er .................almost NIL.
brin
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i totally agree we need officers to be able to protect us and themselves from the out of control crime that is getting worse year on yearMy Grandaughters partner ! He is still in training but has spent some 8 years playing the recruiting game. That is, you are told initially to go and become a 'Special', after a few more applications for the 'Regular' force, you are told to go away and become a P.C.S.O. then after several more applications you are eventually accepted. This process takes some 6 to 8 years to finally reach fruition, oh and a drop in salary of some £2,000 from top PCSO to bottom line Constable. Believe it or not there is still a queue at the door ! In my day (1970's) under good old Harold Wilson, there were more going out of the door than coming in, off to better paid jobs at Ford's or Vauxhall's. I stuck it out because I knew that the drop in numbers could not persist. Then, along came Maggie, God bless her !
Probably more than you could imagine ! If MP's feel threatened, suddenly there are 1000 more Officers available to protect them, if yer village Bobby drops in the brown sticky manure, he is on his own literally. IF you are getting a hiding, minutes seem like hours, if you are in the middle of nowhere they ARE hours ! I recently watched a program where a male and female Officer were miles from anywhere fighting with some drugged up loon, it took some 40 minutes for assistance to reach them. Rural crime is out through the roof with farm machinery being the biggest targets, and the chances of being caught are er .................almost NIL.
I don't want to see every bobby carrying a gun because I can't see what difference it would make. These day the police are a sort of paramilitary response force and here in Glos they're based in a modern unit on an industrial estate with no simple direct route to any town other than Gloucester itself which is about 4 or 5 miles away. If there were a major incident outside office hours involving a firearm in say Stroud, no police of any stripe could be in attendance within 20-25 minutes.
Perhaps if the police went back 30 years to being out and about in the community and operating patrol cars there might be some point to arming them, but the modern system of sitting behind a computer screen until something happens renders it pointless in my view.
Perhaps if the police went back 30 years to being out and about in the community and operating patrol cars there might be some point to arming them, but the modern system of sitting behind a computer screen until something happens renders it pointless in my view.
westley
Well-known member
Thirty years ago there were sufficient numbers to carry out patrols both mobile and on foot, now there just is not sufficient numbers to do that.
I wouldn’t trust most UK police with a tazer let alone a firearm. Hardly any have even ever handled one - and by all accounts most do not want too either.
do we need more specialist highly trained and competent firearms officers on the beat? Perhaps - but not all police.
do we need more specialist highly trained and competent firearms officers on the beat? Perhaps - but not all police.
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Well that's the conventional received wisdom, much bandied around by politicians every time there's a major incident. Sadiq Khan on Friday for example.
The reality is that officer numbers today are slightly higher today than in 1977 although it is true that numbers have fallen since 2010. It strikes me that the real problem is that police officers have much more to do these days. Just one example would be RTAs. A couple of years ago an old guy driving alone crashed into a railway bridge a few miles from here and died at the scene. Any 10 year old could work out that there could only be 3 possible causes. The vehicle might have been faulty or the driver either made a mistake or suffered a medical condition, none of which could be resolved at the scene. But they closed a busy main road for 8 hours, sent bobbies all over the area diverting 22 wheelers through tiny lanes and villages whilst they measured, photographed and analysed every detail. 30 year ago the first task after any casualties had been taken care of was to get the road open again. At least it was round here, and I know this because an old mate of mine used to operate a breakdown truck and he was always on the scene right after the emergency services.
Doctor Lecter
Well-known member
I live in a small village in Lincolnshire , its a tad more serious than milk theft !! car crime , shed burglaries , my property was burgled in 2006 , dog theft etc , its gangs from else ware , making a living out of crime , our deterrent dose not scare them its a badge of honour to them !! the police have a impossible job these days , but for the likes of me the police give you a incident number !! my local shooting ground in the last week have had shotgun stolen and a vehicle with a dog inside ( recovering from surgery ) taken . we are outnumbered 3 to one with toe rags .
its only a informal forum , do we have to be on punctuation alert ?
Bebo
Well-known member
Helps to know whether it was actually a question or just a statement.
Shed break ins, shotgun and car thefts don't warrant arming of all police. What pisses me off is that people are trying to use the actions of a radical nutter to justify ramping up an arms race between the police and criminals. I work in an office at London Bridge just outside the area that was cordoned off on Friday. What happened was awful, but the police response couldn't have been much quicker and the situation was controlled very rapidly. Having more armed police wouldn't have resulted in a different outcome for those two poor young people.
And there you have it. Officers at the sharp end are hampered by rules, procedures and PC nonsense imposed from the top floor and demotivated by the soft sentences handed out to very nasty people.
westley
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Wonko the Sane
Well-known member
Implying something of a rash generalization
Simple solutions like arming the police do not solve complex problems. I do not like them armed for the simple reason that far too many are poorly trained, incompetent and/or commando wannabes.
For me the obvious heart of the problem is the criminal justice system, yours too, and attempting to rationalize that is a task well beyond doing within the social/governmental systems that have come into being. Best get used to what is cos that's what's gonna be short of a revolution and the chance of the sheeple revolting is, wellllll, coming right after the invasion of the interdimensional aliens
I think it should be a prerequisite for every fully warranted graduate police officer to have served a minimum of 5 years in uniform going out on calls and sorting out local low life, junkies, dealers, road accidents, travellers, yobs and other emergences before being considered for the fast track to seniority (and freemasonry).
I don't know the figures but not many Chief Officers these days came up the hard way.
