Law enforcement in Great Britain is a joke, and we all know it. Apologies if that statement comes across as rather blunt, but such are the depths that modern policing has fallen to that we are now beyond the point of eloquent and diplomatic language—it’s time to call a spade a spade.
The fact is that the police have become highly selective of the types of crime they are willing to devote their allegedly scant resources to, which goes some way to explain why half of all crime in the UK goes unreported. Essentially, the public has become so disillusioned with the police’s inability and lack of desire to solve crime that they have effectively given up. The police blame their inaction squarely on government cuts, despite figures released by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) that show there has only been a 6% decrease in frontline police numbers since 2010.
It’s quite difficult to take their excuses seriously when they somehow find the time to make cringe-inducing TikTok videos, dancing awkwardly in a bid to encourage people to stay at home during lockdowns. Or how about the time when Lincoln Police were filmed dancing the Macarena at the city’s Pride festival? If you’ve somehow missed these gems and others like them, they’re still available to view on your streaming platform of choice.
More recently, we’ve witnessed a growing number of “speech crimes,” whereby individuals have received house visits and, in more extreme cases, been brought in for questioning simply for making so-called “offensive” remarks online. And yet, if those very houses were to be burgled, you can bet your bottom dollar that the police would be nowhere near as eager to show up and investigate.
So, it’s becoming increasingly clear where the police’s priorities lie, and it’s certainly not within the maxim of “protect and serve.” Their reputation has sunk so low that, on the one hand, they are seen as performing clowns who are happily participating in their humiliation rituals and authoritarian lackeys, on the other, blindly enforcing the state’s draconian policies.
This particular news story focuses on Nottinghamshire police specifically, but we can read it as a damning commentary on the state of policing up and down the country.
The force has been moved to an enhanced level of monitoring by watchdog His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). It comes after they faced intense criticism over the mishandling of the case of paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane, who stabbed to death three people in Nottingham last June. Interestingly, HMICFRS have said the decision was unrelated to the Calocane case, with the reasons due to be published in a report later this year.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher said: “We move police forces into our enhanced level of monitoring, known as Engage when a force is not responding to our concerns or is not managing, mitigating, or eradicating these concerns.
“The Engage process provides additional scrutiny and support from the inspectorate and other external organisations in the policing sector to help the force improve and provide a better service for the public.”
While the Calocane case certainly didn’t help Nottinghamshire Police’s reputation, it’s probably safe to assume that HMICFRS is being truthful when they claim there are other reasons for the special measures. As it turns out, Nottinghamshire is just the latest in a growing list of forces under scrutiny, including the country’s two largest, the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police, as well as Devon and Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire. This would suggest that there are salient issues across the board, and the rising national crime figures prove that something has gone horribly wrong with policing in the country.
What we can be sure of is that trust in the British police is fast evaporating. Multiple cases of corruption, impartiality, negligence, buffoonery, and general incompetence should come as no surprise.
The police should exist to serve the taxpayer, mainly by preventing crime and civil disorder, protecting the public and public order, and fairly enforcing the law objectively, focusing solely on the physical evidence of crimes and not the subjective interpretation of opinions. The Homeland Party would bring police practice back within this tenet, and it is amazingly simple to do: scrap all ideological advocacy, devote time and resources to solving crime and improving crime prevention, and treat all people equally in the eyes of the law.
It may be simple but don’t bank on the Tories or Labour to pull it off. Why would they, when they much prefer the police as they currently are, bullying state enforcers?
