Re: Policing in the 1970’s
Originally Posted by
Marky34
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Hello Everyone,
I don’t know what’s appropriate for a first post, but here goes.
With plenty of time on my hands at the moment I was browsing in all sorts of topics and I saw something elsewhere talking about the differences between modern day policing and the way it was back in the seventies and eighties. It was fascinating and somewhat amusing.
It got me thinking about some of the comical, incredible and probably unbelievable incidents that occurred when I worked with the Met Police back in those days. It truly was a different world.
It certainly was a different world.
The police have, no doubt, changed enormously but so has society in general.
Many people, probably not the older ones like us, but many others seem to have no respect for the police or, for that matter, anyone else. Why? Well, I'd say 'social engineers' or perhaps we should call them 'do-gooders'.
New rules, regulations and laws have been created which, generally, provide far more freedoms for us all. Unfortunately, those freedoms have also been passed on to the criminals and ne'er do wells.
The evidence of this is there for all to see. How many times to we hear of 'suspended sentences' and 'spared jail'. Whether this is due to ancient and decrepit judges or government changes in procedure and sentencing rules, I don't know.
Then, I'm sure we all remember, there was the time when Treason May was Home Secretary and, in addition to her other inconceivably stupid decisions, decided that we no longer needed half of our police.
Then, of course, we have the situation that (I think) BLiar may have been responsible for: the changes in police recruitment. For some reason, graduates were seen to be a better proposition than big, tough, sensible and down-to-earth coppers. The difference is tangible. Today's young police are very nice and polite and do their best to talk nicely to criminals. The old-time coppers didn't stand for any nonsense. Spit in their face, for example, and you'd receive a good hiding... er, not that I ever did that personally of course.
Well, we can all see the consequences of those changes over the years. I imagine that the police on the ground are as fed up with things as are the rest of us. The law appears not to support them any more than it supports the law-abiding.
Will things ever change and revert to the best of how things once were? Somehow, I don't think so.