Following on from my earlier post When Did the War on Crime Become an Actual War? A friend sent me the following cartoon by an artist called Tom Tomorrow. I commented yesterday on the increased militancy of the Police. The United states leading the way but the UK not far behind. The recent events in Ferguson have clearly highlighted the amount of military style equipment now being used by the police, in fact on various social media sites US military veterans have been reporting that they went into battle in Iraq or Afghanistan wearing less body armour and carrying less weapons or equipment. Yesterday I drew a comparison between a US police sniper and a US marine Sniper. There is also a difference I did not mention, that of training and discipline. The US Marine sniper is the result of months of basic training and discipline followed by more months of specialist training to be a sniper. The police officer may have have passed a two week gun training course and been assigned as a sniper because he is a better shot that the others. SWAT teams undergo extensive training that the regular police do not, but in the US regular police have the same equipment and weapons as the SWAT teams do. But that is America, they have guns over there. The British police don't walk around looking like extras from a ROBOCOP movie, do they. Well OK but the British police don't have fleets of armoured that they bring out to threaten unarmed protesters with do they. | |
Erm, OK, so maybe there are a few armoured vheicles in the British Police. Incidentally those menacing looking Black armoured vehicles were parked just behind the Ealing and Croydon riots ready to move in if they were needed. Here is a truly old fashioned and wonderful view of the British Bobby. |
Britain has an idiosyncratic – in fact unique – policing system that is a triumph of western civilization and the envy of the world. The light touch is its trademark, the unarmed bobby its symbol. Britain’s streets have for decades been orderly by western standards. It was the kind of order that ruled in the household — paternal and protective, not sadistic and authoritarian... The British police, popularly known as “bobbies,” wear a uniform that is nonmilitary in appearance. Their only regular weapon is a short, wooden truncheon, which they keep out of sight and may not employ except in self-defense or to restore order. Police on a dangerous mission may carry firearms for that specific occasion. Umanath kakodker, blogger |