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| Northumbria police constable Stephen Mitchell, who was jailed for life after admitting charges of rape, indecent assault and misconduct in public office. Photograph: North News & Pictures |
I went through a brief spate of depression yesterday when I read about the fifty known cases of sexual abuse in our police force with one being here in Cumbria.
The real problem is that I have no confidence whatsoever that this isn't just the tip of an iceberg with the real problem being at least ten times this size.
The police force needs to be held in our minds as totally reliable as so often we take them into our confidence. Because I know personally a number of officers at our Ulverston force I feel reasonably confident that we have a good lot of people here. However one immediately sees that we have good reason to be suspicious of the behaviour of the police as a whole particularly in more populated areas where there isn't the local contact we have here.
With government cutbacks this for me is even more worrying as I don't believe there is the slack in the system to maintain standards.
Lets be on the look out ourselves by talking to police officers and demonstrating our concerns. We should not just rely on 'the system' to work correctly.
4 comments:
One bad egg among so many may be one too many but even clergy are not one hundred percent free of bad deeds. Given the right circumstances, we all have it in us to do evil, as much as we like to think otherwise. I agree it is a let-down when the baddie is a person we should be able to look up to but we know in our hearts perfection is most unlikely. It happens with teachers, nurses, doctors, police, clergy, top politicians, US presidents and so on and on. And what of 'sick' parents who abuse their own children? Relatives too — the 'uncle' who makes a child 'swear not to tell' ? The list could go on. Bad people don't always wear uniforms.
To go through life deeply suspicious of every one of the above, would make for a miserable life. We just need to be aware and keep a protective eye on the vulnerable without being suspicious of everyone we meet.
Gladys, great to have you back.
The police I believe are a very different case as if they are corrupt, who then can we turn to for reliable support?
I am tempted to think that this is a similar situation to Murdoch's gagging of phone hacking. It took a lot of brave probing before the true story emerged. One tends to believe that the police are gagging the release of the full story so that we suspect the worse.
We also fear that if we probe then we will attract the attention of the police and be given a hard time in the future, which is less of a problem when investigating teachers, the clergy, doctors and politicians.
Knowing one or two retired police officers, I would never suspect them of wrongdoing nor have any desire to suspect others. I do have a friend who was badly treated during the miners' strikes and realise tempers get hot and just about anything goes when provoked (not necessarily by the person arrested etc). Maybe I prefer to put my head in the sand but I would rather think the best of people than worry about the dark side of those capable of wielding power. Tough people often take on tough jobs and I don't envy them the task.
Knowing one or two retired police officers, I would never suspect them of wrongdoing nor have any desire to suspect others. I do have a friend who was badly treated during the miners' strikes and realise tempers get hot and just about anything goes when provoked (not necessarily by the person arrested etc). Maybe I prefer to put my head in the sand but I would rather think the best of people than worry about the dark side of those capable of wielding power. Tough people often take on tough jobs and I don't envy them the task.
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