News that hundreds of people have been arrested and charged following the recent riots should be welcomed. For those of us who believe in maintaining law and order, taking prompt effective action against those who engage in vandalism and violence is surely the right thing to do?
But no, nothing the Police will ever do is good enough according to some. Claims that there is two-tier policing - that some offenders will be dealt with more harshly than others is both cynical and divisive. No responsible politician should be spreading such a message.
Let’s be clear, our Police are there to enforce the laws that Parliament makes for them. They enforce those laws without fear or favour.
Many of us have criticisms of the way that some protests have been policed. In the case of the Black lives matter protests there was a view that more should have been done to prevent the vandalism that went with it. The policing around the vigil for Sarah Everard was too heavy handed, coming as it did during COVID restrictions. And many of us have been frustrated that criminal damage and nuisance have been generated by protesters associated with Just Stop Oil and Extinction rebellion,
But dear reader, so were the Police.
The Police were frustrated that they coundnt do more to end the disruption caused by eco protestors gluing themselves to roads. They demanded better powers to be able to do so and the last Government passed them. In the face of concerted opposition from the Labour Party I might add. In fact the Government had to have more than one go to get the enhanced powers through Parliament. We have Priti Patel to thank for her resolve in equipping the police with the powers they need.
And that is what a responsible political leader does. They ask what can be done to make it easier for the police to take action. They don’t engage in crowd pleasing statements that put them on the side of the rioters rather than upholding the law.
All this said, there has been change in our culture of policing which has undermined the ethos of prosecuting the law ‘without fear or favour’.
There was a time when the Police were expressly banned from wearing anything on their uniforms. It reflected that wearing any kind of badge that showed support for a particular cause risked undermining the image of the Police as the unbiased upholders of the law.
All that changed following the passage of the Equality Act. That Act imposed a duty on all public bodies to ensure that everyone was treated equally and free of discrimination. All well and good, but as is so often the case there was mission creep.
So bodies went beyond fighting discrimination and instead dreamt up initiatives to show how tolerant and inclusive they were. It saw Stonewall dishing out accolades for those organisation which championed diversity the most. Naturally the Police were part of this. After all why wouldn’t they want to show their desire to serve all parts of the community.
But It led to things like police officers taking the knee during the Black Lives matter demonstrations. Police officers should not allow themselves to face the accusation of siding with any political movement.
That behaviour needs to be addressed. But lets drop any suggestion of two tier policing. Most of our police officers put themselves in harms way to protect us. We should support them. No politician should be making their job more difficult.