Wait, what? Instructions from above to not arrest people who may have committed offences? I have seen time and time again SMT changing laws and definitions of offences to fit whatever they need to achieve at that time.

Rather than passing this down from above, why not canvass the general public? Do they want the Police Officers of this country to stand there and take verbal abuse from a minority of the community, or step in and begin to retake some of the respect we have lost recently?

How long before ‘Assault PC’ is no longer an offence because we should expect it as a peril of the job? I personally will handcuff for Officer safety, and if this mockery of advice makes its way over to my end I will end up locking up for drunk and disorderly for offences under section 1 of The Attitude Act 2011!

It was four years ago, yesterday, that PC Henry was stabbed to death on the streets of Britain attending the same type of call that Police Officers do every single day. Four years goes past very quickly, don’t you think? Four years of political promises about being tough on whatever they feel like that hour.

The truth? I’m scared.

Scared not, of a knife. No, I’m aware of that, there’s a difference. I’m scared about the public’s perception of the Police, scared about how that might change how I react, and scared that whilst I’m taking the few extra seconds to think about the forms I’ll have to fill in, and the justifications I’ll have to give if I draw my TASER, I do get stabbed.

I’m scared that I won’t deliver a pre-emptive strike because the footage might be slickly edited, and posted on YouTube. I’m scared that my Force will be more concerned with the public relations disaster, rather than the safety of the front line. Drama has no place in response policing; you just get the job done and move onto the next call. Sometimes, you find a worthy victim, and you bend over backwards to make sure they get the best result from you that they can.

I don’t know much about the London ‘pushing’ manslaughter incident, and I don’t want a shitstorm about it, but I don’t want to be scared to lay my hands on somebody, simply because I fear the repercussions from above and the public, more than I fear the potential consequences of taking no action. Every Police Officer on duty today could become another PC Henry very easily. We need more support. We do our best for you all.

The new system, which I am behind at the moment, replaces most of the payments with one, limits the amount you can claim to £26,000 per family and if an individual refuses to work they can have their benefits removed for a maximum of three years. I doubt we’ll ever see the full three years; I imagine it to be more like the maximum sentences that can be handed out at court — rocking horse poo. But, having said all that, I do think it’s a step in the right direction.

On a similar note, I appear to be having more and more conversations with people I have arrested for racially motivated offences — assaults, damage and public order — and the underlying reasoning being that they believe that the targets of their offences are stealing the employment of the down-on-their-luck working class in my area. My look when they deliver this information is one of bewilderment and confusion. I usually offer to drive them to the job center after dealing with them in custody, or read one of the many leaflets they are handed on their exit from custody, but am met with slight variation on the same answer — “There aren’t any jobs I’m interested in.” Now, when this hypothetical job-stealing EU national was younger, do we think he dreamt of growing up, moving to a foreign country, and gutting chickens twelve hours a day for minimum wage? No, I don’t think he did. The reality of the situation is that many of the foreigners moving into the area I Police, are very honest, hardworking, respectful of Officers and will do the jobs that the ‘customers’ I deal with honestly believe are beneath them!

I sigh, drop the idiot off miles away from where he wanted to be and make him walk a good distance to sign on for the free money that week.

Note: Benefits are an important part of society to support those between jobs, genuinely too ill to work or who need their income supplementing. Those who have never been in employment, and do not want to be, should not be entitled to benefits — end of.

A note must be made by the store manager who is in possession of the slowest moving security shutters in the history of commerce and retail. It’s great to see that the lovely lady escaped unharmed, that the criminals made off empty-handed and a number have been arrested in relation to this offence. They’re going to need some serious protection inside if it becomes common knowledge that they were battered by an elderly lady at the scene of the crime.

Lady; I would gladly swap you for a fair few people from my station, stick a baton in your hand and send you down Main Street on a Saturday night.

The Sun’s article includes the video and some great stills that I don’t feel like stealing today!

P.S. It’s good to be back.

You’re sent to a town centre location, single crewed, to reports of a male who has contacted Police, advising that he is going to ‘harm people’.

You arrive to meet an intoxicated male, obviously ranting about his previous convictions to you, and blaming you for everything that has gone wrong in his life.

You’re trying to talk him round; trying to find out ANY way to help him. You notice that this male won’t take one of his hands out of one of his pockets. He’s obviously winding himself up for ‘something’. Suddenly, he shouts something about you “HAVING ANOTHER RAOUL MOAT ON YOUR HANDS.”

You’re by yourself, about two feet away, with backup a few minutes away. You have no Tazer, just spray and a baton.

What would you do?