Policing doesn’t know which way to go

There’s been another horrible attack in the country, this time in Nottingham and already the so-called Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) are on the case of police officers who attended the scene and who jumped out of their vehicle to render first aid to the casualties. The IOPC will have to attend any police incident which may attract high public interest so that’s understood, but the edge they give to their press releases is often that there’s a suggestion there is more to it than simply following procedure. With regards to the attacks in Nottingham, the IOPC reported: “Our investigation will consider whether the actions of the van driver were influenced by the police car’s presence shortly before he collided with the two pedestrians”. Why am I not confident this isn’t yet another witch hunt? It’s ironic the former head of the IOPC has since been charged with three counts of rape with a girl under 16 and six sexual assaults from back in the 1980s. We await a trial.
I despair at the lack of respect for policing, but I’m determined to keep some positivity for the next generation of police officers. We have to support them because what is the alternative? We can see the streets slowly being taken over by criminals and the police hesitant to be proactive because of the bias scrutiny they come under from whoever is shouting the loudest at the time. The police have been accused of getting too involved in ‘hurty feelings’ investigations and I have to agree they have been, but not on the level of some accusations. I can see free speech diminishing, hidden under a sinister blanket of ‘speech has consequences’ but by those who wish to ensure the consequences are to remove reasonable argument. I can see the police bosses along with the IOPC reacting to the baying mob on social media, and not the general public who quietly get on with their lives understanding the pressure police officers on the front line are under.
Unfortunately, where it’s gone wrong in my view are too many police leaders have mistaken social media and a lot of the mainstream media with how the general public feel, when in fact they are reacting to click bait and some shouty people. We end up with police sometimes reacting to nonsense, as suddenly, everything is a priority including the most obscure subjects involving the smallest numbers of people under the umbrella of hate speech. There is a difference between disagreeing with someone, or insulting them, and downright harassment with the intention of destroying them and most people know there’s a difference, unless it doesn’t fit their very specific agenda. The police and government should be above that.
It shouldn’t be the case where the average, reasonable person feels unable to express an opinion without feeling the consequences of doing so just isn’t worth it. That isn’t democracy, and we are losing it fast.
Let’s leave the politics to the politicians and let’s get back to policing again.