On
Monday, Lord Sumption, a former Justice of the Supreme Court, said the actions
of Derbyshire Police "shamed our policing traditions".
"The
tradition of policing in this country is that policemen are citizens in
uniform, they are not members of a disciplined hierarchy operating just at the
government's command," he said.
There’s a fine line between the two
which some people seem to have difficulty seeing, but let’s put it another way.
Under the British democratic system the police are employees of the people, and
their first duty is to serve those people. They are not first and foremost
instruments of state control as they would be if we lived under an oppressive
totalitarian regime. And it isn’t the first time the British police have shown
themselves to be ignorant of this principle. I well remember the miners’ strike
when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister.
And there’s another unpalatable
angle to this issue. When I was working for an inner city charity I had
dealings with the police on several occasions, and one fact became obvious. A
disturbing number of police officers are clearly in the job because they are
bullies by nature and they like having the opportunity to validate their bullying
tendency. I know this isn’t true of all officers, I know they have a difficult
job to do, and I know we’re all happy to see them when we’re in difficulty. But
bad apples are still bad apples and facts are still facts.
The people of Britain are
under the cosh at the moment. Being denied their routines, their freedom of
movement, and their accustomed connections with fellow human beings must be
having an adverse psychological effect. Lockdown might be a sensible and
necessary precaution, but the government and its minions must start thinking
more about carrots and less about sticks.
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