Dalian Atkinson

[paul_e]

Yes a police officer killed Atkinson, but other police officers ran an inquest into it and have provided the evidence to see him charged with murder for it. Regardless of whether you think that only happened because he was famous it's still a positive thing and should be treated as such. Attitudes like Bob's are as much of a problem as the police have themselves because the environment of distrust it creates just makes things worse. You have to address that by acknowledging when the police get things right and work with the force to get there.

I worked for the police in various IT jobs for about 18 months and in all that time I saw no difference in terms of attitudes and personalities to any other job, some of them were arseholes, some of them were great people, they had good and bad days. It's a tough job that deals with some awful situations but plenty of times when I spoke to someone who'd had a bad day it wasn't because of the actions of a suspect/criminal but because they were being abused by random people. Some of them make mistakes, some of them do some fucking horrible things and sometimes those mistakes are exacerbated by poor choices afterwards but 'fuck the police' is a pathetic thing to post on a thread where the police, as a force, are doing exactly what the public would want them to and dealing with a problem publicly and appropriately.

[Legion]

Spot on.

[mike]

Just for the record, I was a police officer for 27 years. I put plenty of rapists, murderers and child molesters in prison. I have spent hours viewing the most disgusting videos you could imagine and matching them painstakingly with e mails to prove someone was part of an international paedophile ring. I still have nightmares about that one, but I saved a girl who was too frightened to accuse her dad from a life of torture. I sent a man who had systematically raped three of his daughters over twenty years to prison, even though none of them made a complaint. I sent down two men who had burgled and terrified a string of old people.  I comforted the bereaved, I dealt with things and saw things and shared people’s suffering in ways I suspect Bob can only imagine. I never lifted a finger to a black person and hate racism with every fibre of my being. I put myself in danger, I got injured, I carry mental scars from what I have seen and done for half the money my mates earn and I did it all, like 99% of plod, because I care. If this bloke has done what he’s accused of, I would have taken massive pride in helping send him to prison. So I suspect I have contributed more to the poor and minority groups than Bob ever has. Fuck narrow minded, prejudiced, generalising, judgmental twats like Bob

[JD]

Just for the record, I was a police officer for 27 years. I put plenty of rapists, murderers and child molesters in prison. I have spent hours viewing the most disgusting videos you could imagine and matching them painstakingly with e mails to prove someone was part of an international paedophile ring. I still have nightmares about that one, but I saved a girl who was too frightened to accuse her dad from a life of torture. I sent a man who had systematically raped three of his daughters over twenty years to prison, even though none of them made a complaint. I sent down two men who had burgled and terrified a string of old people.  I comforted the bereaved, I dealt with things and saw things and shared people’s suffering in ways I suspect Bob can only imagine. I never lifted a finger to a black person and hate racism with every fibre of my being. I put myself in danger, I got injured, I carry mental scars from what I have seen and done for half the money my mates earn and I did it all, like 99% of plod, because I care. If this bloke has done what he’s accused of, I would have taken massive pride in helping send him to prison. So I suspect I have contributed more to the poor and minority groups than Bob ever has. Fuck narrow minded, prejudiced, generalising, judgmental twats like Bob

Well said Mike. Brilliant post.

[Scratchins]

Just for the record, I was a police officer for 27 years. I put plenty of rapists, murderers and child molesters in prison. I have spent hours viewing the most disgusting videos you could imagine and matching them painstakingly with e mails to prove someone was part of an international paedophile ring. I still have nightmares about that one, but I saved a girl who was too frightened to accuse her dad from a life of torture. I sent a man who had systematically raped three of his daughters over twenty years to prison, even though none of them made a complaint. I sent down two men who had burgled and terrified a string of old people.  I comforted the bereaved, I dealt with things and saw things and shared people’s suffering in ways I suspect Bob can only imagine. I never lifted a finger to a black person and hate racism with every fibre of my being. I put myself in danger, I got injured, I carry mental scars from what I have seen and done for half the money my mates earn and I did it all, like 99% of plod, because I care. If this bloke has done what he’s accused of, I would have taken massive pride in helping send him to prison. So I suspect I have contributed more to the poor and minority groups than Bob ever has. Fuck narrow minded, prejudiced, generalising, judgmental twats like Bob

Well said Mike. Brilliant post.

Thank you Mike, without people like you we would all be worse off.

[The Edge]

Just for the record, I was a police officer for 27 years. I put plenty of rapists, murderers and child molesters in prison. I have spent hours viewing the most disgusting videos you could imagine and matching them painstakingly with e mails to prove someone was part of an international paedophile ring. I still have nightmares about that one, but I saved a girl who was too frightened to accuse her dad from a life of torture. I sent a man who had systematically raped three of his daughters over twenty years to prison, even though none of them made a complaint. I sent down two men who had burgled and terrified a string of old people.  I comforted the bereaved, I dealt with things and saw things and shared people’s suffering in ways I suspect Bob can only imagine. I never lifted a finger to a black person and hate racism with every fibre of my being. I put myself in danger, I got injured, I carry mental scars from what I have seen and done for half the money my mates earn and I did it all, like 99% of plod, because I care. If this bloke has done what he’s accused of, I would have taken massive pride in helping send him to prison. So I suspect I have contributed more to the poor and minority groups than Bob ever has. Fuck narrow minded, prejudiced, generalising, judgmental twats like Bob

Well said Mike. Brilliant post.

Thank you Mike, without people like you we would all be worse off.

I've only just saw this post. What a brilliant set of comments. As someone who has spent most of my life on the right side of the law with some small misdemeanours like one or two  drunken punch ups as a youth i have always admired the job the police do. I know i couldn't do it. As for the Dalian Atkinson story i find it very strange that the charge is murder rather than manslaughter. Lets hope for Dalian and his family that justice prevails and they get to the truth of these tragic events.

[dave shelley]

Excellent synopsis of twenty-seven years work.  Kudos Mike.

[West Derby Villan]

Thanks Mike, much appreciated

[Ad@m]

Just for the record, I was a police officer for 27 years. I put plenty of rapists, murderers and child molesters in prison. I have spent hours viewing the most disgusting videos you could imagine and matching them painstakingly with e mails to prove someone was part of an international paedophile ring. I still have nightmares about that one, but I saved a girl who was too frightened to accuse her dad from a life of torture. I sent a man who had systematically raped three of his daughters over twenty years to prison, even though none of them made a complaint. I sent down two men who had burgled and terrified a string of old people.  I comforted the bereaved, I dealt with things and saw things and shared people’s suffering in ways I suspect Bob can only imagine. I never lifted a finger to a black person and hate racism with every fibre of my being. I put myself in danger, I got injured, I carry mental scars from what I have seen and done for half the money my mates earn and I did it all, like 99% of plod, because I care. If this bloke has done what he’s accused of, I would have taken massive pride in helping send him to prison. So I suspect I have contributed more to the poor and minority groups than Bob ever has. Fuck narrow minded, prejudiced, generalising, judgmental twats like Bob

*Clapping*

[villasjf]

Well said Mike

[Legion]

Agreed.

[ChicagoLion]

Heartfelt thanks and respect mike.

[Villan For Life]

Fantastic post, Mike. Heartfelt respect to you and your colleagues past and present.

[purpletrousers]

Just for the record, I was a police officer for 27 years. I put plenty of rapists, murderers and child molesters in prison. I have spent hours viewing the most disgusting videos you could imagine and matching them painstakingly with e mails to prove someone was part of an international paedophile ring. I still have nightmares about that one, but I saved a girl who was too frightened to accuse her dad from a life of torture. I sent a man who had systematically raped three of his daughters over twenty years to prison, even though none of them made a complaint. I sent down two men who had burgled and terrified a string of old people.  I comforted the bereaved, I dealt with things and saw things and shared people’s suffering in ways I suspect Bob can only imagine. I never lifted a finger to a black person and hate racism with every fibre of my being. I put myself in danger, I got injured, I carry mental scars from what I have seen and done for half the money my mates earn and I did it all, like 99% of plod, because I care. If this bloke has done what he’s accused of, I would have taken massive pride in helping send him to prison. So I suspect I have contributed more to the poor and minority groups than Bob ever has. Fuck narrow minded, prejudiced, generalising, judgmental twats like Bob

Thanks for sharing your story so fully Mike. Thank you for your extensive service to serve and protect. It’s deeply disturbing when you get into conversation with police staff how cuts have decimated what the Police can do.

I’ve recently moved home out of London this year, but had for a while a brilliant local Bobby on our patch who was a midlander. It was truly shocking how in a busy/troublesome part of town with a lot of needs and incidents/crime, the number of Bobbies in our little ward was reduced from I think around 5 to 2 with one seconded. Time taken up with eg my bike being nicked or acknowledging kids causing problems in our block and his hands were tied from doing much else of worth. 

I can’t help but think of it as so political, and the stark choices ahead, whether we basically pump money in to resus public services or not. My main interactions with Police are within the mental health system and I’ve recently seen some extraordinarily good practice with a joint police/ambulance/NHS mental health street triage team in Beds. I’m deeply grateful for the fast response I’ve seen to protect people I care about. I wish all areas could follow this good practice. We need the cash. 

I also try to have some sympathy towards the anger of Bob. I know of shocking very recent stories of prejudice eg in the Met in a dispute between neighbours (horrifically loudly far right neighbours breaking the laws and with hate speech/racist activity) but then the understandably upset black male in a mixed race couple next door getting grief off the Police because the racists were slippery enough to fabricate an allegation and the tables get amazingly turned on who is disturbing the peace.

That’s before stop and search and victims of Police violence.

Clearly there is good and bad in every group, and then also institutional/cultural ‘badness’ that sticks around. My hope is Bob you are heard, not dismissed in (I presume) your concerns about institutional racism and violence that tragically remain. If we’ve witnessed or hear of sustained/repeated abuses its clearly easy to extrapolate, or simply fear.
 
(Understandable) namecalling isn’t going to help heal the divide, but the judgements do need calling out.

Whilst I recognise it’s the responsibility of the institutions to continue to change/improve, I also hope a story like Mike’s generously shared, might indicate why the labelling of all of the Police as bad is also engaging in prejudice and unhelpful.

Sorry for the length as ever...

[clash city rocker]

Mike....I couldn't have done your job....hats off to you.