Sponsored by
Bernard Dineen: Don't forget plight of brave police officers
A FORMER police officer now living in Italy says Italians are bewildered by TV coverage of the G20 rioting in London and its aftermath. They marvel at the level of restraint shown by the police and find it unbelievable that no tear gas, baton charges or water-cannon were used.
They wonder why we focus endlessly on the handful of officers who, under pressure, go beyond what is acceptable, but ignore the thousands of others who stand there, getting stuck in the leg with pins and nails, kicked mercilessly out of sight of the cameras, spat at and treated with contempt.
A consultant surgeon says one rioter was hit with a plastic riot shield and another was subdued by the technically correct use of a baton; neither event troubles him in the least.
The only important issue is that a bystander died, allegedly from an injury inflicted by the police.
This is a serious matter and must be properly investigated: the post-mortem findings must be put before
a coroner and his findings acted upon. We do not want any propaganda about institutional violence, on the lines of the disgraceful Macpherson Inquiry, with Left-wing lawyers competing for the Academy Award.
A vascular surgeon says it is quite possible that the internal bleeding mentioned in one post-mortem report could have been caused by attempts to revive the man. That is why the Police Federation was right to insist on another post-mortem.
The notion that demonstrators were standing still in a peaceful demonstration, with police attacking them, is a ludicrous lie. The G20 demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful, but there is always a hardcore group intent on disruption, and expert in mob control and violence.
With a mob of thousands determined on a course of action and the police ordered to stop them, some violence is inevitable. This mob was trying to break through to the Bank of England and the police had to stop them. What do you expect is going to happen?
The woman who reportedly pocketed 50,000 with the help of Max Clifford admits that she pushed the police officer – her excuse is that she herself was being pushed from behind.
Is there a country on earth where pushing – in other words, assaulting – a police officer in an official cordon would not be met by instant retaliation?
Yet this officer is being hounded as if he was a criminal.
By coincidence, there was another death last week. PC Gary Toms's life-support machine was switched off after he was critically injured while confronting four robbery suspects in London. I haven't heard whether Max Clifford is on the case: somehow I doubt it.
Gary was one of 3,000 police officers killed on duty – stabbed, shot, bludgeoned and run over. Yvonne Fletcher, shot outside the Libyan Embassy, was the first woman officer. Sharon Beshenivsky, murdered in Bradford, was the second.
The film director Michael Winner, to his enormous credit, launched the National Police Memorials to mark the sites where police officers were killed. There is one opposite Leeds Parish Church; another is due on the Wetherby road out of Leeds, where a fine officer, Ian Broadhurst, was shot by an American thug. So far there are 37 memorials. One thing is certain: there will be more.
As if to prove my contention that the police cannot win, there was another big demonstration last week in London. Up to 5,000 Tamils stormed Parliament, protesting about the violence in Sri Lanka.
There were more complaints about the behaviour of the police. But this time the complaint was that they had not been tough enough in stopping the Tamils from breaking through.
The Speaker, Michael Martin, says the Tamils deliberately placed children around the demonstrations to stop police getting to them.
A police officer told an MP: "No officer will act because he will be fearful that TV cameras will be on him. If he adopts anything other than a softly-softly approach, he will find himself in court."
No wonder the Italians are bewildered by the way we treat our police. They have come to the understandable conclusion that the British are barmy.
Some officers have been criticised for removing the identifying number from their uniforms. It is a disciplinary offence but I find it understandable. Some of the hardcore fanatics are quite capable of tracking them down at home.
Large sections of the news media, particularly television, have
convicted them on the basis of a few seconds of blurred shots out of context.
The illusion is that the camera does not lie when, in fact, the TV camera often does little else.
The endless repetition of these shots has been sickening, with officers crucified without having a chance to defend themselves. If it were a deliberate attempt to destroy police morale, it could not be doing a better job.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Celtic interested in Leeds United’s White
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Sister ‘saw parents kill teenager Shafilea Ahmed for bringing dishonour on family’
- 20 degrees! At last, Yorkshire’s about to bask in sunshine
- Worker killed and trains halted on North York Moors steam railway
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Celtic interested in Leeds United’s White
- Sister ‘saw parents kill teenager Shafilea Ahmed for bringing dishonour on family’
- Fears over faith split fuelled by free school proposals
- Luton Town 1 York City 2: York clear their heads after early blow to claim their place back in Football League
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
