I was in London town on Sunday and was 'amazed by the amount of armory worn by a policeman'! Why so much? There has over many years been a massive reduction in crime of all types as surveyed by the Home Office and all criminologists agree that crime is on a downward curve. What's going on? When I was a policeman in the 1960's in Soho central London we were armed with nothing more than only a 'whistle and small wooden truncheon'. Today they have all manner of things like - hand cuffs, pepper spray, tassar guns mobile phones, cameras they look like 'robots'. Its as if there going into 'battle' and some think they are with the British public. They think they are the 'thin blue line' between us and moral turpitude. As crime goes down their armory goes up - is there a correlation? As societies become more affluent crime goes down! However in parts of society that are not so affluent there is a sociological and structural explanation for any increase. There has also been an enormous rise in 'food crime' as many poor go hungry. There has also been a large increase in 'food banks' for many close to the poverty line. As the fastest growing economy in the G7 and now the fourth richest country in the G7 - this is a 'disgrace'. In their book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone (2009) by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett address the underlying causes for this 'inequity'. Education has in the past been the mantra, but this now is not sufficient but is necessary for any functioning society.
Today the Home Secretary Theresa May will announce in the House of Commons a package of Police Reforms, but the evidence is that they will again be 'too little and too late'. She has not done her homework otherwise she will know how 'recalcitrant the police are to any changes in the status quo'. It beggars belief after all the multitude of miscreants that have inhabited the police that she is so afraid to have fundamental reform - more shame on her.
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