Pictures of Met Police officers kneeling, a political act, in London at a Black Lives Matter demo. (pictures from the Daily Mail) Removed due to copyright claim
One of the founding principles of the British police is that they are to be impartial. That impartiality should cover such things as police officers not doing favours for friends and family or treating one person differently from another. The law is the law and should be enforced without fear or favour. Impartiality should also apply to political matters, a police officer should not promote political causes or political parties in the course of their duties. Although police officers should have the same rights to express their opinion as the rest of us have at the ballot box, when an officer is in uniform they should be scrupulous to ensure that they are not promoting any political cause. The very last thing that Britain should be seeing is police officers in uniform promoting or backing one or other political parties or causes.
Unfortunately the UK Police have strayed very far from that ideal of impartiality over the issue of the Black Lives Matter/Far Left protests in London recently. According to a report in the Daily Mail dated 3rd June 2020, four police officers crossed the line of impartiality during this demo. These officers ‘took the knee’ in front of thousands of demonstrators in their words, ‘to show that police are not racist’.
This should never ever have happened. These officers might have thought that they were trying to calm matters down by taking part in this kneeling protest, but all they have done is horrified many people who want an impartial police force and made themselves look weak in front of a mob. This was blatant and disgraceful political activity whilst in uniform and it is conduct that should neither go unremarked nor go unpunished.
A police officer who gave a Nazi salute to some skinheads would quite rightly be seen as committing a disciplinary offence and an officer who was delivering party political leaflets or endorsing particular electoral candidates whilst in uniform would be committing a criminal offence under the 1983 Representation of the People Act. It would be right and proper that these four officers even if they are not committing a criminal offence by their actions, should at the very least face disciplinary action.
What these officers have done is tarnish the image of the Metropolitan Police by behaving in such a blatant and obvious political manner. Not only that they’ve given a lot of fuel to those who say that the police are now so politically correct that they will police according to the colour of a person’s skin or according to a person’s religious or cultural beliefs. What these officers have done is to reduce both the respect that the police are held in and damage the image of the police among the wider public. This conduct and that damage that it will do would be bad enough at the best of times. However, coming as it does at a time when the image of the police and public confidence in them has already been significantly damaged by both the failure of various police forces to tackle things like Islamic Sex Crime and their inconsistent and aggressive policing of coronavirus restrictions, this action could not have come at a worse time. They come at a time when public confidence in the police is right down the toilet.
The actions of these four officers makes the Metropolitan Police appear to be politically bent in the eyes of the public and that is not a good look for a force that aspires to have the trust of ALL Londoners, not just the political Left. What these officers did was not ‘a nice gesture’, it was politicking in uniform and needs to be called out not just by those of us such as myself who are on the Centre-Right, but by all those of whatever political persuasion who want to see Britain policed in an honest, effective and above all impartial way.
UPDATE:
According to a later article in the Mail, this disgraceful kneeling by these officers is OK with Met pol senior management. After learning this information do you still trust the Met to police London with any sort of equity or impartiality? I know I don’t. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8387493/Met-Police-gave-officers-green-light-knee.html
“Contrary to what Cressida Dick had led him to believe – PC49 found that grovelling on the ground did not increase anyone’s liking and respect for him…..”
Well said there. This is not going to be seen by the Left/BLM as ‘solidarity’ this is going to be seen as cowardly grovelling. Apparently according to the Mail, the Yard are going to make a statement on this incident tonight, it will be interesting to see if the Yard condemn this or not.
It is really unfortunate in this day and age that there is still discrimination. The thing is that it’s not just aimed at black people, it’s aimed at the disabled and white people as well. Discrimination exists and it’s everywhere, like it or not, however, black and dark skinned people have never had it so good. Gone is slavery. Gone is the white person more important than the black person. Gone is the 60s, 70s, and 80s bullying racist police . Now we have the white public and the police force minding their words and actions so as not to upset those with dark skin. Why? Because we are a bunch of bloody weak minded do gooders who believed in equality yet instead of equality these people that protest want to be superior. They certainly got that with our kneeling weak police. The world will be changing soon. Unless there is very strong leadership it won’t be for the better. We owe it to generations to come to be strong in our decisions so that superior complexity is eradicated. And before anyone says I have never suffered discrimination, I have. The difference is I don’t need to protest. Because it’s not my loss.