#KillTheBill

A night of rioting in Bristol. Yet another set of grim and deeply depressing headlines.  Police officers with serious injuries. Police vehicles overturned and in flames. Police buildings under sustained attack. Extreme violence and endless vitriol directed yet again at the brave women and men who stand on the thin blue line. What the hell...

Crossroads

Policing is at a crossroads. The headlines this morning were truly grim. The pictures were even worse: photographs of women being pinned to the ground by police officers, at a vigil held in memory of a murdered woman. Clapham Common is a short walk from where I live. I went there yesterday. I went with...

Gross Misconduct

To err is human, but to foul things up completely requires a politician. Or rather, it requires a particular kind of politician: ideologues flawed by incompetence and floored by dishonesty. Yesterday (Jan 17th), I read a powerful article written by Danny Shaw - who was, until very recently, the BBC’s Home Affairs Correspondent. Titled ‘Home...

Questions, Questions

These are unprecedented times. No peacetime Government in the last hundred years has faced a greater set of challenges than those now facing the Government of Boris Johnson. That being said, I do have some questions about the response to Coronavirus in this country. I have never been a supporter of those who offer commentary...

#OfficerDown

I originally wrote much of what follows last summer - in the desperate days that followed the killing of PC Andrew Harper. Little more than a year on, the agony of history is repeating itself. Officer Down. Most give what they can; some give all they have. Sergeant Matiu Ratana - known to all as...

Perspectives

[Author’s Note: This blog is a little longer than those I usually write, but the subject matter seemed too important to make it any shorter.] Last Thursday evening in north London, the police were called to reports of a fight in the street. On arriving at the scene, officers identified a man who matched the...

The Point of Failure

Policing is taking an absolute hammering at the moment - with the relentless criticism of a job that most couldn’t or wouldn’t do coming from almost every quarter. And, while it’s tempting to suggest that it was ever thus, there can be no doubt that it’s got demonstrably worse in the last few weeks. Quite...

A.C.A.B.

I’m married to Bear. She’s wonderful. At the start of this week, we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary: eighteen years spent in the company of my best friend; eighteen years spent listening and learning and having the rough edges rubbed off me. Back in 2002, in the weeks leading up to our wedding, we signed...

The Killing of George Floyd

I’m struggling for words - struggling to write anything coherent. The best I seem to be able to manage is this collection of thoughts about the killing of George Floyd… The greatest duty - the greatest privilege - that any police officer could ever have is to save the life of another human being. The...

A Copper’s Lot

Yesterday Yesterday, the Prime Minister gave a pre-recorded speech in which he attempted to explain the government’s latest strategy for responding to the pandemic. Stay Alert, we were told. But a soundbite does not a strategy make and, mostly, he seems only to have confused people (including senior members of his own government). “Stay at...