You're just a grass with a badge :)

99% of the police I have come into contact with have been dim, poorly educated, incompetent and lazy idiots, and the ones who weren't had become jaded from working with the fools. Unfortunately we live in times that do mean we need a police force but what we have is bureaucratic, poorly organised operation with idiots as the footsoldiers.

It would be wrong to go as far as saying all of them (or 99%) are poorly educated, incompetent and lazy idiots, but certainly the overwhelming majority of police I have had to deal with - either through seeking their help or being the subject of their interests - have been unthinking automaton who are more ready to aggressively remove your rights and lie about what happened rather than to handle situation is a reasonable way.

I have dealt with some genuinely helpful officers, but on the whole most have been idiotic, officious, uninterested, lazy and (rarely) violent pricks - unable to think for themselves or engage in the situation other than an application of the parts of the law they have managed to remember from their training.

I have a feeling that police are generally highly religious.

I've been lucky enough to have relatively few official dealings with the law. I have seen a few mates and colleagues join the police. My guess is that the majority of aspiring police officers have honorable intentions and believe that they can do good, certainly the guys I knew did. I watched them join, train and get on the beat. Then I watched them harden, some becoming cynical and narrow minded. I don't think it's because they are cunts, but (without getting out of my depth) that they might be responding to their environment. It's shit being a copper, everyone wants a piece of you and your day to day life may be filled with peril, certainly a shit load of abuse. I think it would take a fucking saint to maintain their principles in such conditions.

There's a few jobs that everyone should experience for a day in my view: cleaning public shithouses and being a copper in a city centre for a night.

The Duvel has spoken. I'm off to bed.

"Make a Risible Difference"

Lolz

Lets face it though, a least the government hasn't given them all guns..

I have a feeling that police are generally highly religious.

:) Ha !

I have no clue as the to prevalence of superstitious belief in the police, but you do hit on a very real issue.

There is, undeniably, a cultural divide between the police and sections of society. To imagine the police draw on all areas of society uniformly to populate it's ranks would be silly.

There is something (beyond payment) that informs people to make the corralling of their fellow man to the rule of law their job in life, to deny this is not an expression of their character would be difficult to defend.

Simply put the police will always be innately more hostile towards certain groups of people, regardless of their training.

Where to start.....

If a doctor fucks up do you hate all doctors and not trust them? Anecdotal evidence means fuck all no one posts on the internet when the Police did arrive in 60 seconds and caught the person responsible.

I have a feeling that police are generally highly religious.

that is misguided.

Lets face it though, a least the government hasn't given them all guns..

this isn't [misguided]

that is misguided.

:) Not really meant to be read without Tynan's post ...

one posts on the internet when the Police did arrive in 60 seconds and caught the person responsible.

Probably because it never happens. :-)
I got the police round in double quick time when my bike was nicked, and they even did a drive-around looking for the thieves. After years of largely negative interactions with the boys in blue, these two were a credit to their profession. And I posted as such on the internet. Still didn't catch anyone though.

Real policemen have been told to stop calling PCSOs "plastic plods" and now call them "CHIMPS", which stands for "Cannot help in most police situations".

Oh come on, they're coppers but without the power to give you a slap AND they're doing it for free! I'd rather work in McDonalds tbh

the clue is in the name. Police Communit Support Officers. ie - they're trying to make a difference in the neighborhood.
the majority view on policemen (or at least demonstrated in this thread) is bizarre and frankly, worrying.

no one posts on the internet when the Police did arrive in 60 seconds and caught the person responsible.

Cos it never happens.

D'oh!

I might have to put the list up of incompetent policing that I've experienced in my life. I'll save it for a rainy day though

so what though?

i was going to pull someone up on this the other day but i didn't have the time. (IMO!!1111) calling police men pigs and having some kind of personal vendetta against them is no different to dropping the n-bomb and hanging on to some daily mail points of view.

I don't want to find this guy funny, but I can't help myself with this one:

With regards to PCSOs, I have two friends who do it - it's a bloody tough job and I think they do it well. They know almost all of the little scrotes on the estate they work on by name and if not, by face and spend time speaking to them and being a police presence in that area - something which normal police don't have the time to do. I don't know about the system as a whole, but I speak for these guys when I say that I think they are doing a damn good job in the area that they have been placed.

It's so easy to criticise, but even amongst all the crap and injustice that goes on in systems like these there's plenty of good and we would all be a bit screwed if they weren't there.