Why are people so down on the police?

Of course they get it wrong sometimes but I'd like to see you do a better job.

As soon as I see the 'I'd like to see you do better' argument deployed to shield poor practice my heart sinks a little.

Sure you might complain that your local hospital has an appalling hygiene problem, with a death rate triple that of the national average, the surgeons, on a regular basis, performing sub-standard and often badly executed surgical procedures, the X-ray machine is poorly (and dangerously) calibrated and MSRA infection has been left to drift out of control.

But what do you know about any of these things ? About calibrating an X-ray machine or complex surgery or running a hospital ?

So how can you complain ?

When the police get it wrong it's your duty to complain, ceaselessly, until they get it right, that's the process that civilised us.

I've noticed recently there have been quite a few police success stories and they largely get ignored or the 'success' is that of the poster and not the police.

It's simply the nature of how we work, we tend not to stand up and clap when someone makes it to work on time, but plenty of people will complain if you are rarely or never on time.

The police's job (like everyone else's) is to get it right, that's what we pay them for and what they are trained to do, that's why they are given extraordinary powers, - "a few police success stories" is nothing to start clapping about anymore than a few dentist success stories.

Or as Alan Partridge said: "Everyone goes on about the sinking of the Titanic, but what about those two thousand miles of perfectly incident free cruising" (Or words to that effect). The point being nobody claps when the surgeon takes out the` cancerous lung instead of the healthy one.

Don't get me wrong, there are many times when I have thought that the police are brilliant, they are undoubtedly a much needed factor in the smooth running of things, they probably do remarkable, unseen and unreported acts every day of the week - nobody is complaining about that - but too often they can be wilfully aggressive, unnecessarily officious, petty, authoritarian, wilfully violent and it is not unknown for them to be vindictive enough to fabricate evidence to make a charge stick - that is what pisses people off.

I have a theory about this. It's simply because it's 'cool' to dis the po po.

I think this is silly, you have condensed a complex issue into a schoolyard taunt, there may be an element of truth in your idea, but you have to take onboard why it might be cool to call the police cunts ?

This is an arm of the state that has been - after prolonged investigation by governmental bodies - been labelled 'racist', it has recently been re-confirmed, that little or no progress has been made in this area - if you're black, Asian (and so on) and you interact with the police you should expect from them worse treatment, more chance of being arrested, more chance of having charges brought, more chances of being convicted. Maybe these people just think it's cool to complain if and when they do ?

Next time before posting some derogatory comment about them for the sake of it or to be seen to be 'cool' try growing up a bit first.

Hmmm . . . you seem to have an answer to your own question, the reason the police are often held in contempt is because it is cool to do so ?