#British Police

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

hey so remember those new protest laws that make peaceful protest illegal? yeah? wanna see them in action?

[alt text:]

Head of UK’s leading anti-monarchy group arrested at coronation protest

Republic’s Graham Smith held at protest on King Charles III’s procession route in central London

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter, Sat 6 May 2023 08.31 BST

The head of the UK’s leading republican movement has been arrested at an anti-monarchist protest on King Charles III’s procession route.

Graham Smith had been collecting drinks and placards for demonstrators at Trafalgar Square when he was detained by police on the Strand in central London.

It is understood Smith was detained after bringing a megaphone to the demonstration. The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have a “low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” the day.

Harry Stratton, a director at Republic, who arrived as Smith and the others were detained, said: “They were collecting the placards and bringing them over when the police stopped them.

“The guys asked why and they were told: we will tell you that once we have searched the vehicle. That’s when they arrested the six organisers. We asked on what grounds they had been arrested but they wouldn’t say. It is a surprise as we had had a number of meetings with the police. They had been making all the right noises”.

full article

dont you love it when your government decides to not even bother hiding the fact the fascist tendencies theyre leaning more and more into?

[tendie-defender]

Imagine making fun of America when your own country reacts like this over carrying a knife.

[nando161mando]

British Police arrested Professor Haim Bresheeth, a Jewish supporter of Palestine, for delivering a speech at an anti-genocide demonstration outside the residence of far-right extremist ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.

[lasseling]

BRITISH TYRANNY: Police Raid and Arrest 11-Year-Old Child for Attending Anti-Immigration Protest

British police have raided and arrested an 11-year-old child for participating in a spate of recent anti-immigration protests, some of which turned violent.

[sarkysphotoblog]

[slocum-dodson]

My flame thrower cop accidentally set my other police officer on fire.

[stephensmithuk]

"You’ll be hearing more of this, Mr. P 34!"

Mackenzie is here referring to the poor police constable by a feature that most uniformed officers in the UK and Ireland have, namely his collar number. Although these days they tend to be known as shoulder numbers.

Permit me to demonstrate via this image:

This is Police Constable C 333. His actual name is not recorded in this c.1948, but we'll call him Robert Smith, or Bobby to his friends.

The letter C represents the division of the Metropolitan Police he is assigned to. In this case, C covered the West End of London. The Met has gone through a lot of command changes over the decades - today this would be Central West Basic Command Unit and he'd have AW on his shoulders, not his collar.

These numbers allow for identification of the officer; the public would know who to compliment or complain about. There have been cases of officers policing protests not wearing these, which caused a fair amount of upset when it was reported.

If he was using a radio, he would be Charlie Three-Three-Three. Or just "Three-Three-Three" for a local chat.

If he was to sign a statement, he'd be PC Smith 333 C. He would also put that in his email signature today.

Sergeants would have three V stripes on their sleeves and now their epaulettes outside of a dress uniform situation. They would also have their numbers on their uniform.

Police Community Support Officers (civilians wearing a uniform, basically) and Special Constables (volunteer officers with full powers, but unpaid) have shoulder numbers.

Inspectors and above just have their rank insignia, no numbers.

If Bobby moved to another division, he might keep his numbers, but he would have to change his letter. He would go down to two numbers if promoted to Sergeant.

****

Outside of London, you will usually just see four numbers, with no letters.

Bobby would also have a warrant card, akin to the US police badge, which he would use in a plain clothes or off-duty situation. If he were suspended for excessive force, he would have to hand it over.

****

Now P 34 is a bit outside his area.

This is the 1888 police divisions map, also relevant for Sherlock Holmes:

(Source: https://gmic.co.uk/topic/64457-metropolitan-police-divisional-areas-1888/)

The blue area represents the boundaries of the London County Council, although the City of London was excluded from that - it retains its own local government and police, who have their numbers on their sleeves today.

You can see the Whitechapel area under H and the Docklands area, plus points east under K.

The red area was the then boundaries of the Metropolitan Police District. You can see that it excluded my manor of Havering, then under the auspices of Essex Police. This went quite a way out, beyond even the modern Greater London boundaries in some places, although in 2000 it was aligned to match those. Havering was KD until recently, it is now part of EA.

As a further fun note, the MPD boundaries were also those of the coal tax area. Any coal brought within this area, which also included the City, was subject to tax until 1890, when this was abolished due to its unpopularity in the new suburbs. The boundaries were marked by obelisks or white concrete posts, many of which are still in situ, although not always easy to spot, to remind people of the tax. The railway or river transport companies usually collected this anyway.

Anyway, P Division covers the Camberwell, Lewisham area. Quite why Mackenzie has grabbed this bloke from there for this operation is a mystery. While P 34 could easily go outside his area for public order stuff, like a parade or dealing with a protest; during the miners' strike of 1984-85, Metropolitan Police officers were used in protecting those who were going into work from their striking colleagues, as well as beating up the latter.

Perhaps he was just doing it for the LOLs.

****

As a final note, police officers are also starting to wear name badges. This was somewhat controversial as some officers feared being targeted as a result.

[thelandofbritain]

Incompetent British police are underfunded by incompetent Tory Government

Police short of at least 18,000 officers because of the Tory lack of funding and support.

They can dish out millions of speeding tickets or arrest peaceful protesters in the street and jail them, but our basic safety and security isn't important to the police or the Tory crooks...

...unless you happen to be rich or one of their party donors, in which case you'll get a knighthood or a 'lordship', be made a 'baroness' if you nick £60 million from us.

[feckcops]

It’s official: the British public hates the police

“It seems incredible to think that as recently as December 2019, 77% of people in the UK felt that the police were doing a good job; 57% trusted them to tackle crime and 41% viewed the Met as non-racist. Today, the force’s net approval rating is just five points, down from 60 four years ago. Much has happened in the interim – not least the explosion of the Black Lives Matter and Kill The Bill movements – but still, it is hard to overstate how vertiginously Britons’ faith in the police has plummeted in less than half a decade.

“The decline has been steady but consistent, beginning during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Yet it was the horrific kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021 that really accelerated the police’s fall from favour. Over the year following Everard’s murder, approval for the police dropped from +44 to +14. As more police scandals surfaced – such as the strip searching of Child Q and the sexual assaults committed by Met Police Officer David Carrick – the force’s approval declined further, and then dropped again following the Casey Review.

“Unsurprisingly, public confidence in the police’s attitude towards BAME people and women has dropped particularly sharply, as has these groups’ own faith in the police. Voters now view the Met Police as institutionally racist, and have little confidence in the police to tackle sexual assault. A year before the murder of Sarah Everard, 55% of women felt the police were not treating reports of sexual assault seriously enough; by the end of March 2021, 7 in 10 women felt this way; that figure has remained largely the same ever since.”

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

normal country

[chewbaxter]

Apparently crossing the road is suspicious activity according to police

Last night, I was walking home from work, watching something on my phone as I idly crossed an empty road; two cops stopped me out of the blue to ask what I was doing, walking late past midnight, and why I (supposedly) crossed the road after I saw them. I didn't see them until AFTER I crossed the road. But apparently it's suspicious behaviour?

One of them asked me here I was coming from. I said I'd just finished work and was walking home. The guy seemed like he wanted to know more, told me not to put my hands casually in my pocket to put my phone away, but his supervisor (who was fucking watching this like it was chill) called him off and let me go. Fuck off. Go deal with actual criminals.

ACAB.

[lasseling]

British Police Begin Arresting Citizens Who Have Been ‘Debunked’ by Facebook Fact Checkers

Police in the UK have been authorized by the government to begin mass arresting citizens who post content on social media that has been ‘debunked’ by Facebook fact checkers.

[familythings]

How AI is Revolutionizing Crime Investigation

The British police are really getting into the awesome possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to crack some of the country’s toughest and oldest cases. According to cool reports from British media, the Avon and Somerset Police are testing out some cutting-edge tech that digs up useful info that might’ve been missed in traditional investigations. This nifty AI gadget, called Soze and…

[slocum-dodson]

sometimes my police officers are bad at their jobs, even though I've given them every opportunity to be good.

[angrybell]