What are the police for?
Should police be able to use lethal force against rioters who are threatening life or property? Amazingly, this is a question still thought worth debating in Britain.
Why? Search me. I would have thought it was a no-brainer. Given the choice between protecting the life of a scuzzball in a hoodie about to chuck a molotov cocktail and the lives of the family in the house he's about to immmolate, it seems fairly obvious to me where a policeman's responsibilities should lie.
And it seems even more of an urgent priority that the British police should acquire a set of teeth after their abject failure during last summer's riots. For chapter and verse on this, read Jonathan Foreman's devastating analysis in Commentary. Basically, those August riots happened because the police allowed them to happen. Here's Foreman:
In the collective mind of Britain’s self-consciously “modern” police services (they are no longer police “forces”), criminals are forces of nature, like earthquakes or thunderstorms. You can no more prevent their predations than you can prevent the tides. In the long term, society can perhaps decrease crime by addressing its root causes, like inequality and poverty, but that is for the politicians. What the police can do effectively, however, is preserve social peace by monitoring "racism" (meaning only white racism,) along with Islamophobia and other offensive and dangerous prejudices.
I'm all for giving the police guns, daisy cutter bombs, napalm strike facilities, tactical nukes, whatever they deem necessary to go about their job protecting the citizens who fund them via their taxes. (And yes - sigh - protecting those who don't pay their taxes too, I suppose). In return, however, I think it's important that the police only have these powers through public consent and remember what the police's purpose is.
What is the police's purpose?
These are the precepts - never improved upon - set out by the creator of the first police force, Robert Peel. (I particularly like 9) H/T Old Holborn
1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in
voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the
respect of the public.
4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured
diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical
force.
5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public
opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to
the law.
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure
observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of
persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public
that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the
public and the public are the police; the police being only members of
the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are
incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and
existence.
8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their
functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it
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Comments :
May '10
Re: What are the police for?
James significantly understates the security problem. Not only do the police not enforce the law and preserve security, they actively go after individuals who attempt to protect themselves. Hooligans and criminals can do pretty much as they like. Citizens who attempt to protect themselves land in serious trouble. The best thing you can do when discovering a criminal in your home is offer a cuppa.
We won't even bother to discuss the police standing by watching someone drown because they lack the proper health and safety training. World gone mad.