Many readers will be familiar with one particular incident of police Covid19 poor conduct that of the Lancashire man who was stopped by police and harassed by the police and who was told by one of the officers that if he could not find anything to arrest him for then he would ‘make something up’. Luckily this bullying arrogant piece of plodscum, a man unfit to wear his uniform or carry a warrant card was filmed by the victim’s friend and later distributed online. The video went completely viral and caused a current of righteous anger at the police to rise up amomg members of the public.

The anger about this case has been so huge that Lancashire Police have been forced to act. According to a report about the case in amongst other outlets, the UK’s Guardian newspaper, the victim was one his way home after purchasing a quad bike for a relative when he was stopped. The officer who accosted him started to become aggressive towards him whilst the victim protested, as you would in such a situation, that he had done nothing wrong.

The Guardian said:

He was then told at a close distance that police would fabricate evidence to justify detaining him. The footage, filmed by a friend, went viral on social media and Lancashire police issued an apology, which admitted that threatening to make offences up damaged public confidence in the police and that the officer had behaved in an unacceptable fashion.

I think the ship that is named ‘damaged public confidence in the police’ probably sailed long ago when it comes to the British police, what this and other similar incidents of police Covid19 related bad conduct has now scuttled that ship. Much of the public that I’ve spoken to over the last few years are mightily unhappy with how Britain is being policed with complaints about lazy, capricious, biased and arrogant police officers and police forces. Cases like this Lancashire one and those like it just make bad policing more noticable to the country.

The Guardian added:

It said the member of the public had received a personal apology and that the incident had been referred to the force’s professional standards department for investigation.

But following pressure, the officer has now been suspended from duty. The force said in a statement: “We absolutely recognise the impact this footage has had on public confidence and following an initial review by our professional standards department the officer involved has … been suspended from duty.

I get the impression by reading between the lines of the Guardian article that the police might have hoped to fob off the victim, calm the situation and retain some face by issuing an apology. The police also gave the victim the usual guff about an investigation being carried out but faiing to tell them that this investigation would be carried out on a police officer by police officers who all too often come out on the side of police officers. The justifiable outcry over this incident did push the police into a corner where they had no alternative but to do the right thing and suspend this officer.

The police were right to suspend this officer even though its’ plain to see that they tried to avoid doing so at first. To do otherwise would not just look like a slap in the face to the public and further damage their already iffy public image, but would also raise the question in the public’s mind about whether or not this officer has used this ‘I’ll make something up’ technicque in the past and whether he might be tempted to use it again?

I must admit that if I was an up and coming lawyer looking to make a name for myself I’d be contacting those who may have had dealings with this officer in the past and try to discover if there have been any miscarriages of justice caused by similar misconduct from this officer? The ‘Ill make something up’ comment from the suspended officer may well be a one off, but on the other hand it might not be and this officer may have been involved in questionable cases in the past that might need to be looked at again.

The sort of arrogance and dishonesty that characterises the Lancashire incident is how too many police officers interact with the public and their attitude is one that we are all some sort of criminal on the police’s say so. This is not policing by consent, this is policing that is imposed and not what the ordinary British subject needs or deserves.