My experience of the police has been a mixed one. No, I am not a criminal. What I am referring to is how police officers have responded to my requests for help, even my mere presence, over the years, and the responses depended upon which country I was in. Most of my interactions have been pleasant, but sometimes…
The most dangerous response I ever had came from two Californian cops whom I asked for directions. I was driving through Sacramento and wanted to know how to get to a particular address. It was night time and there was no ‘sat nav’ then. I made the mistake of parking my car near them and getting out. Both men immediately levelled their torches at me. One torch’s beam pointed at my chest and the other at my head. I was later told by an American friend that if they had had to shoot me, they would have been able to hit those parts of me that would have killed me instantly. Very sobering.
Another situation where I was presumed to be guilty was one involving the CRS who are the French police’s paramilitaries. I recall waiting in the entrance hall at Cachan’s metro station. I was there simply to meet my wife’s friend who was visiting us whilst we were staying at my in-laws. Four CRS officers came in and stared at me menacingly. They were armed with batons and firearms. One came over whilst his colleagues looked on and asked me what I was up to. As I am fluent in French, I was able easily to explain. My politeness defused the situation, though he still checked my identity by looking at my passport. I know that if I had been uncooperative, then my arrest would have been likely. On reflection, I am not bitter. Their diligence in challenging people provides protection from real criminals.
I admire the French police for their impartiality. Whether the illegal protests are from the left or the right, the police break them up. Back in April, pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the prestigious Sciences Po University were removed by police because university administrators were concerned that their protests were leading to tensions among the student body. On the other hand, when violent far-right activists converged on the town of Romans-sur-Isere looking for vengeance for the alleged racist murder of a white teenager last November, the police swiftly dispersed them too.
Public safety is also taken seriously. When eco-activists have held sit-down protests and blocked French roads which potentially impedes ambulances and fire engines, the French police have removed them. And before anyone calls the French police racist, please note the black officers in the video who alongside their white colleagues, are enforcing the law that everyone has to abide by. Now that is true multiculturalism.
It is the essence of good policing that officers can operate across a spectrum of behaviours. At one end is the tender task of informing relatives of the death of one of their own; at the other is the courageous act of arresting violent protestors hurling concrete slabs and metal poles. To perform such a role with integrity is highly demanding. So, all respect to the majority of officers who manage this. What follows is therefore not a criticism of the rank-and-file British bobby, but those who determine police policy such as the Home Office.
Despite Keir ‘Standing Army’ Starmer’s protestations to the contrary, two-tier policing is a fact and it needs to stop like now. Examples have been given in the Media over the past weeks, so I shall not bore you by reiterating them. Instead, let us turn to a case that has dipped below the radar, but which is unresolved.
A teacher who worked at Batley Grammar School is still in hiding for fear of his life three years on from when an Islamist mob gathered at the school gates after he used a caricature of the Prophet during a lesson about free speech. Have there been any arrests for the threats and intimidation aimed at the school? Not that I am aware of.
It was Dame Sara Khan who led an inquiry into the Batley outrage. Khan is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and a Muslim who works to counter Islamist extremism through her charity called Inspire Women. When she published her report on the Batley incident, she concluded that the police were at fault because there ‘was a lack of public robust messaging that made clear that any threatening, harassing or intimidatory behaviour against the RS teacher and other teaching staff would not be tolerated’. In defence of free speech, Khan has argued that people ought not to be intimidated into self-censoring for fear of harassment and worse. Truly, she deserves her damehood.
The problem with partial policing is that it is a threat to every law-abiding citizen whatever his or her colour and creed because it emboldens Islamists and provokes the racists. It is a threat to police officers who because of others’ policy decisions have lost the respect they need from the public to do their jobs in the first place. The people least at risk are politicians like Starmer who are protected by their armed security details and bomb-proof limousines, but who are the very ones denying there is a problem in the first place.
Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong (2019) and Do You Believe It? A Guide to a Reasonable Christian Faith (2020).
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Forget institutional racism, the problem with today’s UK Police Force is institutional mis-selection of suitable recruits, institutional overpaid and inept senior officers and the totally pointless (and wholly wrongly politically-affiliated) civilian Commissioners. Just like the NHS and Local Government there is institutional confusion about what the purpose of the organisation actually is, although strikingly similar to the NHS and Local Government only among those who work within it rather than the majority of those who pay for it.
Yes indeed – very good article and comment by Nathaniel. Are the police a government goon squad, mindlessly following orders from above – often with violence (currently) or are they going to return to Peelian principles to PREVENT crime and disorder by a visible presence and the use of persuasion, not force. A long time since I studied criminal law (as part of a law degree) but the category of arrestable offences seem to have enlarged considerably from what used to be quite limited situations involving serious violence or fraud etc to simply expressing an opinion online. That, coupled with aggressive paramilitary style policing, has flipped our country from being a civilised society into an authoritarian regime.